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.
by News Desk | Aug 18, 2014 | London News
Over the last ten years, fundamental flaws have appeared in the licensing process governing Taxis and private hire in London. TfL’s bias against the Taxi trade, has never been so pronounced as it is at present.
PH company’s have been licensed on a nod and a wink, disregarding all TFL policy. Rules an regulations appertaining to private hire are now treated as flexible guidelines. License variations (Satellite Office) have been and still are issued without requirements or conditions of fitness being met.
In The Past:
Addison Lee’s vehicles were reported for contravening the conditions of fitness.
Were Griffins minicabs put on stop?
No they were given 9 months to get it sorted.
RD2 were issued multiple variations without first being registered as a PH operator for the required 12 month term.
When this was reported, did TfL revoke their license?
No, the Director of TPH, John Mason and his deputy Helen Chapman both lied about the issue (covered comprehensively in previous posts).
When the lies were exposed, TfL issued a statement that they can do what ever they like as TfL policy is flexible and not completely covered by legislation.
Diamond carriages (Diamond cars) clipboard men have been allowed by TfL to operate outside the perimeters of venues.
And now Über!
Über first registered in 2012. The operating centre address on their original license was an accountant’s office in the More London building, conveniently situated next to City Hall. No one in their right mind, even with the wildest imagination, could envisage an accountant’s office, in the midst of large office complex as a minicab operating centre. Taxi leaks pointed out to TfL that in the last few months, Über were operating from premises in Islington without a licence variation. This was formally reported to TfL.
Did they immediately revoke Über’s licence as you would expect?
No they gave them time to sort it out by not investigating or answering the complaint until a licence variation had been issued.
Another issue that needs addressing ASAP is the appointment of new ranks.
How is it that a PH operator can set up a satellite office in just a few days and yet to get a licensed Taxi rank outside a new Hotel, Bar/Restaurant or other venue, takes many months and in some cases, years?
We know it can be done!
After direct action at Nobu, within weeks, a major new rank was appointed. Same with the Shard.
Is this what it’s going to take, conflict and direct action from flash mob type demos?
Should the people of London have to put up with major disruption every time we need a new rank?
It has recently come to our attention that the management of many venues would welcome a licensed Taxi rank outside their premises. But antiquated bureaucracy stops this happening.
Solution:
1. We need a system in place to fast track rank appointment, much in the way PH get licence variations approved.
2. All ranks need to be enforced efficiently by both the police and local parking services.
Why should drivers have to put themselves on offer to protect work being stolen by bent door staff and organised gangs of touts.
Where is the protection that TfL and the police have a duty of care to provide?
Boris Johnson, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Sir Peter Hendy, if your not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem!
Constantly turning a blind eye to what’s happening outside these venues, has resulted in serious sexual assaults (including rape) statistics going through the roof.
The people charged with the responsibility of providing safe transport in London are complicit in the shattering of many young lives and also the lives of their families and it’s time these people were held responsible.
by News Desk | Aug 16, 2014 | London News
A FORMER Conservative MP has challenged London mayor Boris Johnson to release an app for London’s black cab trade and beat Uber at its own game.
Ex-Corby member of parliament, Louise Mensch, (43) lives in New York and says her experience of using Uber cabs in the Big Apple should serve as a warning to the taxi trade in the capital.
She said that “everyone” uses Uber vehicles to get around in New York and that black cabs will, “dwindle to nothing” unless Boris, keeps up with the times.
Mrs Mensch, married to Metallica manager Peter Men- sch, said the mayor should hire IT experts to bring a taxi app to market that is as good as Uber’s online vehicle booking service.
The former Conservative MP, who resigned from the House of Commons in 2012, said: “If Boris was really clever, here’s my advice. TfL, make an Uber-style app and system for black cabs and undercut Uber on price.
“Black cabs will die out without this. I don’t mean to sound alarmist but it is a fact. Everybody in New York City uses Uber and that’s even with yellow cab taxis being cheaper than black cabs are in London. Because black cabs are more costly, Uber will ultimately destroy them.
“If TfL and Boris coded a good app, they could beat Uber, but it would have to have all the same features. I am a fan of Uber but not one that wants to see black cabs disappear. Boris should get some good coders on this right away or a part of London’s heritage will dwindle to nothing.”
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