July 2016 | Taxi News

Horrified Uber passenger ‘photographs his driver playing Pokemon Go DURING their journey across London’

by News Desk | Jul 29, 2016 | London News, UK News

A horrified chef claims his Uber driver was playing Pokémon Go behind the wheel and even swiped the screen to catch monsters during the journey through London.

Paul Mohammad said he was travelling from Haringey to Bounds Green in north London when he noticed the male driver had the popular gaming app open on his mobile phone.

He took a picture from the back seat of the car which allegedly shows the device – fixed to a hands-free station – with the Pokémon version of a street map on display.

Horrified chef Paul Mohammad, 22, claims his Uber driver was playing Pokémon Go behind the wheel and even swiped the screen to catch monsters during the journey through London

Although the shot doesn’t show the driver touching the phone, Mr Mohammad said there were times during the 20 minute journey where the driver did use one hand to play with the screen.

Mr Mohammad, 22, said: ‘I was surprised to say the least. Obviously it’s very popular at the moment but I didn’t expect a driver to be playing it while he’s on the road.

‘I was travelling to my girlfriend’s house, probably only 20 minutes away, but it was on the screen the whole time.

Mr Mohammad said he was travelling from Haringey to Bounds Green in north London when he noticed the male driver had the popular gaming app open on his mobile phone

‘He was actually collecting Pokémon on the road as he was driving. I don’t play it but I knew what he was doing.

‘I didn’t mention it to him but I couldn’t believe it so I thought I would take a video to show my friends.

‘You could even hear the background music coming from the phone. He was swiping the screen and definitely playing it.

‘I was amazed that even an Uber driver was playing it. Because of the traffic, he wasn’t able to concentrate on it that much.

‘But there were times when he was touching it to catch Pokémon.

‘At first I thought it was a bit crazy but in the end I actually found it pretty funny. I’m quite relaxed about it.

‘I showed my friends and they were like: ‘What the f***, you need to call the police’.’

Uber said it had not received any formal feedback following the journey, which took place at around 6pm last Wednesday.

A spokesman said: ‘We take any allegation of distracted driving very seriously.

‘We would encourage the rider on this trip to get in touch with us so we can identify the journey, investigate what happened and take any follow up action necessary with the licensed driver.’

Source: Daily Mail

Letter To Editor : You Can Only a Kick Someone So Many Times Before They Kick You Back

by News Desk | Jul 28, 2016 | London News

Soon we’ll completely ignore their rules. let’s face it, WTF are they going to do to our trade after kicking it in the testes for so long, it’s on it’s knees. Are they going to sack us, refuse to issue a licence?

They appear to live in that fantasy world, all those types do. In that they believe we’ll all carry on as before, because they say so. yet they wouldn’t get out of bed for less than £xxxxx salary, yet expect working preople to work for a pittance, whilst their profession is destroyed around them. Well TFL it’s not going to happen.

They’ll end up with the inferior service they already get from those app based suppliers. but, then they don’t really give a fece do they. Didn’t that flacid TFL sychophant say, “it’s what Londoners want”, whilst lieing his teeth off about land lines, & Insurance?

So WTF are TFL going to do to drivers who have no stakeholding or concern about TFL regs. Oh Yes, you’re going to badge & bill us, along with hold up our license renewals, that’ll impress us, won’t it, not.

I forgot, TFL already have minicabs that don’t abide by their regs, whilst TFL do sweet FA to them, except the odd road stop or similar.

It’s merely the ability to earn a living, whilst having reasonable freedom, flexibility of the job, that made it worth while,& for us to obey the stupid, pathetic over burdensome, inflexible, unmovable rules imposed upon us and still doing so as they’ve destroyed those aspects of it, it’s no longer viable, so why should i bother listening to their BS about rules.

After all didn’t TFL ride a coach & horses through all the rules to licence that app supplier? Which in doing so, raised the anger of the minicab fraternity who had obeyed those very rules. Now 98% of minicab business’s have gone out of business, so why did they bother obeying any fece issued by a nasty, distainful, unlawful, dishonest, cheating, lieing, fraudulant, TFL? and why should we bother?

TFL needs to be the one that provides evidence of being fit & proper persons to conduct the business of the people, not London taxi drivers.

So far taxi drivers have shown more commitment, honesty to their buniness than TFL have shown to the entire electorate of London.

TFL, destroyers of the London licensed taxi (Black cab), destroying the livelyhoods of the independent individual traders of London on behalf of Corporate sector profitability!

Unfortunately, this letter was unsigned.

Autogas To Start Trial With Converted Diesel Taxi To New Petrol/Gas In London.

by News Desk | Jul 27, 2016 | London News

The Autogas Taxi- cleaner, cheaper solution

Autogas is shortly to commence a trial in London of a traditional black London taxi running on LPG.

The company, which has the largest network of automotive LPG refuelling pumps in the UK, hopes the cab will be approved by Transport for London for use later this year.

The vehicle, which has had its diesel engine replaced by a petrol engine converted to run on LPG, will be run 24 hours a day in order to speed up the process, which includes a 10,000 mile durability test.

Autogas believes the LPG re-powering solution will prove attractive to black cab owners who want to extend the working life of their vehicle in London rather than invest immediately in a brand-new one.

Paul Oxford, business development manager of Autogas, said: “Not everyone is going to rush out and buy a new vehicle straightaway. If someone is coming up to retirement, for example, why buy a new cab?

“By converting with an approved LPG system they can get another five years of service from the vehicle, as well as dramatically reducing air pollution and making substantial savings on fuel costs.”

Most of the probate attorneys has said has that currently London imposes an age limit of 15 years on black cabs with diesel engines. In contrast, approved LPG conversions can be exempted and allowed to run for another five years, up to 20 years old. If you need lawyers’ help, find an adoption attorneys here!

This provision is important in the run-up to 2018, when all new hackney carriages in London will have to be zero emission capable as part of the city’s drive to reduce air pollution. Taxis which are already licensed won’t be affected.

Birmingham City Council has already backed LPG as an alternative fuel which will help reduce air pollution in the city. Sixty-three of the city’s taxi fleet are being ‘repowered’ from diesel engines to petrol engines running on autogas LPG.

Initial emission testing at MIllbrook has shown the LPG technology produces 80% fewer NOx emissions compared with a normal diesel powered version, as well as a 99% reduction in sooty particulate matter.

At around 55p a litre, LPG is also cheaper than conventional fuels. Repowering of a taxi costs around £8,000 and takes around three days.

It’s surprising that both the new Mayor and former Mayor made no attempt to look at the benifits of LPG in the London a Taxi fleet. Instead they are expecting drivers to invest in an untried technology with suspect health issues to the drivers (and regular users).

Hailo Takes Fight To Uber With Daimler Deal

by News Desk | Jul 25, 2016 | London News, World News

Hailo is plotting a merger with MyTaxi, an app owned by Mercedes-Benz’s parent, in an effort to fight Uber.

Britain’s taxi-app wars will step up a gear this week when Hailo unveils a merger with MyTaxi as part of a strategic investment by Daimler, one of the car industry’s biggest manufacturers.

Taxi News has learnt that Hailo will announce on Tuesday that it is to become part of the Mercedes-Benz-owner’s portfolio in an effort to take on Uber, the world’s most valuable taxi-hailing app.

Sources said that Hailo, which launched in 2011, had been seeking a strategic investor for some time.

The company’s existing investors include some of the technology sector’s biggest names, including Accel, Wellington Partners as well as entrepreneurs such as Sir Richard Branson.

Daimler acquired MyTaxi, which claims to be Europe’s leading taxi-booking app, in 2014, having bought an initial stake in its owner, Intelligent Apps, two years earlier.

This week’s deal will see another tech start-up devoured by a major corporate name operating in its industry, underlining their determination to capture the growth emanating from new distribution models.

Volkswagen, which is reeling from the impact of its US diesel emissions scandal, recently invested $300m in Gett, an Israeli taxi venture.

The terms of the investment in Hailo, including the size of the stake that would continue to be held by external investors, were unclear on Monday.

Hailo, which operates in markets including Ireland, Japan and Spain as well as several British cities, also made an unsuccessful attempt to penetrate the US taxi market.

The company has raised roughly $100m in total since its launch, including most recently from a group of unnamed Asian investors to accelerate its growth.

Uber has continued to raise billions of dollars from investors across the globe even as it has faced regulatory roadblocks in a number of major markets.

Hailo declined to comment on Monday.

Source: Sky News

Taxi And Limousine Commission Vote To Limit Cabbies’ Working Hours

by News Desk | Jul 25, 2016 | World News

Starting in November, cab drivers will not be allowed to drive for more than 12 hours a day.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission is trying to get drowsy drivers off the road.

On Monday July 18, the TLC voted to pass new rules that limit cab drivers from being on the road more than 12 hours daily and 72 hours weekly. These limits would apply to the more than 140,000 drivers licensed by the TLC, including taxi, limousine, commuter van, black car and Uber drivers.

The rules, which were proposed in May, are aimed at tackling driver fatigue, something the TLC has taken more seriously since an elderly Manhattan woman was fatally struck by a taxi in May 2015. Since then, the TLC has collected research from the Centers for Disease Control, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the National Sleep Foundation and the US Federal Highway Administration, which concluded that driving fatigued is similar to driving under the influence of alcohol.

According to the TLC, the data also revealed that over 2014 and 2015, “the crash rate of taxi drivers working more than 12 hours in a day was 23.8 percent higher than for those who worked 12 or fewer hours in a day. Over the same two-year period, the crash rate of taxi drivers working more than 72 hours in a week was 8.6 percent higher than for those who worked 72 or fewer hours in a week.”

TLC Commissioner Meera Joshi said in a public statement, “The work of TLC-licensed drivers is critical to the movement of the City. To minimize the risk of a crash, drivers must be alert, which requires rest. But these crashes are preventable with a reasonable limit on the hours during which a driver can pick-up passengers. Today’s proposal does that.”

However, the TLC admitted in its proposal that the new rules will only affect a minority of drivers. It stated, “Only a small percentage of drivers ordinarily surpass the new limits; 3 percent typically drive more than 12 hours per day, and less than 7 percent drive for more than 72 hours per week.” The TLC hoped this would calm concerned cab drivers who fear the new rules will cap their earnings.

The BK Reader reached out to the New York Taxi Workers Alliance for comment but it said it will withhold comments until the new rules are implemented in November.

Despite Monday’s vote the TLC’s new rules are subject to change before they go into affect on November 1 as the commission is still figuring out its exact method of enforcement.