by News Desk | Aug 25, 2014 | London News
Freedom of information searches have shown that the main reason TfL and the Met have not been pursuing legality when it comes to pedicabs, is the matter of cost. Apparently, the do nothing/costs nothing option, is their current choice.
Over the last year many motorised Pedicabs have appeared. Easy to spot by the way the rider doesn’t peddle. The police say they are hard to find, (true I suppose if you walked about with your eyes closed).
We have managed to find where these unlicensed motorised vehicle are stored, recharged and hire out, something the Met has been unable or hasn’t bothered to do.
Below is an excerpt forwarded to the Law Commission by The Met Police:
Safety problems partly derive from the fact that there are no set standards for the construction and use of the pedicab and no set standards for the vetting of operators or riders to check they are suitable.
Many pedicabs fail to have working brakes, lighting or seat belts and the high turnover of employees limits the long-term effects of enforcement.
Common unlawful behaviour includes contravention of one-way streets; riding on the footway; blocking the pavement; parking in bus lanes or on pedestrian crossings, and disobeying red lights.
Blocking of bus lanes is particularly problematic, resulting in delays and disruption to planned bus services through what are generally already busy parts of the town centres in which they operate. Obstruction is also a major issue.
TfL have also provided a number of statistics relating to criminal offences and pedicabs in London, where they are perceived to pose a particular problem.
Statistics from the TfL report include:
Serious sexual assaults by pedicab drivers;
From April 2009 to January 2014, 7 sexual offences have been attributed to pedicabs drivers. (They kept that one quiet!)
A number of thefts and robberies have reportedly been perpetrated by drivers;
There were more than 650 incidents reported in 2013 alone, and twenty injury collisions involving the
personal injury lawyer assistance were recorded over the three year period to March 2013.
But…Nothing about the illegal use of motorised rickshaw bikes. Why?
Surely Public Safety Should Come Before Cost?
There are substantial enforcement costs:
From 2010 to January 2014, TfL funded or part funded over 160 operations against pedicabs, at the cost of almost £65,000, resulting in 389 arrests being made by the Metropolitan Police. That’s just 3.74 arrests a week, at a cost of £167 per arrest.
We would assume TfL’s compliance or cab enforcement are not involved in this, as their record on illegal plying for hire and satellite office touting by minicabs is significantly below this.
As for the Metropolitan Police Service, the cost of a targeted operation to deal with pedicabs is currently approximately £1,500 each.
Processing a case is highly time consuming:
Initial arrest and process takes approximately 4-6 hours to the Metropolitan Police Service.
Significant time is spent dealing with the criminal justice system and the administration for the restoration of the seized pedicabs.
So The Met and TfL both know what’s going on, they just don’t know what to do about it.
Cost Benefit Analysis And Summation By Law Commission.
(You couldn’t make this up)
This impact assessment identifies both monetised and non-monetised impacts of intervention, with the aim of understanding the overall impact on society and the wider environment. The costs and benefits of each option are measured against the “do nothing” option.
Impact assessments place a strong emphasis on valuing the costs and benefits in monetary terms (including estimating the value of goods and services that are not traded).
However there are important aspects that cannot sensibly be monetised. These might include impacts on equality, either positive or negative, or enhanced (or diminished) public confidence.
The impact assessment process requires that we make an assessment of the quantifiable costs and benefits even when there is insufficient material on which to base those calculations.
Where possible we have spoken to practitioners to inform our view of the likely aspects to be affected by the change in policy and have used this as the basis for our calculations. Where it has not been possible to obtain a rough indication of numbers in this way we have had to make a realistic estimate.
In such cases, we have taken a conservative approach and have tended to use figures that we considered likely to under-estimate benefits and over-estimate costs
So where they have been unable to acquire true facts and figures….they’ve made them up.
Editorial Conclusion:
Stand by to recieve a recommendation from the Law Commission to licence Rickshaw (Pedicab) vehicles.
TfL would probably issue temporary permits to the riders as well, as a way of raising revenue.
It’s already been alleged that Westminster Council have Traffic Management Orders (TMOs) in place to implement ranks for these bikes, with an eye on selling permits to riders as soon as the recommendations are approved.
So, Licensed Taxi Rank approval = couple of years
Licence Variation for satellite office = just a few weeks
Pedicab Rank = just a few days.
by News Desk | Aug 25, 2014 | World News
Two men have been arrested following an alleged carjacking incident in west Dublin early this morning.
A taxi driver was held and threatened at knife point by two men at about 4am in the Park West area of Dublin. The taxi driver managed to get out of the vehicle and escape unharmed. The two men drove off in the taxi which was later discovered by gardaí abandoned a short distance from the scene.
Gardaí investigating the incident arrested two men in their 20s in west Dublin a short time later.
Both men have been detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at Ballyfermot Garda Station.
The former Minister of State for Public Transport Alan Kelly launched a consultation process in June to improve taxi driver safety following a spate of serious carjacking incidents.
“There have been a number of incidents recently that have highlighted the vulnerable position many taxi drivers are in, especially when they are working late hours and on isolated streets,” Mr Kelly said.
“I think we should be open to all ideas and suggestions and be informed by the views of taxi drivers. I wouldn’t be in favour of a separation partition, but I’d prefer to get the views of taxi drivers and the wider public before coming to a final decision.”
Clear partitions separating the driver front seat area from the remainder of the vehicle are a feature of traditional London black cabs and the instantly recognisable yellow taxis of New York.
Among the other options that could be considered in the consultation process are in-vehicle security cameras and locational alert systems.
There have been at least five relatively high-profile and often violent car jacking incidents of late, most of them in Dublin. A pregnant woman was assaulted in one incident near Mountjoy Square in Dublin.
In another incident, a female passenger was injured when four men involved in a collision with a bus in Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, stole a black Mercedes after it had stopped to lend them assistance.
by News Desk | Aug 21, 2014 | London News
To celebrate this year’s London Double Header at Twickenham on 6 September, Premiership Rugby is offering you the chance to arrive home from work in the lap of luxury inside an Aviva Premiership Rugby London Double Header cab.
Four London taxis have been decorated with the colours and famous faces of the London Double Header teams – Harlequins, London Irish, Saracens and Wasps – and one of them could be yours.
All you have to do to win a free taxi home any time during the week before the big day along with two tickets to the London Double Header is retweet one of the #LDHTaxi tweets which will appear on @premrugby every day from now until noon on Friday, 29 August. And if you win and would rather the taxi brings you home from a night out then that’s fine too! All we ask is that the journey is no longer than 20 miles and starts and ends inside the M25.
So what are you waiting for, follow @premrugby and retweet one of the taxi pictures when they appear.
If you’re not lucky enough to win a cab and London Double Header tickets, click here to secure your seat at Twickenham for the capital’s kick-off to the 2014-15 Aviva Premiership Rugby Season.
by News Desk | Aug 20, 2014 | London News
RMT members on the march, photo Paul Mattsson
On 14 August, the Uber taxi fare mobile phone app was banned in Berlin. This followed protests in cities across Europe against the software.
Dave Wallis, a London taxi driver, RMT member and Bob Crow’s cousin, says why drivers are campaigning against the app
On Wednesday 11 June 2014, London witnessed its biggest London taxi protest. Licensed drivers gridlocked central London in protest over the apparent inability of Transport for London (TfL) to enforce legislation. The Uber smartphone app operates in direct contravention of the 1998 London Private Hire Vehicles Act.
The smartphone app works out fares using GPS. We say this is like using a taxi meter, which only London taxidrivers are legally entitled to do. This is a right that drivers gain from completing the ‘Knowledge of London’ and attempts to undermine this are an assault on our livelihoods.
Why anyone should want to spend an average of five years studying the London Knowledge when a smartphone app can offer similar privileges is a no brainer.
I believe the allowance of such apps to be another attack on the public transport network, alongside privatisation and deregulation favoured under the Tory-led coalition and London’s Mayor Boris Johnson.
June protest
The June protest was superbly attended by drivers and supported by all trade organisations. TfL claimed the protest was pointless. But there were over 10,000 drivers, gridlocking roads from Trafalgar Square all the way west to Notting Hill and East to Tower Hill.
Bridges were also blocked so traffic going south and north was severely affected. Our protest was a complete success.
But now the battle continues. RMT Taxi division held a flash protest on Wednesday 9 July at TfL’s Palestra offices, outside a meeting to discuss taxi tariffs. We picketed outside and were supported by passing London taxi drivers and members of the public.
TfL has also said that that the London taxi trade is here to stay and they are not trying to deregulate. But I can assure everyone who uses our iconic taxis that TfL are carrying out what we call back door deregulation.
They have flooded the market by giving permission for satellite minicab/private hire companies to set up in night clubs, shopping centres etc, impacting on the work of the London taxi driver. This is without the illegal touting going on the street, inside stations etc.
London taxi drivers’ earnings have dropped more than 50% over the past six years. So when TfL say the London taxi trade is here to stay, I can tell you we will start to disappear off the streets as it will not be financially possible to run our vehicles.
MP Margaret Hodge has written to Boris Johnson asking why TfL allows cars to take bookings through the app without a licence to operate in the capital. London taxi drivers want a fair and level playing field. But TfL don’t want to play fair, so our fight will continue.
by News Desk | Aug 20, 2014 | London News
A minicab tout, who drove along the pavement and at dangerous speeds to escape police, has sentenced to a year in prison.
Mohammed Bilal Hadji, 43, of Newham Way, Newham, was caught illegally trying to pick up customers by an undercover officer in Shaftesbury Avenue.
When asked to exit his car, he locked the doors, mounted the curb and drove 40 metres along the pavement, nearly hitting members of the public and the police.
He then drove over 60 miles per hour in a 20mph zone, through four red lights and in the wrong direction down a one-way street.
He managed to escape from police but officers traced the vehicle from its registration to Hadji’s east London address.
When officers arrived Hadji tried to escape but was restrained.
He was arrested for touting, having no insurance and dangerous driving. He pleaded not guilty to the touting and insurance charges but was found guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court and sent to prison last week.
Acting Chief Superintendent Robert Revill, roads and transport policing command said: “This was an excellent result which has seen an extremely dangerous man who posed a serious risk to the public taken off the streets for a long time.
“He has received a robust judicial outcome, time in jail and a hefty fine for his offences. When he is released he will also have lost his vehicle.”
Hadji was also disqualified from driving for 33 months driving disqualification and told he would need to retake his test before he gets behind the wheel again.
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