Billy's petition

I received an email today from a future cab driver Billy Gould who has taken the time and trouble to set up a petition on the No10 website. Billy has asked the Prime Minster to help us stop the illegal ranking outside clubs and bars in central London.
Please help with this petition, it will be on the No 10 website for almost a year and we would hope to get all the drivers, all their friends and family to sign it. I personally, will be printing cards with the petition address on and handing them out to interested customers.
The address is http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/blackcabsunite/

Looks like a job for the London Taxi drivers Forum
Do it now, and lets see just how many names we can get.

Well done Billy, we need more drivers like you who are willing to take the time and trouble to do something to save our trade. Just remember the words of John the cabby Kennedy;

" Together we shall prevail and prosper"

We're Paying for their Porn Now....

On a weekend when most people in this country would be celebrating with the England team winning 4-0, the English cricket team winning something for a change, an English win in Formula one and Oxford winning the boat race, one of our top politicians has had the worst weekend of her political life.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, found out this weekend in an exclusive in the Sunday Express that while she was at work or living in the main family residence in Streatham (in her sisters loft) her husband Richard Timney, was downloading porn films to watch at their family's 2nd home in Redditch, Worcestershire, a home that she lived in for 15 years before she became an MP.
Richard is paid £40.000 a year to assist Jacqui by looking after the children inbetween downloads.

Now I don't mind anyone downloading porn films to watch, but I draw the line at paying for them.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was forced to apologise for "mistakenly" claiming the cost of watching a pair of adult movies on Commons expenses. She has claimed a £67.00 bill for Internet connection, a sink plug 88p and a light bulb, along with £22,000.00 worth of other "stuff" last year alone, for their second home.
In the past, she has a claimed £750.00 for a bed, £500.00 for a sink and £1,000.00 for an antique fire place.

Jacqui now has the dilemma of explaining why she knowingly put in this claim for downloaded porn, or if she says she didn't know about it, why she signed off the claim without first reading what it was for.
After all lets not forget this is the Right Honorable Jacqui Smith Home secretary that wants to put CCTV camera's all over the country to spy on us, perhaps she should spend more time spying on her husband before he winds up with repetitive strain injury.

This is another example of the way politicians, party wide, are taking us all quite legally, for a ride. They all have their snouts in the troth, just like greedy little pigs, no better than benefit scroungers.

TFL, hundreds of thousands spent on radio advertising. I will do it for free

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith recently highlighted the danger posed by new technologies and failed states around the world.
After listening to the advert currently being played night after night that starts; " This is the sound of a car bomb not going off"
We have decided to produce our own version and hope that all the staff and officers at TfL, the PCO, The Met Police and Westminster council,
WATCH AND LEARN.

Satellite offices will now affect day men......by Thomas The Taxi

It has now been confirmed that the Royal Garden Hotel has joined the ever increasing list of central London establishments that wish to be detached from the London Taxi Trade, as they have now registered as supplier's of private hire vehicles.
In recent posts on forums and in the trade press, drivers groups have called for a complete blacking of these hotels and night venues.
I for one, have been torn between the lines on this issue, as I personally think it is wrong, not to give the people, who decide that they would prefer a real taxi instead of a car, a first class service, no matter how short or unpopular the journey may be.

Basically, I believe our future lies in the hands of the regular customers and the service we provide to them. If we withdraw our service from these passengers, in my opinion, we would only be antagonising the very people who are supporting us and we could lose the fight completely.

This is not going to get better on its own. The situation has been allowed to escalate by the apathy of the drivers and their respective Unions and associations.
This situation hasn't suddenly appeared over night, we have all seen it coming and now it is completely out of hand.

The peril we face, was bought about by legislation that came in via the back door, on a recommendation from the London assembly to set up satellite offices. This has now become a license to print money for bands of unscrupulous service providers using clipboard men who, openly tout passengers and feed them to illegally ranked private hire drivers.
Backed up by biased, unsympathetic, TFL/PCO officers, who are interpreting the Hackney carriage laws falsely and refuse to see anything wrong in the current set up.
Add to this, local police officers and City Council traffic wardens, who are unwilling to enforce parking restriction and we have anarchy on the streets. The touts can do what they like.

Tonight I sat and watched as two police officers from either the traffic division or perhaps the illusive TOCU squad inspect three private hire cars illegally parked in a 24 hour bus lane outside Tiger Tiger. After a quick look at the vehicles tyres, the two officers left the scene leaving the three licensed PHV's illegally ranking outside the venue. they didn't even move them on...

In the words of our most famous British hero, Winston Churchill;
This is not the beginning.
This is not the end of the beginning.
This is the beginning of the end.
Unless we act very soon we will not survive as a trade.

Ed Thompson reassures the Taxi Trade

Ed Thompson reassures the Taxi Trade that its only You (us) who can legitimately rank up and ply for hire.

Unfortunately his spokesperson, in the form of Luke Howard, says different.
Writing under the assumed persona of Beverly Hart he writes;


"You talk about private hire vehicles 'ranking illegally', suggesting that it is illegal for private hire vehicles to wait near the office before the journey has been booked. This is not correct: private hire vehicles are not ranking simply because they are parked awaiting a booking".


Well Mr Howard it is illegal to park in a 24 hour bus lane, on double yellow lines, on zig-zag lines, on red routes or with two wheels on the pavement, even if you are a private hire driver.
Or are you saying that Private hire drivers are exempt from the law?

Dirty bomb threat 'more realistic'

A report by Thomas the Taxi...

The terrorist group al Qaida is likely to fragment in the coming years but an attack on Britain involving chemical or nuclear weapons is now "more realistic", the Government has warned.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith highlighted the danger posed by new technologies and failed states around the world as she published an updated counter-terror strategy.
The report - known as Contest 2 - is the first unclassified document to contain a detailed account of UK officials' assessment of the underlying causes of the terrorist threat and its likely future direction.
It contains a stark warning about the likelihood of an attack involving a "dirty bomb".

So WHY, after all the recent warnings about this type of attack and especially after the two car bombs left in central London, one outside Tiger Tiger, do we see , night after night, lines of illegally parked mini cabs.

Surely Westminster City Council and TFL should be taking notice of the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith stark warning.
Surly this insane practise of letting any vehicle other than a Licensed Taxi park wherever they like, has to stop.
It's no good after the fact shouting "We Told you so"

Something has to be done and seen to be done and it needs to be done NOW.

Granddad, England and St George……by Thomas The Taxi.

At last some good news from city hall. Mayor Boris has decided that this year we will all be able to celebrate St George’s day in a truly English style. With Morris dancers and groups of street actors performing the sonnets of Shakespeare who incidentally was born on St George’s day as was my Granddad George.

Despite the usual furious dissent from the loony lobby and PC contingent on the London assembly, he wants to make this a huge event that will rival the St Patrick’s Day and New Years Eve parade’s.

This will be a chance, at long last for the good people in London to put behind them the stress and worry of the recession and finally celebrate their national pride without being made to feel guilty.

When Londoners’ used to complain to the previous mayor, Ken Livingston, he always said that there was no call by the public to celebrate our patron saint.

Well Boris will not be swayed by the apologists and is planning large events all over the Capital.

This has now started a land slide of volunteers who have come forward to plan street parties, parades and public shows that will make this a day to remember.

So on the 23rd of April, when we see the flag of St George flying from City hall, I for one will be flying the flag on my Taxi, for Granddad, England and St George.

See article in The London Daily news

Add...is on Loo..... by Mickey T

Apparently, the directors of London's largest mini cab firm are not happy. After investing millions of pounds in a new fleet of Fords to compliment there old stock of VW's, it has been pointed out to them that their logo, since they were forced by the PCO to replace the Wash/wiper unit now reads ..."Add is on Loo".

Sounds a bit crappy don't you think?

Anyway they called a meeting earlier on this week to discuss where to stick a new logo. They should have just asked the Licensed Taxi Trade, we could have told them exactly where to stick it.

Look out for new logo soon then.

Exclusive...Volvo Engine Fires... by Thomas The Taxi.

Reports have been coming in to the Anderson Shelter, about an alleged series of engine fires similar to the recent TX4 fires. Only this time it is happening to the new Volvo S80. This is the chosen model of the Private hire company used by Virgin Airlines, picking up business customers to and from London and the airlines VIP lounge.
Now, the big question that is on all our minds is;

Will we see the Public Carriage Office pull all the PHV’s that use this model off the road as they did with the suspect TX4’s in the name of safety?
Or in the recent case of the missing rear wipe unit will PHV companies be treated more leniently and given months to sort this out in their own time?

Every day we find more evidence that there is one rule for then and another for us.
Level playing field, there never has been one.

Taken from the consumer affairs website, complaints about Volvo fires.
"The saddest part about my story is that NOTHING in the Volvo warned me I was ON FIRE!! To think what could have happened makes me sick and has given me many nights of nightmares."

Funny, haven't seen this story on ITN!

The Battle of Hanover......by ThomasThe Taxi

Last night the 19th of March 2009 in the early hours of the morning, we saw the first salvo in the "Take the work back Campaign" with the start of the battle for the Hanover Square rank.
It has become apparent that the Licensed Taxi rank beside the shelter has become a favourite touting spot for the licensed Private Hire operator, servicing the Club Jalouse'.
When I first arrived in the square I was confronted by seven PHV's and (believe it or not ) a silver TX2, who was sharing a flask of something hot with his friendly mini cab brothers.
I started to take photos of the license plates of the vehicles and was attacked by the drivers.
The clipboard johnny came to my assistance shouting "leave him, leave him, its what he wants, don't start anything".
There anger declined and they started clowning around shouting " come and take my picture and how much for an A4 print mate".
I then approached the driver of the silver TX2, who was wearing an LTDA land yard and had their logo emblazoned on his dash board, I asked him if he was OK and he gave me a torrent of threatening abuse.
I have never put in a complaint about another Taxi driver and I don't intend to start now.
But I must admit it left me feeling sick. There can be nothing worse than a collaborator.

After politely asking all the drivers to vacate the rank, which bought about gaffors of laughter, I drove around for a while till I found a Police car that did not seem busy. I asked the two officers for help and they were only to pleased to attend the situation in the square. By now I had been Joined by three other drivers from the LTDF taxi forum who have been monitoring this rank for some time. (Well done lads).
The female PC cleared the rank and most of the surrounding area of touts but not till she had been subjected to a rant about how they were licensed taxi's and had been told that they could legitimately use this rank as their own. (who by I ask).

As the Police vehicle left the scene the touts came back, although we had taxis parked on the rank for about half an hour, It wasn't long before we became completely outnumbered again.

This rank is going to be an ongoing trouble spot and someone is eventually going to get hurt.
Lets hope its not one of us!

The inaction of the local police, Westminster Council Transport manager, local councilors and TfL/ PCO can only lead to trouble breaking out at this establishment.
The License Taxi drivers of this great city are no longer content to sit back and take this from our administrators. They are fighting back.
Night after night I see more and more drivers winning back ranks and taking back work that these scabs have been stealing.

The worm has turned and revolution is in the air.

What we need is drivers to put their cabs between the touts and the exit to the clubs.

Lets take back the work from these scabs.

Time for a midnight drive-in?

Your Trade needs you.... By Thomas The Taxi.

When I leave home to start my nights work, I head for the Shepherds bush rank. When I get there, 9 out of ten times I find two or three PHV’s parked on this working rank.

After many arguments it appears that they really do believe they are in the right to stop on our ranks.

As the night progresses when it seems a bit quiet I look for a rank in the West End to conserve my fuel and energy, only to find most of the more popular ranks are gone, some temporary and some for good.

When Whitcomb Street became a building site, Westminster City Council and their parking attendants let West 1 cars use the Loading bay in Charring Cross Road and the double yellow lines just in front in Irvine Street facing Leicester Square for their illegal ranking activities.

This I find highly offensive, as I have in the past received a Parking ticket by CCTV for stopping on a loading bay in Chapel Street, Edgware Road to pick up a passenger. As my passenger was not classed as goods, my appeal failed.

Are Westminster planning any temporary Ranks for licensed Taxi's?

Every night it seems we notice more instances of double standards working against the Licensed Taxi trade.We are constantly reminded by the Logo on the back of Addison Lee vans which is obviously larger than the dimensions laid out in the TFL/PCO guild lines. Plus the missing wash/wipe unit that these vans were given three months to replace. Four months on and over a third still missing.

Licensed PHV’s parked outside every bar, club and restaurant, not just in the West end but even outside pubs in Kilburn High Road and Hollaway Road. Licensed Taxi’s are victimised by Local council CCTV, for having four cabs on a rank instead of three, dropping passengers on double yellow lines and stopping at cash machines not on red routs.

We have always given this capital city a first class service at absolutely no cost to the tax payer. We get no subsidies and are truly self financing. We pay fortunes in road tax and income tax . We also finance an army of support workers and yet they wont even let us stop to go to the toilet or take a rest break.

Our licensing authority is staffed by fast tracked ex-bus drivers who have no idea about this trade or its problems and seem to be of a mind to destroy us. Their spokesmen constantly gloss over our problems as if looking through the eyes of blind men.

The legend “Enough is enough” was the catchphrase of the Demo in February and has now been adopted in the media to sex up their copy.

Well do you mean it?

Have you really had enough?

Do you want to put an end to this persecution.

There has never been a more pressing time for the licensed taxi drivers to join a representative organisation. You have many to choose from;

The LTDA, The LCDC, Unite and The RMT are all recruiting members at the moment.

The LTCPR is different from the others as we are not a Union, association or a club. We do not offer legal protection, cheap holidays or try to get you off speeding tickets. In fact we don’t want you to leave you current representative organisation, we want you to belong to both.

Basically the LTCPR are a pressure lobby group that will use technology, to keep costs to a bare minimum, to make representation on your behalf, and run in tandem with other representative bodies.

We have already built ties with The LCDC, the RMT and the LTDF.

We have had great success with our first few campaigns.

Breaking news in a Taxi paper or magazine can be two or three weeks out of date by the time they go to press. We publish the same day on line.

It was the Anderson shelter that broke the story about Whitcomb Street. When we first posted this story no one else knew a thing about this rank, in fact it was myself who informed the LTDA by e-mail. They had no idea what was happening and never bothered to reply.

It was the Anderson Shelter that broke the news about the London Local Authorities and Transport for London (no.2) and its implications for the trade. All the others were completely in the dark about this issue.

It was the Anderson Shelter that broke the news about Shepherds Bush rank. Although the LTDA did know about the threatened revocation, they didn't think it worthy of saving and did nothing till we posted the story.

The Anderson Shelter was the first to complain about Addison Lees massive logo on the rear window and on their roofs. Plus the missing wash/ wiper arm that they were given three months to replace.

Action has been taken by the LTCPR on all these and many other pressing issues.

The one thing we will never do is ignore drivers who are not members, we will listen to and work with every one of you.

Now we need your support, download a subscription form today and help take the work back off the touts.

For under 9p a day, yes 9p a day you can make a difference. Help save the future of the London Taxi Trade, you know it makes sense.

Exclusive… Westminster Targets Taxis Again...by Thomas The Taxi.

After spending the best part of the last year explaining to the trade that they are not victimising the London Taxi trade in any way, it has now become very clear that the officers of the transport department at Westminster City Council Led by Martin Low, actually are.

Up until now the day men have been unaffected by ranking problems, but now they will feel the pinch as Westminster City Council have decided to up their assault on the London Taxi trade.
“Urban Clearway” no stopping signs are to be erected, marking out an area along the Harrow road west bound from Edgware Road to the round-about at Bishops Bridge, in an attempt to stop Taxi’s waiting to feed on to the Paddington Station rank. This will be enforced by the “Metal Mickey” car and eventually CCTV cameras.

Westminster City Council have been seen to bend over backwards to facilitate the ever increasing hoards of late night private hire drivers who rank up illegally wherever they feel the need. The latest venue for an illegal rank being the Hanover Square licensed Taxi rank. This illegal rank has been given the blinkered treatment by parking civil enforcement officers and the police alike, even after a campaign run from within the London Taxi Drivers Forum.

I will not reiterate the list of illegal ranks currently spreading over the City and West end as we all know exactly where they are, you would have to be blind not to notice them. But I am constantly amazed on weekend nights to see the amount of touting, illegally parked licensed Private Hire cars in Regent Street and the Haymarket. Surely the buses complain?

Hear what John Kennedy said on the big George show about Westminsters Traffic management.

To add to the flames of injustice, this morning, along with the rest of the licensed taxi trade, I received a letter from Ed Thompson giving us an update of the current TFL/PCO and Met Police anti touting program.

This update mentioned that in an operation that cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, over 100 police and support officers with help from the PCO enforcement department, manage to arrest only five touts on one of the busiest Friday nights so far this year.
Perhaps the TOCU squad need to review their operational approach, as this one is definitely not working and is seen to be a waist of public funding.

The attached letter also mentions marshalled ranks, rest ranks, the fare increase, stopping at ATM’s, TX4 fires and Mercedes Taxi’s…

No to Clause 34 but Yes to the 3rd Way... by John Kennedy.

What a week for the London taxi trade and what a week for Ltcpr, yes the London Local Authorities and Transport for London (no.2) Bill was up in front of the “opposed bill committee” of the house of Lords and maybe we have at last a glimmer of good news for it was made clear to the committee it is not the intention to license “pedicabs/cycle rickshaws” under section 6 of the “Metropolitan Public Carriage Act of 1869” now if this is to be the case they will not be deemed to be hackney carriages, however I think this may well be the end of any good news for now.

Westminster City Council and Transport for London intend to seek powers to allow them to enforce parking laws and moving traffic offences against the owners of the “pedicabs/rickshaws”, now again this seems a reasonable idea until you read the “uncorrected minutes” of this committee and realise because nobody from the taxi trade petitioned against this clause in the bill, none of the members of this committee heard evidence of rear wheel collapses, accidents, lack of impact protection from side, rear or head on and the complete disregard the riders of these objects have for the roads at present, nor the recent death in the USA which just happened to be on the front page of a edition of taxi newspaper recently.

It is the intention of Westminster City Council and Transport for London to introduce a voluntary scheme which they hope the owners of “pedicabs/rickshaws” will join, the issue of Criminal Record checks was discussed but the act in its present form does not deal with this issue and again it would appear that this could form part of the voluntary code the said authorities wish to set up. On a personal note due to the fact that this trade failed to petition against clause 34 I feel it necessary to say I shall do so and will be asking many of you to join me and support a petition to the house of Commons where this bill will be deposited soon after the proposed amendments have been agreed by all parties concerned and the “opposed bill committee” passes this legislation for a third reading in the house of Lords. Once the bill is deposited in the house of Commons we shall only have a window of ten days to petition Parliament.

We shall oppose this bill and here follow some of the grounds based around public safety ;

(1) The said objects know as “Pedicabs/cycle rickshaws” offer no impact protection from side, rear or head on ( transport research laboratory report commissioned by the LTDA.).

(2) That they offer no facility for disabled passengers and are unable to carry assistance dogs in a safe manner and therefore unable to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act.

(3) That “pedicabs/rickshaws” are not “green” and in fact hold up legitimate public transport and other road users and therefore negate any benefit they may be perceived to have over motorised transport providers and users.

(4) A voluntary code of conduct is unenforceable and workable for example, Transport for London and Westminster City Council fail to deal with the ongoing problem of mini-cab touting and illegally parked cars within the West End of London.

(5) No provision is made within the bill or clause 34 to deal with those operators who do not sign up to voluntary scheme and therefore this clause is impractical and unworkable.

Now I’m sure after the trade organisations see what is going to be proposed they too will petition parliament and say “No to Clause 34” but it will be interesting what sort of reaction we see from our relevant trade bodies and maybe even the new RMT taxi branch. But to sit back and remain silent will only give the impression to members of both houses of parliament that we don’t mind what is being proposed.

I do though believe there is a way forward with this problem, a third way ( not third world ) because maybe if these objects or “pedicabs/cycle rickshaws” were taken off the public highway and placed in a confined area which had easily recognisable boundaries they could provide a service to some people in a safer environment where the chance of impact or serious accident would be greatly reduced. This area in central London could consist of the Royal Parks of Hyde, Regent’s, St James’s and Green, out of these four parks only Hyde as a significant amount of traffic however a pretty decent and wide cycle track is provided.

For the 3rd Way to progress clause 34 of this bill will need to fail or be withdrawn, for this to happen we need to persuade our politicians that to place unsafe objects on the public highway makes a mockery of all the laws they pass to ensure people are not injured or ultimately die on the public highways of this nation.

“No to Clause 34 but Yes to the 3rd Way”.

John Kennedy Ltcpr...

PS It was mentioned in the uncorrected minutes that a EU regulation may be allowing electric motors to be fitted to these objects for the purposes of delivery of mail, ( some post offices use them for mail deliveries ) this may well have implications that further complicate matters or not, on this point we shall have to wait and see.

Red Nose Day 2009

Stormcab, Justin Sneddon, has made another great Video. If you appreciated his review of the Merc Taxi, then please show your appreciation by sponsoring him.
Its very simple, takes about a minuet and believe me takes your mind off our troubles for a while.
Follow the link just click here and show your support to this great fellow driver who has,
again put himself out for someone else.

No to section 34

by John Kennedy.

Will this be the next demo in Trafalgar Square?

Yes right now a piece of legislation is being discussed in the house of Lords, included within this bill under section 34, subsections 2 to 9, is the provision to licence “pedicabs” under section 6 of the Metropolitan Public Carriage Act 1869, yes the same piece of legislation that licences you and me as taxi-cab drivers.

The bill in question is the “London Local Authorities and Transport for London ( no.2 ) Bill” this was originally placed before parliament in 2007 however on the 19th November 2008 this bill was suspended, yet here we are with a new administration in London and this piece of legislation rears its ugly head again and due to none of our trade associations raising objections to this bill it is now at a committee stage within the Lords. It is ironic that the only people objecting to section 34 of this bill are the operator and two manufacturers of pedicabs, so we or I must ask why our trade associations, especially the two who had the ear of the previous Mayor did not object to pedicabs been considered to be licensed as “London taxi-cabs” ? I must say the LTDA have run a excellent campaign in the past with posters but this must be backed up at board room level of transport for London and surely a petition against this bill ( section 34 ) been placed before parliament.

What can we do as taxi-cab drivers to stop this madness, yes it is madness because who would class a three wheeled bike with a bench attached as a London taxi-cab, but only our parliament because they think we have been consulted with, they see no objections from any of our trade associations and therefore only come to a conclusion that we don’t mind, well I do and I know you do to. Spread the word and the emails in fact we need to bring this to the attention of the secretary of state for transport again. It is a must you contact your MP otherwise don’t come crying when a pedicab is sitting on a rank in front of you !

No to section 34, pedicabs are not taxi-cabs !
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Sir,
presently before parliament a bill is being debated at committee level within the house of lords and section 34 of the London Local Authorities and Transport for London ( no.2 ) Bill intends to grant powers to transport for London which will allow them to licence “pedicabs” or “rickshaws” as London taxi-cabs.Section 34, subsection 8 will empower transport for London to license these objects under section 6 of the Metropolitan Carriage Act 1869, the very same legislation which allows me to ply for hire in a purpose built wheelchair accessible non-smoking taxi-cab.I have not been consulted on this matter and this will make a mockery of legislation designed to licence taxi-cabs and not three wheeled objects.I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Send this email to Geoff Hoon sec of state dept of transport and the Mayor, plus Peter Hendy, and Kulver Ranger
Click here for email address

For update click here

Dublins Fair city, the same problem as London's Taxis

Thanks to dw and Collinthecabby
A good friend of ours rang his daughter who is in Dublin and guess what, the taxi drivers are having a demo against illegal operators. The sound of horns was deafening, good luck to them.

If you want to know Dublin's problems, Click Here.

1) The taxis were de-regulated some years ago and went from c.2,000 (at c£100,000 each )to c.20,000 ( at c£6,000 each ) in no time
2) The Govt is still issuing plates to anyone who has £6,000 - like they did with the worthless Eircom phone company shares
3) 'Refugees' from Africa started arriving and were allowed to drive taxis - they haven't a clue where simple destinations are and ask the customer to input the street name on the GPS !!!!( They also ignore 'custom and practice' / gentlemanly behaviour that used to exist, if they see a 'fare', they will jump across 3 lanes of traffic to get there first )
4) The 'enforcement' of taxi regs was taken off the Garda(Police ) Carriage Office and given to the new 'Taxi Regulator' - but they haven't the power to stop taxis in the street like the Gardai had ( and you thought Fr. Ted was comedy - it's reality TV in Ireland !! )
5)The protests are about; i) Wanting the Govt to stop issuing taxi plates. ii) Wanting proper enforcement / fines against drivers who are using forged documents. iii) Lack of rank space in the city, I think c 1000 spaces for c 20,000 taxis.

Recent example of Loonies /asylum behaviour in Dublin- 2 drunk girls were charged €50 for a €15 journey by a black African driver, they called the Gardai ( Police ) to complain about the fare, Gardai arrest THEM for being drunk. In court the Judge comments that the €50 fare 'SEEMED EXCESSIVE', but nobody prosecuted the driver !!!

Exclusive! Westminster give West1 cars a new rank...

By Thomas the Taxi
West 1 cars have been given a new and better placed to rank, by Westminster council.
No prizes for guessing who is behind this new rank?

As Whitcomb Street has become a building site and unsuitable for touting and illegal ranking, Westminster City council has decided to let this Private Hire company, form an illegal rank, on double yellow lines in Irvine Street, with a feeder style rank in the loading bay on Charring Cross road.

Why are Westminster City Council bending over backwards to accommodate this particular Private Hire company?
What connections does this company have with WCC?

This comes from a council, who;

a. will not let taxis stop at cash machines,
b. will give drivers CCTV parking tickets in Great Cumberland Place, for dropping off passengers on double yellow lines.
c. Will penalise drivers for helping the old and disabled.

This is a direct insult to the whole of the cab trade. I myself have received a CCTV ticket for picking up a fare in a loading bay and for dropping a wheelchair passenger on double yellow lines who I then helped into a lift.
Now they are letting mini cabs, illegal ply for hire again, in a better location, in the heart of the West End. In fact this rank is bettered placed than the licensed taxi rank in Charring cross road.
....................................................................................................................

Also...
The results are in now from the big high visibility enforcement operation, that took place in the heart of the West End a fortnight ago.
100 officers from a mixture of; the Tcou Squad, PCO enforcement, Immigration, and social security, stopped just over 200 motorists, including Licensed Taxi's and PHV's in this much publicised charade.
Just 25 arrests were made in this massive PR exercise, but the most worrying fact, only 5 mini cab drivers were arrested for touting.
This operation was the PCO's and TFL's answer to the mass demonstration that took place on 5th February, when Taxi drivers said "enough was enough" about the level of touting seen openly on the streets of the capital night after night.
100 strong team = 5 arrested touts;
Something is wrong with the mode of operation that the licensing authority have adopted.
With high visibility stops, in the age of the SMS text, its is not surprising that touts manage to avoid this road stops.
Just seconds after the Tocu squad set up a stopping point the text goes out to thousands of touting PHV drivers.
What is needed, is a completely new approach, where small teams of plain clothed offices in unmarked cars target known hot spots, where they can observer and then arrest the clipboard men and drivers seen constantly, openly, touting.
This must be done on a regular basis, at the very least twice a week and can be easily financed by the PHV drivers through their license fees.

Rickshaw ranks, its official

Martin Low finally admits that Westminster Council is pushing the PCO to license Rickshaw bikes. After months of denying this fact and under the guise of making the streets safer, he has said in an article published in the Taxi Globe,

"We have lobbied hard for the powers to fix this. Westminster City Council and Transport for London (TfL) are promoting provisions in the London Local Authorities and Transport for London (No. 2) Bill to give TfL authority to allow some enforcement action aligned to some form of licensing or registration system for pedicabs. Ultimately, the idea would be that as a result of this Bill becoming an Act, the PCO would introduce a licensing or registration scheme and the City Council could then enforce against contraventions of moving or parking controls."

Will these rickshaws be Wheelchair accessible?
Will they be able to accommodate a guide dog?
Will they have side, front and rear impact protection?
Will they have lights, unlike the one's being ridden round the West end at present?
Will the PCO and Westminster City Council come to their senses or are the blinded by pound signs?


Martin Low, having made a complete hash of the Private hire mini cab rank in Whitcombe street, now wants to put rickshaw ranks around the West End. This from a council that has been removing licensed taxi ranks, with the help of the PCO for many years.
We have lost all the ranks in the middle of the road in Shaftsbury Avenue, the large feeder rank in the Strand which was replaced with a smaller one, the middle of the road rank and feeder was removed from outside the Hippodrome and moved to Cranborne Street. Now drivers on point sit their and watch passing cabs stopping for passengers who won't cross the busy road.
The feed to Cranbourne Street has been removed and now at a point in time when rank spaces are at a premium, Wardour and Leicester Square rank is gone.


"I am currently looking at creating pedicab bays for responsible operators in the West End."

This action will be at the expense of the Licensed Taxi trade. The work that will be poached, will be the short jobs that are the stable bread and butter of the Taxi trade.

"The long term solution is either a total ban on pedicabs or a licensing and enforcement regime, which will enable the Council and Transport for London to stop the problem of rogue operators getting onto our streets in the first place".

After the mess that TFL and the PCO have made of licensing mini cabs with the lack of enforcement that followed, no one connected with the Taxi trade would trust the PCO/TFL to do this.
Martin Lows made some sense however when he said "The long term solution is either a total ban on pedicabs"

and that's where he should have stopped.

Pedicab deathtraps have been banned in an increasing number of US states and we believe they should be banned in London not licensed.
We have, over the pass couple of years seen the damage that this administration of Westminster Council has inflicted on the good people of London. Under the pretence of safety and traffic solutions we have seen major roads narrowed to ridicules levels. Traffic lights and road signs springing up like weeds left to fester in an unattended garden. Completely unnecessary no right turns and no left turns with CCTV cameras raking in multi million pounds from unsuspecting, confused, motorists.
Even when drivers are completely in the right and appeal against tickets, this City council still waists public money by turning down appeals and make the recipients go right to the wire with the adjudicator.
London has become a dictatorship with the importance put on revenue raising above safety.
We have to keep our heads up and make sure that when the local elections come around, those reasonable for this financial attack on the residents and visitors to this once great city, are removed. We must make sure that the people we elect to govern this borough are willing to get rid of the officers who put money above safety.

Help stop rickshaw's being licensed
If you feel as strongly as we do, join in the campaign
to stop this bill in its tracks,
Click here

What is happening with Boris?

by John Kaponi of the London Daily News

The London Daily News consistently supported Mayor Johnson in his pre-election campaign against the then incumbent Ken Livingstone who was seen as promoting the ridiculous and the in some cases extreme left politics, ahead of the greater good of London.

Today the gloss has been taken off Mayor Johnson with a worrying trend that must be addressed by the Mayor himself. The nitty gritty stuff of City Hall is now becoming even more important when you consider the failure for example by TfL under Mayor Johnson to continue working during the snow, the continued problems on London's public transport system and the failure by Mayor Johnson to purge "Livingstone" appointments from City Hall.

The large drive-in by London's black cab drivers should serve as a warning to Mayor Johnson that this group of loyal supporters is about to turn on City Hall if the serious allegations made about TfL are not addressed. Primarily the criticism centers on the allegations that individuals who are within the inner circle of the Mayor are working to undue his work by failing to deliver on manifesto promises.

Mayor Johnson must play the "small-politics" game as Ken Livingstone did during his two-term stay in office in order to win over London. If Mayor Johnson is seen by the people of London as someone who is not interested in grass roots issues like roads, transport, crime, then there is no real chance of substantive change in the way the capital is run.

We need leadership and courage by Mayor Johnson in these tough times, and there is no point playing it safe. Be bold Boris and we will all hail you Prime Minister one day!

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The Anderson Shelter Would like to welcome a new viewer Click Here
posted by Thomas The Taxi

London Daily news; Hacked.

The London daily news website was hacked on Thursday 19 February and we have now managed to restore the site online. Continual maintenance is now taking place.

The London Daily News was established by a group of people who care passionately about London. We sometimes publish stories that the "mainstream media" will not touch, and therefore we have been the target of continual attempts to attack our site.

Our servers have been upgraded and we will be launching London Daily News 2.0 in the next 6 weeks with London Daily News TV appearing on Sky in the next 6 months.

London deserves a better online presence and the status-quo is not acceptable, our figures reached 200,000 unique hits per day before the site was hacked, we will now work to restore this, and push for more people to use our site.

Please continue to support our efforts, we appreciate all your comments and look forward to your input into making The London Daily News a pioneering and outstanding news outlet for London.

Best Wishes
John Kaponi
Editor-in-Chief