Didn’t take long for the Met police to go back on their word of making an effort for a better understanding of the problems Taxi drivers are facing around London’ West End.
Over the last 8 months drivers attached to the Mayfair mob have regularly been calling 101, to report cars/minicabs parked on our ranks at venues around the West End. Callers were given a CAD number which is recorded as a complaint that can and has (in certain cases) resulted in a site visit.
Well it now seems the police have taken it upon themselves to downgrade our complaints. Callers using 101 to complain about rank contraventions, will now be given a CAH number.
This means that future calls will only be recorded as a phone call, rather than a complaint. Also site visits will no longer be afforded to drivers complaining about cars refusing to move off our ranks.
In fact this looks to all intent and propose that the Met are sticking two fingers up to the Taxi trade, saying “just get on with it”. Not the first time we’ve seen the Met attempting to massage their complaint statistics…no complaints….no problems.
On a brighter note, the promised extension of the Forge rank from two spaces to four, has now been marked out and fully approved. In spite of fierce opposition from our competitors, the rank extension is a direct result of the Mayfair Mobs expansion into the City, with regular “hits” at this establishment, resulting in work being won back from the touts.
The rank has been extended forward leaving little space for the cars to illegally plying for hire .
A big thank you must go to @davebenidorm166 who has been relentless in pursuing the City of London Corporation over this extension. Well done Dave.
Every Licensed Taxi driver in London is aware of the shocking under performance of TfL compliance. We’ve even had this confirmed by the GLA report “Future Proof”, where TfL were found to be woefully inadequate.
In the report a number of recommendations were made by the GLA transport committee, but after a year since the publication of the report, we are still waiting for these recommendations to be implemented. TfL tell us they’re working on introducing some of the recommendations. A complete unsatisfactory state of affairs from our regulatory licensing authority.
But now, to add insult to injury, in a recent announcement on their website, TfL have managed to out do any previous inadequacies aimed at the licensed Taxi trade and sprinkled it with misinformation.
In the report, TfL state that annual licensing inspection includes the checking of insurance for taxis and private hire vehicles. This would give the impression that to get a Taxi or Private Hire vehicle licensed, the Hire and reward insurgence would have to be in place integral to the inspection. While this is most certainly the case for Taxis (who also have to display a cover note inside the vehicle), this is not the case for PHVs. It is possible to licence a vehicle for use as a PHV, while only being insured with standard cover.
This is born out by the next sentence
Insurance for PHVs is also something being considered as part of the regulatory review of private hire services which is currently underway.
Being considered!!!
Public safety, being considered!!!
So they admit the error and are considering making a change to regulations…..sometime in the future.
Misinformation : TfL prosecutions
TfL say that between 1 January to 30 April 2015, they successfully prosecuted 33 drivers for illegally plying for hire and other illegal activity. The misleading bit is “and other illegal activity”. Misleading by the fact this statistic isn’t broken down or further explained.
Within the corridors of the PR spin doctors, this is known as double accounting, where statistics already used, can be bundled in with the not so impressive figures to make them look better.
Funny how TfL can give the exact number of parking tickets they gave out, or the exact number of cars they moved on and even the exact number of drivers who were sent home because they didn’t have their ID. But they can’t offer the exact number of PHV drivers, convicted of illegally plying for hire!
Operation Neon:
Since the launch of the ongoing Operation Neon on 8 May 2015, there have been a total of 48 operations. These have resulted in: blah blah blah.
We are then treated to a list of numbers representing supposed offences. All the figures given relate to vehicles and individuals being “reported”.
Their are no statistics offered of any conviction, or revocations resulting from the reports. There is however no mention of the disastrous Eddie Nestor photo opportunity, where senior TfL officers were openly touted live on air, resulting in ….you guessed it nothing.
Then the final insult.
TfL compliance desperately try to back up Leon Daniels ridiculous statement that PH drivers have “switch on switch off” hire and reward insurance. After making inquiries to the Association of British Insurers, we know no that such policies exist.
But TfL still put this in their statement:
Insurance
Taxis need to have Hire and Reward insurance in place at all times. Current regulations require private hire drivers to have Hire and Reward insurance in place whenever they are undertaking a private hire journey.
They then wipe their hands of the responsibility of insuring all passengers are fully covered, by passing the buck!
“It is the private hire operator’s responsibility to ensure that the appropriate Hire and Reward insurance is in place for vehicles used for private hire bookings.”
Woefully inadequate and Totally Failing London.
The UCG are currently observing and documenting the performance of TfL compliance. Please read their article
A new hybrid black cab that will be able to seat six people was due to be unveiled today during the state visit of the Chinese President.
The London Taxi Company was to reveal the battery-powered TX5 prototype at Lancaster House in St James’s at an event to promote Britain’s creative industries due to be attended by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as well as Xi Jinping.
The hybrid, which switches over to a petrol engine when the battery runs out, is expected to hit the showrooms in 2017, a year before new rules come into force that all taxi or private hire vehicles will have to be “zero-emission” capable.
The TX5 was designed in Barcelona by British designers and vows to captures the “spirit of past generations” of black cabs.
Geely, the Chinese car manufacturer that owns the LTC, will build the black cab at a new £300 million plant outside Coventry, creating 1,000 jobs,
London black taxis to go electric as Chinese firm invests £250m
As well as seats for six – instead of the current five – passengers, it features front-opening “suicide doors” and more leg-room for the driver. It also has a panoramic glass roof, in-built wifi and charging points for electrical devices.
Peter Johansen, chief executive of The London Taxi Company said: “We are hugely excited to be unveiling the TX5 prototype design for the first time and in such high company.
“The new vehicle has a wealth of new features, which will all be tried and tested and then tested again to provide a perfect balance of timeless design driven by ground-breaking technology.”
Susan Ismaeel claims driver refused to wait for her to get into the vehicle
She claims she tumbled out of open door twice as driver allegedly took off
37-year-old was left with a cut on her head and huge wound on her knee
Ms Ismaeel, who ordered car from Ealing, said life ‘flashed before her eyes’
A civil servant was left with cuts and bruises after being knocked down twice by her own Uber minicab because the driver apparently took off before she was seated.
Susan Ismaeel said her life flashed before her eyes after she tumbled out of the taxi’s open door twice as the driver pulled off.
The 37-year-old said she then flew through the air, banging her head, knee and shoulders as she landed.
Civil servant Susan Ismaeel, 37, (left) was left with cuts and bruises after being knocked down twice by her own Uber minicab (her journey is pictured right) after the driver took off before she was in the car
The civil servant, who was on the way home from dinner with her 33-year-old sister Sondos, has been left with huge gash on her head, as well as deep wound on her knee.
Ms Ismaeel said: ‘When I got my leg in, the driver just shot off. Sondos screamed and I fell over and the driver stopped.
‘But when I tried to get in again, he just drove off again, and I got sent flying.
‘It really was one of those moments where my life flashed before my eyes.’
The sisters, who say they use the service up to four times a week, had used the app to book a £6.76 journey from Ealing to their home in Hanwell East, west London, on Thursday last week.
The civil servant, who was on the way home from dinner with her 33-year-old sister, has now been left with huge gash on her head, as well as deep wound on her knee (shown left and right)
Her sister Sondos, who works as a researcher, said: ‘I was screaming at the driver “she’s not in yet” but he was so impatient and odd. I don’t know what was wrong with him.
‘My sister went flying and she landed on her head. Thankfully after scans she is fine, but it was just ridiculous. My sister could have been seriously hurt.’
She added: ‘I know they come quickly, but he drove off while she was getting into the car.’
The pair went to nearby Ealing Hospital, where Ms Ismaeel was checked over by medics.
Ms Ismaeel and her sister Sondos (pictured left and together right) who say they use the service up to four times a week, had used the app to book a £6.76 journey from Ealing to their home in Hanwell East, west London
She added: ‘I shudder to think what could have happened. I had scans and full checks at the hospital. I have been a loyal Uber customer for over a year.
‘Uber won’t take any responsibility for their drivers and now I will never use them again. The driver got out of the car looked at me and then the next moment he was gone.’
They have since complained by email to the taxi company, which apparently said it is investigating the matter.
Paul Church and 6 of his Westminster City fellow Councillors ( Evening Standard Letters 2/10 ) claim that the proposed 5 min wait for an App hailed car will not benefit customers.
He is right and for once the taxi trade agree, however it is for entirely diametrically opposed reasoning.
We are all fed up with immediate demand facilitated by App technology being passed off as ‘bookings’. I and many of my colleagues called in Stage 1 of the Consultation process for a minimum period of 15 mins from e-hail to despatch in order for the term ‘Booking’ to have a significantly different meaning to the current instantaneously recorded fullfillment.
That TfL have watered this down to a meaningless 5 mins shows how little they understand of what the cab trade needs and expects.
Church also calls for Black Cab Red Tape to be cut without specifying which of those pesky Carriage Office rules would be relaxed. Perhaps they would dispense with;
•the need to drive a wheelchair accessible vehicle and ditch the disabled….
•maybe they would advocate dropping hire and reward insurance and put public protection in peril…..
•or perhaps they think the uniform meter fares should be scrapped in favour of a free market race to the bottom where cabbies set their own individual prices –
I seem to recall the archly taxiphobic Steve Norris had similarly potty ideas.
No, of course none of these things could or should be done, Church says ‘Hands Off Uber’ whereas what he should be advocating is a hands off approach to a London taxi trade fighting for it’s very existence.
James Ashton writing on the previous day ( Comment 1/10… London can lead the way in settling the global war with Uber) highIights the same issue saying:
‘it is not clear why minicabs should provide confirmation details five minutes before a journey starts‘
But then continues in same paragraph to answer the question:
‘when a black cab can be hailed on the street, for example‘.
This is the nub of the matter for if the licensed Taxi’s exclusive right to ply for hire on the street and thus it’s very existence is to be maintained, then the modus operandi of Apps must be modified since currently there is hardly a fag paper differential between taxis & minicabs when what is needed is an instrument of tobacco bale proportions.
Paradoxically a further worrying consequence of the Uber explosion, a 29 fold and rising rapidly increase in Private Hire cars in the congestion zone points us in the right direction.
Instead of an arbitrary time delay, perhaps what is needed is mechanism that would ban all empty cars from receiving hirings whilst in the congestion zone thus ending the cavalry charge of empty PHV’s into the central area – a particular problem at night – and ensuring that only those cars with legitimate ‘bookings’ add to the chronic overcrowding in the West End.
A system of progressive ripple effect restrictions whereby the Uber App only allows empty cars to be allocated jobs in adjacent zones – the Underground Zoning providing a template – would go a long way toward relieving congestion and restoring something of a proper division between minicabs and taxis.
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