TfL Taxi and Private Hire, Have Knowingly Been Putting The Public At Risk... Part 1...by Jim Thomas

To add insult to injury, TfL have recently sent out this letter (below), to the 13,000 PHV drivers who have been found to have submitted DBS certificates from an Unauthorised source. 

While London Taxi drivers have been thrown out of work as their TfL authorised DBS applications have been caught up in a back log (some drivers have been out of work for over 3 months), the PHV drivers have now been given 28 days to submit new certificates. 

But this hasn't just come to light, TfL have known about the authenticity of these certificates since January and have scandalously said nothing!!! 

Until the story was given to the Sunday Times by the LCDC. 

Let's just reiterate on this....that's 13,000 Minicab drivers running round, picking up passengers, who have not had a proper criminal record background check.... 

TfL knew this was happening, yet were prepared to sweep it under the carpet and say nothing!

Senior staff at TfL are guilty of putting he public at risk from PHV drivers with fake DBS certificates. 

The question we now ask is:

Why have these PHV drivers, not had their licenses suspended, in the same respect as London Taxi drivers have been stopped from working, when caught up in backlogs beyond their control ?

Below is the letter sent out by TfL to the PHV drivers with unauthorised DBS certificates:

Please note: 

TfL ask for drivers to contact them once they receive their reference number, to verify they have made a new application, so their progress can then be tracked.

How come this is good enough for PHV drivers who have purchased fake DBS certificates...but not good enough for Licensed Taxi drivers who have gone through the correct channels and have been caught in a queue through incompetence ?

We cannot have one rule for them and a different rule for us:

Helen Chapman has stated that PHV drivers have the same enhanced checks as Taxi drivers. This is a lie!

We have been informed today that Taxi drivers have lifetime checks, whereas 'foreign' PHV drivers are only required to have checks which go back 3 years!

Our orgs must now insist that no Taxi driver is stopped from working while caught up in delays that are beyond their control, even if Chapman can't live with herself. 

She can always resign!

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