Drivers are now starting to receive the new style Licences and IDs.
Included in the pack are new style ID pouches with an indent, to make removal easier. The IDs have a slight pigment on the reverse, but once inside the pouch, the new pigment is almost unnoticeable.
the new drivers licence has a broken foil strip down the right hand side which unlike the one found embedded on bank notes looks like it has been printed on. The licence now carries the bar code which should match the ones found on the ID cards.
The driver's photo is slightly smaller than on the old licence and the word Taxi has been removed from the TfL roundel.
Unlike the previous new issue licence, you are reminded that it is an offence to refuse to carry a guide dog unless you have a specific medical exemption. The accompanying letter also states that the IDs are not to be tampered with, laminated or altered in anyway. Clear instruction is given as to where the IDs should be displayed.
From the 17th of November 2014, it will be mandatory to display the new identifiers and we are informed that any driver displaying old identifiers will be subject to compliance action.
I have never had a problem with displaying an ID to let the public know I am licensed for the area I'm actually working. But I feel uncomfortable displaying my badge number so prominently.
Why does our badge number need to be so large?
PRIVATE HIRE PARADOX
Clause 10 has recently been abandoned from the deregulation bill currently going through parliament. This would reflect the view that all over the UK (excluding London), it is deemed a huge safety issue and that only licensed private hire drivers should be driving licensed private hire vehicles.
Unfortunately for the traveling public in London, TfL say that anyone can currently drive a private hire minicab around the capital, whether they are licensed or not.
Because of this factor, it then seems incredible that the only mandatory notification on a PHV, to show that it is in fact a licensed vehicle, is an unreadable yellow roundel, that nine times out of ten is obscured by tinted windows.
Even though the Taxi trade have to have a purpose built vehicle, carrying both a registration number plate from the DVLA and also a TfL Hackney Carriage plate, it seems strange that we should also need our badge number emblazoned on the ID card identifying the driver.
Considering the security status we currently find ourselves in, only TfL licensed registered drivers should be allowed to drive minicabs. PH drivers should also be identifiable and should be matchable to a particular vehicle by means of their badge number, displayed on front and rear windows.
If it's good enough for Taxis...then it's good enough for PH.
TfL recently announced that PH driver numbers currently exceeded 71,000. A recent FOI request by Taxi Leaks staff, has uncovered that in the first six months of 2014, there were over 8,600 new PH driver applications granted.
10 comments:
This is still not good enough,with all the technology,about today,,the fraudsters will produce identical I'd,s and licences,something else,needs to be done ,as for the large badge number,that's purely for the inland revenue, this trade is going,down and down, I wouldn't like to be getting out now I'm retiring soon, it's such a shame this noble trade is coming to an end,.
Be careful what you wish for springs to mind. Greens whinged for years to get identifiers, but now it seems they really only wanted them for yellow badges and not for themselves. I've seen countless green id's bent into the dark parts of windscreens, upside down or even covered with stickers advertising a brand of fuel treatment, anything to disguise their badge number.
What are these so called "best in the world" taxi drivers up to that they need to obscure their credentials from scrutiny?
In my opinion the badge numbers are still not big enough and though the sectors are marked bigger than bebefore on suburban id's they are still too small to be noticeable from even a cab length away.
Lets get our own house in order and then we can go after the private hire and other undesirables with impunity and really have a reason to suggest we are better than the rest without proving otherwise in our actions.
Yes anon 1:32
Your right.
Let's give all YBs 3 years to complete full knowledge then phase out suburban licences. Kills the problem of Yellows nicking work, stone dead.
As for getting our own house in order, if we don't concentrate on what PH is doing and fight back now, we won't have a house to get in order.
You lot in the suburbs have let your living slip away and done nothing for yourselves. You've allowed your ranks to be taken and -in some cases- given to the scabs, and you did nothing.
All you want is for green badge to do all the fighting fir you while you do nothing but slag us off.
If you can't see the real enemy, you have no hope of survival. Better start looking for a job with Uber and join the 41 club.
The next time green badges fight for anything that concerns yellow badges will be the first time. DON'T blame us for your years of complacency and p**s poor service to the cab riders of London. Every time any cab driver ANYWHERE says no to a passenger, it only serves to make them think about alternative ways of travelling.
Giving yellows 3 years to do the green, is not a bad idea, but only if the green badges doing the testing actually test on real knowledge and not just sit there thinking of ways to screw over the yellow badge because they have an unfound prejudice against them.
Your statement about looking at what ph are doing sounds like ghe same rallying cry that was used againstethe handful of yellows that were nicking the jobs you blatantly refused to do.
The ph/mini cab fight has been fought numerous times over the years and has been lost time and again. Anything that black cab drivers have suggested for ph has come back to bite them, licensing them only served to give them credibility and open up the corporate market to them. If they get similar id's to us and yet more credibility , the next step can only be to open up the way they are hired and it won't be long before they will be able to be flagged down in the street legally.
Be careful what you wish for
Paranoia again from the yellow bridge fraternity
They are (p/h) being flagged down in the street.....via the app!!!
I,ve been a yellow for 25 years.I dont want to do the green.But green,s wanted the ID,s what fool,s walked into TFL hands,GB,s helped TFL screw YB,s to saved their arses well done GD,s boy,s.TFL are just waiting for cross rail and then they screw you too.GB,s only look as far as the next job.
We didn't want Ids , it was planned a long time ago , as TFL and PCO before were getting complaints that a lot of Black cabs had not got a clue where they were going . It was when a barrister had an accident in a taxi , only to find the cab had no insurance as it was a yellow badge plying for hire and working town . The uninsured taxi driver was sued and lost his house .
Please show me evidense of YB being sued as i never heard of this,i would love to see this as rumours run in this trade,such as it is illegal for a YB to pick up a tele job outside his bill area.
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