by News Desk | Apr 17, 2016 | London News
And so beginith a week of Taxi trade disobedience, initiated by ‘Dads Defending Daughters’ with RMT backing.
All drivers out there, it’s time to get down and dirty. And for those more reticent to join the fray, lets now start the fight for our own and our chidrens futures.
Let’s show with pride and vigour, we will not be trodden on by this contemptible corrupt rabble of a Tory party, we’re misfortune enough to be governed by!
By their total disregad to regulate and their refusal to enforce, TfL are complicit and must bear responsibility for the recent unprecedented surge in minicab related rapes and sexual attacks on passengers. Their officers have harassed hardworking rank and file Taxi drivers while refusing to acknowledge the constant lawbreaking of the vastly over subscribed private hire sector.
A Call To Arms….Posted on social media by Dads Defending Daughters:
The trade needs to take off the gloves
We need to step forward and be counted
We need to get down and fight dirty.
Dads Defending Daughters have announce week long action to take place every evening.
Read more on the Dads Defending Daughters website:
>Click Here<
by News Desk | Apr 14, 2016 | London News
Another day and another directive from TFL to the Metropolitan Police, to hound and hassle every Cabbie in London.
As you are all aware, to join the rank at Paddington, you start via Harrow road roundabout junction. However, Met police are issuing tickets to cabbies who are at the process of trying to join the rank.
Police manpower has been substantially reduced, but it seems the Met can still fine the resources to have permanent officers stationed at upper Tachbrook Street and Victoria Coach station, to stop the heinous crime of over ranking, while private hire drivers are aloud to double park in Pancras Road with impunity
This ongoing harassment of drivers has hit boiling point now. It is believed throughout the trade that TFL are behind this campaign.
Why haven’t we seen trade ranks and highways reps travelling down to the problem areas and looking into this huge problem. I am sure, If just one of them came down and spoke to the Met and started gathering evidence, it could be a huge vote winner.
Drivers are currently being left, like Lambs to the slaughter. Why are iconic London taxi trade being victimised ?
Are any of the Orgs going to tackle this problem NOW ?
Editorial Comment :
TfL and local councils have been reducing the number of standings for Taxis by stealth over the past few decades.
Just look at the ranks that have disappeared from along Oxford Street, Regent Street, Shaftsbury Avenue.
In the late 50’s there was 1 rank space for every Taxi, now it’s about 65-70 Taxis to every rank space.
Where do they expect us to go when it’s quiet?
With London’s air quality currently worst in Europe, surely it’s beneficial to have as many vehicles as possible stationary with the engine turned off, than driving round in circles spewing out diesel fumes, looking for a space on the back of a rank.
Perhaps we should start urinating and defecating in people’s gardens around Pimlico and Paddington….and they might give us large feeder parks along Vauxhall bridge Road and North Wharf Road, like they’ve arranged at Heathrow for Uber.Why are we suddenly seeing this harassment from the Met, when it’s perfectly clear they are turning a blind eye to the increasing amount of illegally parked PH vehicles every evening into the early hours, especially in the Mayfair and Soho areas.
It’s alleged these directives are coming directly from TfLTPH.
But as Paul mentioned in his letter, where are our rank and highways reps?
They take our money as subs, but when was the last time you saw a rep from any org, arguing the toss with an officer, (PCO or Met) harassing drivers on a rank?
Perhaps we need to see some all trade action, in answer to TfL’s unfair harassment.
If the reps can pay themselves to have all trade meetings at Heathrow, then they should also be available to look after the interests of the rank and file members out there on the street.
If TfL and the Met want to see an amicable solution to this problem, then they need to make available more resources and embark on a program of expansion of rank spaces both new and extending existing locations. Obviously, this should be done in league with local councils and all trade representative bodies.
Please feel free to use the comment section below to suggest new ranks and extensions.
by News Desk | Apr 11, 2016 | London News
The six London based Uber drivers convicted of serious assault- in the space of just three months- is a direct consequence of industry wide deregulation
Uber Technologies- the ride sharing app- view safeguards as a barrier to entry. They embrace an ideological view that ‘technology’ alone can weed out unsavories. Transport for London (TFL) looks set to buy into this theory. To me, it smacks of an experiential program derived from pseudo-corporate-psychology, driven by profit.
Currently, TFL’s policy (unless it is a licensing issue) is to refer complaints re: driver impropriety, back to the Private Hire Operator (PHO) Am I the only one utterly astounded by this? There’s as much a chance of a footballer getting a red card from his own manager. (The lack of enforcement does offer an explanation for TfL’s claim that ‘complaints are down by a third’)
More-so, and this is the real solicitude as far as Uber’s model of operation goes; if Uber accept no liability whatsoever for the third party provider (the driver), evidenced in their terms and conditions, who then is responsible? Not Uber obviously. But they are licensed by TFL as the PHO? On the surface, it seems everyone has absolved themselves of accountability. The reality is, non of that really matters if there has been industry-wide i obsessive advocates of app based ‘taxi’ services.
Technology- as an ideological concept- is no different to any other social concept. Alone, it does not, and cannot, manifest safeguards. Similar to democracies, safeguards need to be systematically set in place. In fact, and this is where Boris Johnson et al have been grossly neglectful, using technology alone to format society leads people into false sense of security. In my previous occupation as a therapist- mainly dealing with young adults- one of the main inter-personal issues they wrestled with was their ‘virtual’ confidence conflicted with reality.
The word ‘Virtual’ has become synonymous with technology, but is used in psychology to describe everything that is not real, yet assumes the important qualities of the real. When playing a virtual war game, for example, we can experience excitement, frustration and tension, but we can never be injured. In fact, the creators of virtual war games argue that the virtual experience is better than the real one, because the dangers connected to the real experience are removed. In the same way, interactions via social media make visitors feel connected without the difficulties and complexities involved in face-to-face interactions. Compared to interactions with computers, interactions with human counterparts require more emotional involvement, cognitive effort and brain activation. When we are not in the mood to exercise these resources, we too often choose the easier, virtual option.
Uber, with TfL’s endorsement, have cleverly seen how creating a virtual world can tap into peoples psych, especially young adults, and goes to great lengths to blackmail its users into supporting a product that offers zero tangible support in return. And in all fairness, why should they? As with all extreme capitalists, their only concern is the bottom line. Their aim simply is to remove a state licensed product- based on socio-economics of supply and demand- and replace it with a corporate monopoly with no social concept whatsoever.
The right wing media, such as The Telegraph, The Economist, City AM etc, choose to absolve themselves also of any social responsibility. Efficient economics has fallen by the wayside. It’s akin to a game of monopoly, where one person owns everything and everybody else has to trip around the board getting punished as they go.
Regulation is sold to us as a regressive word, but not only is it designed to insulate industries against the free market’s rapacious risks, inconsistent pricing and rogue suppliers, it’s there legitimately to protect the public. Six convictions for sexual assault in four months is evidence in itself . No doubt Uber would claim that technology reaches beyond the concept of data collection, input, output and usage. The fact is monetary gain trumps safeguards and liberty, and both are a byproduct of regulation
Consequently, we are just beginning to see the repercussions of deregulation, it was always going to be ‘when’ as opposed to ‘if’, we just never imagined it would be so soon.
Make no mistake, this is not a free market, it is a systematic attempt to destabilise a vibrant, valid, self sufficient industry. For this reason, TFL have demonstrated that they are not fit to govern, and all those responsible should go.
More on this subject, listen to:
@LondonTaxiRadio
Contact: admin@londontaxiradio.co.uk
FaceBook: London Taxi Radio
Tel: 020 81448294
Recent Comments