Press Release From The UCG : Letter to Helen Chapman and TfL senior Management

Copied to Isabel Dedring (Deputy Mayor for transport), Caroline Pidgeon, Val Shawcross, Leon Daniels, Garrat Emmerson, Mike Brown (New commissioner taken over from Sir Peter Hendy)

Helen,

I recently submitted an FOI asking for TfLs E-Hailing Policy.

 

After chasing this a number of times I was sent a response that stated TfL have no policy on E-Hailing.

 

Sir Peter Hendy sat in front of the GLA transport committee and waived an iPhone at the committee and said, this is what the public want, convenience they want to order a car or Taxi on their phone.

 

This was echoed by Boris Johnson at the next meeting, he said it is an "unstoppable force" and that at some point grooms were no longer required by horse drawn carriages.

 

If this theory is correct that the public want to engage car or Taxi services on their smartphones in future, then, as the regulator of Taxi and Private Hire Vehicles you have identified future engagement methodologies, yet taken no steps to ensure that these new engagement methods comply with the relevant regulations and laws. I should be shocked by this, but of course I am not.

 

The law states that a customer of a Private Hire Vehicle service must not contact the driver directly, rather the booking must go through an operator who then assigns the job to a driver. 

As you have no policy on this, how can you know this is the case? 

You do not audit these "Apps" and therefore you have absolutely no idea how these "Apps" are functioning. 

They are in many cases placing the customer in direct contact with the driver, this is illegal and invalidates their insurance policy.

 

We know that Addison Lee went to great lengths to ensure their booking platform complied with the law. It was a bespoke system designed from day one to operate within the law.

 

Many of the new "Apps" appearing are of foreign origin and have been adapted for the UK market. The developers may have had scant regard for our laws or even a total ignorance of London PHV legislation.

 

What I expect and require from TfL is that a policy is formulated that ensures any "App" used by a PHV driver undertaking work within the London metropolitan area will have been tested by a TfL officer or department, the exact method of operation of this system fully understood and tested to ensure it complies with the law.

 

When this testing is complete a TfL approval number be issued to that "App" and it is considered certified.

 

Any PHV driver using an unapproved "App" will be liable to prosecution for possible plying for hire as an unlicensed Hackney Carriage.

 

The approval number can easily be incorporated into the "about" field that all software has enbedded in it.

 

Without such a policy in place TfL will be complicit in such activity as you are fully aware this is not just a potential outcome of a lack of policy, but it is happening every night already.

 

When can Londoners expect to be protected by the regulator charged with public safety? to paraphrase Sir Peter Hendy, "TfLs job is to protect the public". When will TfL TPH have a policy on something absolutely paramount to public safety?

 

I urgently request that such a policy is in place and being actively implemented within 90 days from the date of this email.

Best Regards, 

Len Martin
UCG Chairman