Three years after the English Civil War, in 1654 Oliver Cromwell set up the Fellowship of Master Hackney Carriages by Act of Parliament, and taxi driving became a profession.
This makes the licensed taxi trade the oldest regulated public transport system in the world.
The Public Carriage Office took on and ran the Taxi trade seamlessly for 150 years from 1850 till 2000 when we were seconded to TfL.
In that time, the London Taxi Trade became recognised world wide as the best regulated Taxi service in the world, second to none.
On the 3rd of July 2000, Transport for London took command of the capitals transport system which included the administration of Taxis and the newly licensed private hire trade.
But in just 19 years, TfL have almost destroyed the knowledge and have become a disgrace to public safety.
Last year, Uber were deemed unfit and proper to be a private hire operator. The licence renewal went to appeal and TfL (who put up virtually no resistance) lost the appeal and Uber were granted a provisional licence (the first time in the history of the trade) by a Judge who had obvious conflicts of interest through her husband.
Last Wednesday, at Westminster Magistrates Court, Uber London Limited, were fined £29,600 in total, after pleading guilty to two counts of permitting a Private Hire vehicle to be used with no insurance. They also pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to keep records in accordance with the 1998 Private Hire Act.
It's also alleged that they were ordered to pay £22,000 in court costs, but let's face it....what's £51,600 to a company that can shrug off a £4.5bn loss in just one quarter of a trading year.
Any other Private Hire operator in this position would have had their proprietors licence revoked the same day.... but TfL appear to be scared of Uber and have set a presidency by letting them them continue to operate in London.
Our largest Org ( who have just had a windfall of £21.4m with the sale of their property in W9) have informed their members through email, they have written a letter to the Mayor, reminding him of his stance on public safety. That’s it.... a letter to the Mayor?
STATEMENT FROM UTAG:
In light of today’s revelation that Uber has been fined £29600 for Failure to Keep Records, in breach of their probationary licensing conditions, we have been in discussions with our legal team with the view to giving them further instructions to take legal action.
The United Taxi Action Group functions on freely given donations from Taxi drivers and supporting services.
If you haven’t already, please consider donating to UTAG by using the link below.
As General Secretary of the UCG Trevor Merrill’s once said, “ it’s not the colour of the lanyard you wear, its the badge that hangs on it that counts”.
TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT :
I recently posted about my experience at Stanstead Airport where I observed TfL registered Private hire cars waiting to be hired. After speaking to fellow passengers on my flight, it transpired that Uber cars were available for immediate hire and were picking up within minutes of booking.
My observation was picked up by my representative org (LCDC)and a email has now been forwarded to TfL on my behalf.
This is what I pay for, representation... not waiting and seeing.
Are Uber Above The Law ???
Uber has refused to make any significant changes to its activities in Essex, after being told to withdraw from Brentwood or apply for a fresh licence.
So can we expect future prosecutions for allowing drivers to pick up passengers without adequate hire & reward insurance???
5 comments:
imo, the beginning of the end, started with THE OLYMPICS
where were our so called 'leaders' then?
our, doing nothing, was the Green Light for tfl
WITH:
nearly as many 'orgs', as Cab Drivers
Cab Drivers, willing to jeopardise their financial futures, by signing-up (without any long-term guarantee, of ANY form of security), for a commitment of £70,000
tfl must be laughing their heads off
The tossers at TfL and the LTDA have been bought and paid for.
It's a done deal.
It's time for you guys to visit harrogate &see how there is virtually NO *ber hanging about for a ping....
It's time for you guys to visit harrogate virtually NO*ber hanging around for a ping&apparently they have twice applied for ops license....
TFL and its failed Consultation on LPG conversions.
TFL are ploughing full steam ahead with the disasterous reduction in our vehicles age limits from 15 years to 12 years not to mention its deliberate and targeted agenda against the older fraternity who drive own and drive taxis (see older story regarding this)
The serious proof needed to highlight TFLs intentions to rid the trade of its senior taxi drivers lies with the existing options to convert existing taxis to LPG (a real choice for the older driver) to gain 20 years use of their current vehicle provided it is not over 15 years old now, this option has been completely and undemocratically removed (if the consultaion paper was ever was intended to be fair or democratic) and as displayed on page 41 of the taxi age limit is a curious graph and acommpanying comment for all to see.
The graph is displayed as "Figure 8" and states "Agreement with proposal to remove taxi age limit exemption": Alternative fuel exemption.
The graph shows 3 vertical lines split into sections amounting to how consulting respondents felt about: "We propose to remove the alternative fuel, historic and classic niche, and hardship taxi age limit extentions. do you agree with 'each' of these proposals.
Remove the alternative fuel exemption (20 years)
From a total figure of 5125 consultation responses:
6% did not give an answer to this specific question.
10% Stated they didn't know
62% Said "NO" To this question
22% Said "YES" to this question.
So 62% Voiced their disaproval on changes.
Furthermore,
When TFL Break down the responses, it clearly shows that although 79% of the response voted for no change were from the taxi industry (out of 2739 responses)
Those who reponded who were NOT in the taxi industry (2070) also casted a higher NO CHANGES response of 45% opposed to 44% of those who did prefer a change option.
On both of the chart repsponses, The greater amount have voted for no to alternative fuel changes, yet the following is stated below the graph:
"Overall, 22% of respondents agreed that alternative fuel exemption should be removed (after 62% said it should not??)....please take a look for yourselves as I kid you not!
This is another example of TFL bullying absent of a true mandate.
When a 60 plus taxi driver who earns £15,000 to £20,000 per year part time or semi part time cannot now convert his current taxi to allow his business survive and not on any polution reason entirely on the basis of The London Atmouspheric Emissions inventory conducting its so called report For TFL which was paid for by TFL and the GLA so who pays the fiddler calls the tune regarding taxi polution statistics.
There is no arguement anywhere LPG is cleaner than diesel yet TFL have made an unconstituted decision regardless of the consultation on vehicle cleanliness except to remove it completely.
The way older drivers have been treated thus far has already been earlier noted but the reduction of vehicle real licensed plate time neccessary to make LPG conversions financially viable is a disgrace, and if the finance companies selling the electric cabs do start to decide to give 57,000 HP agreements to 65 year olds plus or if LEVC remove all health questions from their PCP proposal forms for all proposals over 60 years old to indemnify drivers from out of the blue illness where the driver can simply walk away from any deals afterwards things may move along, but this simply will not happen so get real TFL.
Be Lucky
greenbadgejohn
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