John Mason has been appointed as the new Director of Taxi and Private Hire at the Public Carriage Office.Previously he was the Deputy Director for Congestion Charging and Traffic Enforcement.
Mason will takes up his role today, 28 September 2009, taking over from Ed Thompson and in a recent interview in the taxi globe said;
“I am delighted to have this great opportunity to join the Public Carriage Office. This is a unique opportunity to work with the taxi and private hire trades, whose members provide such a vital service to the Capital. London’s taxi and private hire services are already the best in the World and I'm looking forward to working with the trade to provide an even better service for Londoners. I'm sure members of the trade won't hesitate to give me their views.”
John came across to TfL from Westminster City Council where he was in charge of parking enforcement. It was under his watch that we first started to see wardens ignoring parking contraventions by private hire drivers, so it will be interesting to see what he intends to do about the present situation regarding mini cabs illegally ranking outside venues.
He has had plenty of time to look at all the issues the trade is facing and we at the Anderson Shelter think it would be a good idea if he published a list of his goals and objectives, that he hopes to achieve in his new position.
Some questions we would like answers to:
- What does he want for our trade?
- Where does he stand on the issue of Private Hire Waiting area's?
- Will he encourage enforcement of the touting laws currently being ignored outside venues in the Capital?
We hope that the London Licensed Taxi trade can look forward to a pleasant friendly relationship with the new head and can go forward into the future, providing the same first class service this city expects and receives from the trade.
Jeroen Weimar, TfL’s Chief Operating Officer for Enforcement and Compliance, said:
“John will take forward the already excellent work of the PCO, with a focus on delivering the Mayor’s key objective of cracking down on illegal taxi touts.”
Lets hope he does a better job than Jeroen Weimar has been doing, because at the moment its just not good enough.
"the taxi and private hire trades, whose members provide such a vital service to the Capital. London’s taxi and private hire services are already the best in the World"
ReplyDeleteIts obvious then he doesn't go out in the evening in the west end.
Where he would witness PHV drivers acting like third world pirates.
Still over 200 serious sexual assaults and 20 rapes taking place in LICENSED private hire vehicles.
Whilst the Licensed Taxi trade has earned the right to be called the best in the world, Private hire is a complete mess, with rapists and killers being allowed to drive our wives and daughters around.
Lenny 40 years a cabby...
This man has got his work cut out if he wants the support of the Licensed taxi trade they have sold down the river.
ReplyDeleteI hope he's on our side but going by the two statments, I'm not holding my breath.
I strongly suspect that the biggest cause of CEOs ignoring PHVs is privatisation. The local authority contracts parking enforcement out to a company who promise to make it "more effective". By this they mean issue more penalties, which they do by means of targets for the CEOs. The PHV nearly always has a driver in it, so instead of the penalty, the CEO just gets aggravation from the driver. From what I can tell, CEOs in London are all employed by private companies who underpay them.
ReplyDeleteOutside the south-east, the pay problem doesn't seem to be so bad (I'm well-paid), and in my own area, we're employed by the council, and have no targets to meet. A few of us take particular delight in booking PHVs because so many seem to have a complete disregard for the law.
this man is a good appoitment by tf neanderthal man he was investigated at congestion chrage is way cheaper than ed
ReplyDeletecan not do policy or budgets and has no qualifications another guaranteed handshale following the olympics should he last that long