Another Open Letter From Taxi Leaks...Asking More Important Questions.

Let's get one thing straight from the start, Taxi Leaks is an impartial Taxi news website. We carry no paid adverts and do not carry advertorials for any Org, Union or company for monetary gain. The links we do have are there strictly through merit. 

Most of all, we are not an org, we do not represent the trade....all we do, is inform the trade. 

Having said that, we have found ourselves having to ask TFL's commissioner and directors questions because will feel these important questions are not being asked by our trade representative bodies. 

So today, we put these questions to TfLTPH:

1. After last weeks case, can London's Taxi drivers have an apology from TfL who’s COs we’re removing copies of Taxi paper from Taxis, saying the “headline was wrong”? We have video of drivers being harassed.

   

TfL COs Protecting Uber From Rape Headlines In The Press!

Will TfL now issue an apology to Taxi drivers who were harassed by COs?

2. Could you please tell my under what circumstances, Grayhound Cars have been given an exemption to allow them to display their name on liveried front doors ? Also, I'm told Otto cars is being allowed to advertise on its cars rear body work. Please explain why?

WHAT MAKES GREYHOUND CARS DIFFERENT TO ANY OTHER PH PRIUS???

3. In the Reading verdict yesterday judge Emma Arbuthnot on Page 4, section 14 (how the app works)...said it was the driver who accepts the job and only then Uber makes the booking. This is illegal under current legislation laid down by Parliament....Will you therefore revoke Uber’s licence ASAP ???

Judge Emma Arbuthnot, in summing up :

IF THE DRIVER ACCEPTS...THEN UBER COMFIRMS THE BOOKING!!!

We also asked the LTDA the third question adding the caveat 'will you be at Palestra today demanding Uber's immediate revocation?'

As of yet, we've received no answer from any one!

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Labour Caught Up In Cash For Voter Data Scandal

Facebook has already paid off the fine handed to it by the UK data regulator for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

But while most of Wednesday was taken up with chatter largely criticising the paltry sum - the maximum the Information Commissioner could under previous laws - another company had also been handed a penalty for allegedly illegal data practices.

During the regulator’s investigation into how data is being used for political purposes, the Information Commissioner found that the owner of a popular parenting website, Emma’s Diary, had illegally sold on the data of one million Britons to the Labour Party ahead of the 2017 general election.

WHAT DATA?

The 1.065.200 records included pregnant women, new parents and even their children.

Details included the name of the parent who joined the website, their home address, whether they had young children and the birth dates of the mother and children.

The parent company of Emma’s Diary, Lifecycle Marketing, has been fined £140,000 but denies any wrongdoing.

DOES IT MATTER?

Amid the Facebook probe findings, the Information Commissioner also revealed its concerns about the legality of political consultancy groups using data to target people with adverts ahead of the European referendum, including the Vote Leave campaign, it alleged.

The official Remain campaign - trading as Britain Stronger in Europe - may also face a penalty because it used a third party data broker that did not have adequate consent and “similar issues as we have explored on the Leave and wider political parties side of our investigation”.

As more details on the use marketing and digital data played in politics ahead of landmark votes comes out, it appears that the Cambridge Analytica debacle was just the tip of the iceberg. Whether serious ramifications will follow is in the hands of the data regulator and the Electoral Commission

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Reading Verdict, No Consistency From Judge Emma Arbuthnot

You just couldn’t make it up 

Judge Emma Arbuthnot finds Uber Driver in Reading not guilty 

There’s a surprise...not 

Last week, in the Transport for London Case, judge Arbuthnot agreed with the defence that Uber drivers now do not accept jobs directly in their vehicle... she agreed they are accepted first by Uber LL before being passed to the driver. 

Unbelievably in the Reading case, she accepts the case that it is the driver who accepts the bookings first 

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

where is our largest org with its million pound war chest?

Where are the legal objections and appeals? 

What are the members paying subscription for?

Will this be another case if “lets wait and see what happens in 15 months” .....???

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/2b5c2564-a91f-4c47-ba2a-ea6402b1d06f

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Controversial Manchester Airport Drop-Off Charges Come Into Force Today

Controversial drop-off charges at Manchester Airport come into force on Tuesday. 

Drivers dropping passengers off will be charged £3 for five-minute stays, or £4 for 10-minute stays.

Alternatively motorists can use a free drop-off area and catch a shuttle bus to the correct terminal, but that’s located at the current Jetparks 1 site, which is near to Terminal 2.

From the free drop-off area, shuttle buses with journey times ranging from five to seven minutes, depending on the terminal, will run.

Manchester Airport (Image: Martin Rickett/PA Wire)

Buses will run 24 hours a day with marshals on hand to assist passengers and drivers.

Airport bosses have been accused of ‘getting every last penny from passengers’ but they insisted the tariff policy was needed to ease congestion.

Charges at Liverpool John Lennon Airport (JLA) remain lower, with the 'express drop off & pick up' site charging £3 for up to 20 minutes, jumping to £10 for up to an hour.

JLA also has a drop-off point free for 40 minutes around 10 minutes' walk from the terminal.

Liverpool John Lennon Airport. (Image: Colin Lane)

The Manchester move is set to mean holiday-makers paying more for taxis to Manchester airport, as drivers would have to charge them to recover the drop-off costs, although a concession card is available for private hire drivers.

Blue badge holders are allowed to drop off outside of the terminals free of charge.

The chargeable drop-off areas are located directly outside each terminal building at departures level.

There is no change to arrangements for picking people up, with those collecting passengers asked to park in the car parks at each terminal, which cost £4 for 30 minutes.

The airport said on its website: “The changes that we are introducing only impact those dropping-off.

“The process for picking-up passengers remains the same – passengers can be picked-up in the arrivals car parks and multi-storey car parks with a charge of £4 for 30 minutes.

“We will have staff on hand to direct those dropping-off and picking-up to the right places.”

Airport bosses say more passengers, security rules around forecourt capacity and limited space has led to extreme congestion, especially at peak times.

They added that profits would go towards a new public transport fund being set up by the airport with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Transport for Greater Manchester and Cheshire East Council, supporting measures to improve access for both staff and passengers who use public transport

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Controversial Manchester Airport Drop-Off Charges Come Into Force Today

ITA To Pick Up The Baton (Again) As Trade Fails To Act...Met's Contact Centre, Just Window Dressing

During the recent TfL vs Uber appeals trial, Uber's QC claimed that former Uber employee, Jo Bertram lied to the court during a previous employment trial, to help the case.

This is perjury....This is a fact.....

Will the @UKSFO be looking into this?

Or do We as a trade have to make a formal complaint?

These are questions asked by London Taxi Driver Lenny Etheridge on the social media platform Twitter.

Lenny, using the reply facility to the Metropolitan Police claim that their Twitter account is for non-emergency enquires said:

"The question was asked on 29th June 2018 at 12:01 pm.

So far, the Met have refused to answer".

It appears the claim from the Metropolitan Police is an empty one.

It seems their Twitter account is just window dressing, and the @metpoliceuk wonder why they're losing touch with the public.

It's not as if the Twitter account has been rushed off its feet!

As London's Taxi orgs have failed to pick up the gauntlet on behalf of their 10,000 odd subscribers, the Independent Taxi Association (ITA) which is driver led and has no paid representatives, have once again picked up the baton. 

The ITA have issued this statement today:

ITA Press release, our intentions.

We will get a few of hundred drivers to queue outside a prominent London Police Station to individually make a formal complaint against Uber and Jo Bertram for perverting the course of justice.

1. The meter case.

2. The employment case.

#Perjury 

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT :

At the top of this post is a statement, made by Rosa Parks.

This beautiful soul stood up against a lot more than we face today.

She had the strength and grace to face more than most of us could ever imagine possible.

Because she had right on her side.

We have right on our side!

Fight now, or forever "give up your seat" to the oppressor 

Lenny Etheridge.

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Cycle superhighway to stay OPEN during Embankment closure

TfL has revealed that cycle superhighways will remain open during major roadworks on the Victoria Embankment from April 2019.

The closure of the Embankment, expected to last up to six months, is needed in order to move two gas mains to make way for London’s new super-sewer.

But while motor traffic is due to be diverted south along heavily congested Southwark Street, TfL has assured cyclists that the east-west and north-south cycle routes will remain unaffected.

A TfL spokesperson told Cyclist magazine: “we kept the cycle superhighway as a priority” during the planning process.

The City of London Corporation is said to be “really concerned” at the plans, with members of the Corporation’s streets and walkways subcommittee kicking up a big fuss at an emergency meeting on July 2.

At the meeting councillors suggested that traffic should be moved onto the cycle lanes during the works and the lanes routed elsewhere.

Source : Londonfortransport.

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