LTDA and the Sutton Fiasco... excerpts from the LTDF.

Question;

Have the LTDA at long last been embarrassed into doing something positive, or is this a load of tosh!

Answer;

The latest issue of Taxi carries a fairly accurate report apart from the LTDA's involvement..
Richard Massett attended the meeting but hardly spoke, the drivers pretty much represented themselves and did a good job.

After the first meeting the LTDA tried to go behind the drivers back to meet independently with the police to see if they could instigate there own marshaling scheme and took along a marshal from Kingston to tell the police how it would work.

The LTDA came into a lot of flak for this move from myself and other drivers.

So the story about the police wanting a rank and how it would operate is true, but the LTDA's involvement was not appreciated by the taxi drivers.

The little story about a minicab office is also true, but it is made to look like the LTDA was responsible for its planning rejection which is untrue. Obviously anyone who wanted to, could oppose the application and a lot of us did individually, including myself and incidentally the RMT also opposed it too on our behalf.

We thought it would be a considerable help having someone there who represented 9000 Taxi drivers(allegedly) and at the time I was an LTDA member so I invited Richard, along with Robin Gillis who was invited to point out to the police that what they were proposing was illegal.

Both Robin and Richard did not however, contrary to the comics report, point out that a minicab rank would be illegal. They did in fact agree that the rank at Kingston had set a precedent and therefore a rank at Sutton police station was legal.

Richard was only interested in getting his mates the contract for marshaling. This we only found out later after news of his secret meeting with Sutton police came out. This theory would not stand up in court, you cant change the law by implication of action.

After seeing Massett at work and getting very poor follow up information from him and the LTDA and then not being invited to attend a further meeting, it is fair to say we had a difference of opinion which resulted in me leaving that organisation.

Richard Massett was no help at all, even though his position in the largest taxi union means he must have loads of relevant experience - we didn't see any evidence of it.

Why anyone continues to pay a subscription to this organisation is beyond me. I am now, as a result of these meetings, one of their harshest critics.

Their performance in this episode is not something they should be proud of and shout about in the comic.

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It is suggested that they read PCO form 4325 'Abstract of Laws':
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/b....acts-of-Law.pdf

particularly the passage contained in the forward:

PHV drivers are not allowed to pick people up on the street or at stations or airports and can only carry out PHV bookings through licensed PHV operators. PHV drivers who pick up passengers that have not been booked through their PHV operators are plying for hire and are therefore committing the offence of touting for which they may be prosecuted and their PHV driver’s licence suspended or revoked.

Since December 2003, touting has been a recordable offence which means an offender can be fingerprinted and his DNA sample taken

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Posted by Jason Byrne