Through the medium of my websites the New Anderson Shelter and New Taxi Leaks, I have been warning the Licensed Taxi trade of a secret caveat to Project Horizon for well over a decade, after it was discovered (by accident) published on the Internet in an un-redacted email train (now removed) which TfL have always denied ever existed.
I also predicted back then, that under this agenda, eventually, there would be no-go areas for Taxis….followed by Private Hire ranks where drivers would be allowed to rank and wait to be hired, with the aid of a clipboard man. (As technology moved forward, the clipboard was eventually replaced by an online app).
One part of the email discussed a proposal to let PHVs rank at major venues and mainline stations, in the fashion of the clipboard men that were appearing more frequently outside pubs, clubs and restaurants, fully sanctioned by TfL. This actually started before Horizon came into being, just after the STAN Report was published, (eventually replaced by the online ride sharing apps).
The main issue of Horizon dealing with the Taxi and Private Hire, was to cut the number of Licensed Taxis by over half (to under 12,000) to make way for a massive expansion of Private hire. We saw the then director of TfLTPH invited to San Francisco on a jolly up to be shown the new venture of online ride share.
Government ministers as high up as no10, put pressure on the then Mayor or London Boris Johnson, to ease the passage of this company, into the London market (which was seen world wide as the jewel in the crown).
So why did TfL take this approach. It is believed they thought it would cut down on enforcement costs plus there would be added revenue from a massive increase in PH.
Amazingly, not one Org or Union approached me about my findings and the subject was never discussed in any trade journal.
As a result, we are now actually sharing these virtual ranks with on-demand private hire, utilising online apps.
TfL went berserk when I first published my finding including the email train in full and I was ordered by their legal department due to copyright issues, to remove all posts concerning Horizon from my website 'The Anderson Shelter'.…of course, I refused. The email train I’d found on line suddenly disappeared, as did all references to Horizon on TfL's internal internet, which I’d acquired the password to. TfL then went further and got Google (the host) to remove my website completely. But, TfL never pursued the copyright issue (obviously, didn’t want the publicity).
Then the worst happened.
Somehow my laptop was compromised with a virus and my hard drive infected and wiped. Sounds a bit far fetch, like a plot of a TV drama…but this is what actually happened.
Unfortunately, at that time I didn’t have a printer, and now all my evidence was now gone.
That didn’t stop me, I started a succession of blogs online and carried on exposing whatever I could find out about our regulator.
Look around today, nearly everything I predicted in my expose' has come to pass.
At the time of my original discovery, I was a founding member of the RMT and I bought this up at branch meetings time and time again. But they were only interested in only one thing…that was defining Plying for Hire in Law. They are still on about this 13 years later.
After years of negativity and deterioration, did we not all cheer when Val Shawcross announced the United Trade Group would be scrapped and the gagging order known as the engagement policy would be consigned to the shredder. But then, the old United Trade Group was immediately replaced by the new United Trade Group, along with a new engagement policy.
Another lesson not learned.
To make Private Hire attractive to new drivers, TfL have drastically reduced the number of Licence Taxi drivers and Taxi vehicles by stealth (just look how long it takes to complete the Knowledge nowadays). Looking at the recent figures published on TfLs own website, will confirm this.
We now find ourselves in a position with virtually no new blood filling our ranks, as numbers fall dramatically. Could it be that TfL have over the years, purposely held back knowledge students…instead promoting the expansion of Private Hire?
The trade have seen their ranks shrink from 25,538 licensed Taxi drivers in 2014, cut by a third to 18,425 today. That's 16,415 all London drivers and 2,010 suburban drivers.
While private hire have soared by 100% to 106,000 drivers.
The reduction of the age limit for older Taxis, have killed off many older drivers, who had reduced their hours and were working part time to supplement pensions, now find the price of the new Taxi to buy or rent, just not worth the effort of working on.
To further the progression of Horizon, TfL placed the trade in the predicament of struggling to afford new replacement vehicles. Cheaper models have been kept out of the market by outdated standards of fitness resulting in a monopoly with just one highly expensive vehicle, while giving our work to a non-domicile company which pays little to no tax here in the UK. We are supposed to learn from past history, but it seems our trade has learned nothing.
Meanwhile, Sadiq Khan being questioned on Project Horizon at Mayor's Question Time, at first said it no longer existed and that it had ended in 2012
But when pointed out to him in 2019 on our behalf by Cllr David Kurten at a proceeding MQT, that TfL actually had appointed a director of Project Horizon in the personage of Gareth Powell from 2012-2017 (before moving up to Director of surface transport), he changed his story to, "it’s only applicable to internal TfL issues and has nothing to do with the Taxi trade." One lie after another from the mouth of the Mayor.
The ultimate goals of Horizon were:
* Cut taxi trade in half
* Double the amount of private hire vehicles
* Allow certain PHVs that were WAV to pick up from major termini ranks
* Create a one tier service where PHVs and Taxis together share the work.
With the help of so called 'Taxi apps', (working alongside Private hire) plus a Private Hire company buying up a long established Taxi company, all these goals have now been virtually reached, the result of a vastly fragmented trade where 3 representative orgs and 3 unions can’t work together as one.
Our only hope (in my opinion)
We desperately need a Taxi Board with everyone working together, reading from the same page…not fragmented and empire building.
But to be honest, I can’t ever see that happening.
There’s a surprise. 
