Yesterday the taxi trade showed TfL they would no longer be pushed aside. Thousands of united taxi drivers turned up in SE1 to show there utter disgust at the way the trade is being treated.
The day started with Mayor Boris Johnson showing total contempt for Taxi Trade by refering to an illegal minicab company as Uber Taxis. Then Made his way down to the Shard for the opening ceremony.
Both the police and TfL were caught napping.
Having made our intentions clear over the Shard, they thought they could just block off entry to St Thomas Street and we would just drive off after a few minutes. But it soon became apparent that this would not be the case.
Plan B went into action and the drive-in destination was changed without warning to London Bridge Station. This completely took the police by surprise and the whole station soon flooded with protesting vehicles, overspilling on to Borough High Street bringing the whole area to complete grid lock.
Police numbers suddenly increased as it became clear they didn't have a clue what to do. They soon made it clear they had received orders to victimise drivers and as we have seen on previous occasions drivers were threatened in an unreasonable manner. Tickets were issued to cabs stuck in traffic and stop notes were handed out. One driver was arrested but subsequently released without charge.
Plan C swung into operation and drivers who had been unable to get to the London Bridge area were directed via social media to make their way to TfL's offices in Blackfriars. It wasn't long before the whole block was surrounded.
Staff are Palestra were surprised when the cavalcade of taxis sudden turned up horns blasting in an unbelievable cacophony of sound. One member of staff from Palestra we spoke to outside said:
Oh Dear Tfl have been caught with their knickers down today. Hundreds of police and Tfl Staff, yet no one had a clue the protest was coming here.
Tfl Bosses must be red-faced.
As far back as London Bridge there's gridlocked, while cab enforcement police are sitting in the canteen...3 o'clock before they managed to get their lazy arses out on the streets. It was on all radio stations inc BBC
Question of the day "What do TFL's Intelligence unit actually do all day?"
Teachers students religious zealots and foreign nationals have all been allowed to hold demonstrations in Central London, but for some reason taxi drivers are looked upon by the authorities as the bad guys.
TfL's publicity machine went into full swing and TV news reports were either dumbed down or in the case of the BBC, pulled completely.
Spokes person for the UCG Jonathan Myers put it in a nutshell, later last night on LBC's Duncan Barkes show:
TfL are completely out of control. They are acting like a private corporation instead of a public company.
The problem is they have more staff on over £100,000 salary than Barclays Bank. The recent slimming down of the company, which has resulted in redundancies and mass outsourcing of work, is all about saving money, so big bonuses can be paid out the the privileged few.
It's all about the money Duncan.
Personally I was total shocked at the treatment dished out on the street, by an overly vicious police contingent. This is 2014 Central London and it resembled the streets of Nazi Germany.
Today after tributes have poured in, both the LCDC and LTDA have announced that more demos, both flash mob and mass drive-ins are being planned.
Yesterday, I was proud to call myself a London Taxi Driver and stood shoulder to shoulder with my colleagues.
See Stormcabs video on YouTube
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More photos here:
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12 comments:
It is excellent that taxi drivers have finally woken up and realized that TFL are not fit for purpose, but I find it difficult to understand why no one can understand the importance of strategy.
The failure to provide a proper rank at the Shard is not the issue.
The real issue is that TFL do not act in a reasonable way on many issues.
They have not enforced Private Hire Regulations which means that a huge amount of work has been taken from Taxi Drivers (far more than 2 spaces at the Shard will create),they are allowing taxi regulation reforms (including apps ) which will destroy the taxi trade, they gave up London's streets to corporate sponsors during the Olympics (which not only affected Taxi Drivers but had a massive negative impact on ALL London businesses),
they have needlessly scrapped thousands of London Cabs using an improper taxi age limit, which will do nothing to improve pollution and was only implemented by Bozo's so his Tory buddy Yeo could sell his Vitos,etc etc.
The fact is that TFL are paid £9 billion a year in taxpayers money and are accountable to no one.
The protests should be organised with a clear strategy and objective.
The message that was given to the media yesterday was that the protest was about a couple of taxi rank spaces at the Shard, which just allows TFL to spin the situation to the media that it is a few greedy taxi drivers complaining about money.
The message needs to be loud and clear that the objective of any protest is to achieve a full independent investigation as to WHY TFL are acting improperly.
The individual issues themselves are irrelevant ; if action is not taken to expose the corruption at TFL then improper decisions will continue.
You only need to look at the actions of TFL and the Police yesterday to understand the animosity and improper conduct which exists.
Watching tickets being written to Taxi drivers protesting should be all the evidence needed to see the true colours of TFL
A proper united protest committee should be put together with ALL trade organisations so that a clear objective is set out from the start.
Where was Bob Oddy?
One org conspicuous by their absence!
Yes Gerry the DGS of the LTDA
I saw members of all trade orgs there
Excellent comment by Aonon 10:19AM,Who is this person?
And well done to Jim and the Taxi Leaks team, for keeping us all informed.
Next Demo please.....Make it BIG!!!
Yes indeed where was Mr Oddy?
Still there was no show at Trafalgar Square some years back
Nelson
An easy one to answer
Oddy is employed by TfL to be the Mayors advisor on Transport Issues.
He couldn't demo against the board of TfL cause he's on it.
But at least Mac Hoody turned up as soon as a camera crew appeared.
I saw Richard Massett driving the LTDA 56 plate TX4,Is there an election at the LTDA,No indentifiers to be seen on the cab,Does he still have a bill.
The hero of the day must go to the knowledge boys and girls who turned up in large numbers.Well done...
Yes but what next?
As the Olympics and the Trafalga square demo proved TfL will ignore us.
What they can't ignore are GLA enquiries, Parliament and the british and if need be the european courts.
Th needs to be our focus and of course flash mobs and a united trade, now that really scares TfL .
ALWAYS do what your enemy would least like.
Your last comment is very good advice Unity, and well worth remembering when it's time to vote!
Unity? tell that to GD only worried about screwing YB,s in the past now wants us to help YEH right on baby
Anon 8:34
This is not a simple game of football, where we can continue to slag each other off for supporting a different team to us. We're not in that luxurious position
We are at the endgame of a battle to save our jobs.
Doesn't matter what regiment you belong to, we are losing heavily and we've been out flanked.
Our only option now is to fall back and regroup into one single fighting force.
We are surrounded by people who want to kill us off and our only option is to stand shoulder to shoulder and fight like devils.
TfL have played us like an old banjo and the trade is virtually in tatters.
Our TfL authority are heavily biased against our survival with the Mayor himself saying on LBC that an illegal smartphone minicab app, "knocks spots off" a legal licensed Taxi app.
We've had top TfL managers come on radio and TV and tell the public barefaced lies.
Do we carry on dancing to TfL's tune....or do we start our own choir, with the whole trade singing from the same hymn sheet.
Think of it as a game of football with the season coming to its conclusion. Many teams looking at relegation and the morale of the fans at an all time low. But there is a saving grace, "The World Cup". We need to put together a national team from all leagues. A side to take on the world.
Now stop bitching and get on with fighting for your trade and not against it.
TtT
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