Mass Demonstration, Wednesday 17th November

Press Release
United Cabbies Group
Demonstration
17th November 2010
3pm Oxford Circus

London’s Licensed Taxi drivers are holding a drive in demonstration to highlight the problem of satellite mini cab offices in Central London.

A satellite minicab office is defined as a branch of a traditional minicab office that is placed in the lobby of a night club or restaurant etc. Today this is not the case. It is possible to open a satellite office without being an established minicab operator and there are offices in newsagents, kebab shops and even stairwells of blocks of flats.

They were originally set up under the Safer Travel at Night Scheme as an alternative method of getting people home from Central London at night.

At the time it was obvious to London Licenced Taxi Drivers that this was a poorly thought out idea especially in the light of the failed terrorist attack at Tiger Tiger night club on The Haymarket.

What we did not know at the time was that the police division (TOCU) which was established to enforce the law was tasked with finding suitable venues for these sites. We believe that they are not clamping down on these venues as they were complicit in putting them there in the first place and are embarrassed to admit their own mistake.

These establishments are now at epidemic levels and are completely out of control. In their own documentation, TFL have published figures that show rapes and sexual assaults are up 54% in licenced and unlicensed minicabs. It is our belief that the vast majority if not all are directly related to these venues. They are so concerned about this statistic that in their consultation about tightening up the private hire industry they have suggested the following:



Driver Proposal 5

That TfL introduces a condition in private hire drivers’ licenses that ‘Drivers must not make any remark of a sexual nature to a passenger. Licensed drivers are not permitted to become involved sexually, or have sexual contact, even with consent, whilst in a licensed vehicle.’


http://ucg-london.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/PH-Consultation-Oct-2010.pdf


The London Taxi trade is rightly highly regulated and this is one of the reasons that it is voted the best taxi trade in the world year after year.

In contrast to that we have a minicab service in London that has been licenced since 1998 but has virtually no enforcement of the regulations from the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998.

So whilst on a daily basis London’s Licenced Taxis are stopped by TFL officials or the police for petty checks, such as missing ashtrays in the passenger area, minicabs have been given carte blanche to do as they please, such as touting for business, parking on Taxi Ranks and so on.

This has led to an intolerable situation in London at night where a scheme set up under the banner Safer Travel at Night has led to an increase of 54% of sexual assaults in licenced and unlicensed minicabs.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/archive/16746.aspx

Minicab licenses are being dished out like sweets at a rate of over 400 per month. Minimal background checks are being carried out on those drivers who are coming from overseas. It was Ken Livingstone, who said on his radio show during the last demonstration when challenged on this, pointed out that “they (TFL) do their best to check everyone”. Indeed in the consultation document http://ucg-london.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/PH-Consultation-Oct-2010.pdf
page 9 section 4.2 TFL states the following:

Not all countries provide a Certificate of Good Conduct, and where provided the information is generally of less detail than that contained in the Enhanced CRB check. There is also concern that Certificates of Good Conduct from some countries may be not based on as thorough and rigorous checks as those checks conducted via the CRB process. This leaves a risk that Transport for London may not be aware of convictions or misconduct by people who have lived overseas

In other words if you have committed rape in another country you are given the opportunity to do the same in London. Just get a minicab license.


The main problem with these satellite offices is the safety risk to Londoners trying to get home at night. But there are other issues such as:

• Assaults on Licenced Taxi Drivers as they go about their lawful business of plying for hire. These assaults can be verbal, being spat at or even physical assaults
• Passengers being ripped off by vastly inflated fare up to 5 times the legal metered fare in a licenced taxi
• Minicab drivers arguing and fighting with each other to get the better fares.
• Clipboard operators outside these venues touting and harassing people to get in their cars

It is our opinion that the experiment of satellite offices has not worked and according to TFL’s own figures is likely to have resulted in over 1000 young men and women being sexually assaulted or raped in these vehicles since the inception of this scheme.

We believe that this makes a mockery of the slogan ‘safer travel at night’ and that there is no such thing but is really to empty the streets of London at night at a cost that is justifiable to the authorities.

TFL have created a monster that they cannot control This scheme cannot be policed effectively and should be scrapped immediately and the authorities should sit down with us and discuss a more enlightened approach to what is in reality a problem for a few hours on a Friday and Saturday night.

We apologise to our fellow Londoners for this disruption but we are at the start of the party season and we cannot sit back and watch this mess with a clear conscience.