The recent action by the LCDC is very worrying.
For years it had been fighting minicabs, but now it appears it has changed its target to yellow badge drivers and some of its officers are reported as calling them 'like scum' and making what appear to be false allegations about the scale of the offending.
Is this what they mean by their 'Trade Unity' slogan?
Has the LCDC now become part of the reporting arm of TfL through their 'cosy' relationship with John Mason?
From what they write in their own newspaper this conclusion could easily be drawn.
Quite why any yellow badge driver would join or remain in the LCDC must surely come into question.
Any yellow badge driver who violates the terms of their licence must face the legal consequences if they are caught doing so and the same applies to green badge drivers.
We all know that green badge drivers are not paragons of virtue as they go about their daily work on London's streets. If they were we would not need so many trade groups to represent them, would we? But are the LCDC Committee going to target them too? It is time the LCDC recognised this as they seem to use yellow badge drivers as their whipping boys and not the much more serious and damaging minicab threat.
Are yellow badge drivers just considered an easier option?
We do not need our trade driver representative organisations to become part of the enforcement.
As someone has already said 'Who do they actually represent?'
Whoever it is, their membership numbers must surely be in serious decline over recent events as this once highly regarded and respected organisation seems to have lost all sense of purpose and direction under the current leadership. Even some of its officers have reportedly left. Something is clearly not right there.
It will not be lost on John Mason when he sees that this organisation may be quite happy in its seemingly false newspaper reporting, to 'shop' its own members or other taxi drivers for whatever reason. They may be John Mason's current ally, but he will at least see them for what they have become.
What a great shame it has come to this with this organisation seemingly going into self-destruct mode through lack of good leadership and poor decision making.
Do we now need to be protected from our own driver representative groups?
Well Editor,
ReplyDeletePerhaps that's whats needed a trade organisation to repesent the drivers against the clubs officers and maybe the others in the UTG!!!!
Those trade organisations that are not tarnished are out there.
Think clearly folks.
It seems to be US (the working Cab Driver Green or Yellow) and Them (TfL's tame stooges)!
TAKE YOUR HARD EARNED MEMBERSHIP FEE ELSEWHERE!
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThe yellow badge issue is being badly misrepresented through exaggeration and scaremongering or even sheer malice in an effort to make a case that doesn't really stand up to scrutiny.
To make a case against them it seems a few zealots have claimed there were 400 YB drivers a week working out of their sector but with no evidence to back up these dubious claims.
Even if the figure was say 100 a week then how does that massively undermine our trade when there are probably nearer 10,000 unlicensed minicabs and perhaps thousands of licensed minicabs doing our work for us. There is no real comparison - just prejudice.
If anyone feels so strongly about the minicabs why not tell them to do the knowledge if they want to work in town.
The whole issue of YB drivers stealing so much of our work is a nonsense and it seems much of the case made against them is done out of sheer ignorance of the facts. If every single YB driver, all 3,400 of them, decided to work in town then it still wouldn't massively undermine us to the extent that the miniscabs are, but then there are some in denial amongst us who don't want to recognise this even if it was shoved up their nose.
I suppose it's easier to report a YB than it is a minicab driver and pretend that YB's really are undermining us when the reality is somewhat different. Doing this is a a cop-out.
The point about YB's not knowing where they are going in town is misrepresented and a bit naive as it is true the other way round. Green badge drivers are usually out of their depths in many suburban areas, especially around Heathrow Airport and that is why so many drivers used to broom local jobs simply because they didn't know how to get to Harlington library or some similar destination. Or that was their excuse.
If a GB driver gets ajob down to East Dulwich and he stops for someone in Lordship Lane on his way back to town and the passenger wants to go to Catford, the outcome is probably predictable with the driver thinking 'I ain't doing that it's YB work' and brooms it.
Green badge drivers still regualrly broom jobs even in central London and I suspect that these refusals and other offences far outnumber any offences YB drivers are currently being accused of.
There aren't double standards going on here is there? Isn't it more like the kettle calling the copper black?
The yellow badge system came into being in 1937 simply because green badge drivers were either incapable or unwilling to do work out in the suburbs. With a few exceptions some things never seem to change much.
Sad news is emerging as long serving founder members of the LCDC are resigning as Grant Davis has become no more than a Masons grass.
ReplyDeleteI myself have resigned of late.
Davis has been using the services of a serving officer in the City of London Police (who's name we have) and another serving officer in the Cab enforcement section of LTPH (who's name we will acquire soon). With their help Davis has directed a personal vendetta against suburban drivers calling them scum under an assumed ID.
Both officers are currently on the knowledge and have been given honoury membership with promises of committee posts when they pass out.
The action of these serving Police officers is misconduct in a public office.
A complaint is to be made to the Police complaints authority Chair, Boris Johnson and Deputy Chair Jenny Jones.
A document is currently being put together that implicates Davis and officers in LTPH in a multi agency conspiracy against the taxi trade.
This years AGM at the jammy dodger factory should be very exciting.
I am no supporter of GRANT DAVIS or the way he behaves,in fact I would go as far sas say the sooner he is banished to the LCDCs history the better,But however how many times have we heard sort out your own back yard before you moan about someone elses,So surely by tackling this yellow badge issue is some way of doing that,
ReplyDeleteFirst you attack the LTDA, then it was the turn of the Unite group, and now its the LCDC.
ReplyDeleteAll of this is because you have about 37 members left in the RMT branch.
Get a fecking life away from your computer pal.
What Grass Davis fails to realise is John Mason is just a mercenary and will be gone before you know it. Then he will be well and truly f**ked because he will have no members and a trade that considers him a Judas. You makes your bed....
ReplyDeleteThere is a new dimension emerging that is tipping the balance towards change in our trade
ReplyDeleteThey are the new blood in cab trade politics.
They are intelligent,capable and determined to represent the London Cab Trade at a level that hasn't been seen in many, many years.
The UCG and RMT are the ONLY two organisations out there that you can rely upon to watch your back, FACT!
The RMT union has benefits that are second to none.The UCG not yet consolidated, but this will happen very soon,they both offer the chance to belong to something new and exiting.
At the moment its free and very easy to join the UCG; this membership combined with legal cover offered by Mr.Alan Fleming, is both value for money and piece of mind.
There is change coming whether the recognised trade org's and LTPH like it or not!
Its time to belong to something that will take us all into the future and let go of non-existent representation that many out there are giving their hard earned money to!
The cab trade is being run by old men.
ReplyDeleteLook at any copy of TAXI and read the articles: Alf and tales of yester-year; Al Fresco and his stories of his grandchildren; Brad Ashton and his awful jokes more suited to the music halls of the 1920's than the 21st Century - it is men like these that are dictating how the cab trade is run, the worse culprit being Bob Oddy.
we need to move into the 21st Century and quickly, we're being left behind and youngsters like Grant are being manipulated by the older guys into thinking that our reputation alone will stop us becoming surplus to requirements - guess what? no one owes us a living and smart operators like John Griffin are eating us alive!
The radio circuits are the same, not one of them has had the sense to put their hands in the pockets and get an app developed for smartphones, preferring instead to use their finances to buy up minicab companies! meanwhile AL has a "taxi" app out on the iPhone and the users tell their friends how they can book their "taxi" from the comfort of the pub of their living room.
We should be targeting the young guys with disposable income and a handle on all things techie, instead we gripe about nonsense like a few canaries encroaching on our work but at the same time ignore the elephant in the room!
It's time for members of ALL groups to ask the old blood to move aside and let the new blood carry us forward.
Yellow are at it in massive numbers every weekend, sw3 sw6 w8 is saturated with Yb stealing work...no wonder Saturdays and Sundays during the day you cant get a job !
ReplyDeleteIf this Id issue is scrapped now, then the YB army will be up her in force every single day, they will think the issue has been put on hold for ever and the quick way to work town will be to do the yb.
@ can i be honest,
ReplyDeleteJ Griffin and addi/lee,are not the problem,Its the whole of the PHV trade,
The only reason they are doing well is as soon as a PHV issue comes up,so does his name,Why is only addi/lee ever mentioned and not Brunel,Lewis Day or even The Geen Tomatoe company.Dont you realise we are giving him what he wants free publicity.If we had not kept on about J Griffin and Addi/Lee in the first place do you think he would have got the medias attention,No he would just have been a mini cab operator,And by reports not a very good one at that.
WHY? are the Lcdc squealing like pigs over the YB issue. Yet the bigger threat to our trade is the hidden agenda behind STaN and WHY are they neglecting to put the story in the badge.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they just love to squeal. Badge of shame!!!
Just chilling out enjoying Sunday with my family. Thought I would have quick look and catch up on what is going on in the trade and now I feel sick. Cab driver against cab driver and a totally warped position we are in.Ffs what has this trade become!
ReplyDeleteSo what did you expect yeading lane,the idea of the site,its so cab drivers can put thier points of view across,I dont know what world you live in because in my 58years on this planet,i have never met any group of people that all agree with everyone,unles they have been smoking wacky baccy,but you did say you were chilling so?
ReplyDeleteQuestions need to be asked about the relationship between Davis,Sullivan and co and Helen Chapman and John Mason.This id scheme has been cooked up by these four at an unminited meeting with no suburban representation.The YB situation can be solved by regular badge and bill checks at different locations.
ReplyDeleteLTPH are now well aware of the problem in respect of a few suburban drivers working outside their sector.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing is that most green badge drivers don't even know the areas that suburban drivers are actually licensed for. I think they would get a surprise, so it might be worth obtaining this information before any more false claims are made.
The vociferous complaints seem to be coming from just a few yellow badge haters and is grossly exaggerated perhaps to suit their own political agenda or to try and defend their previous false claims and accusations.
As the imagined threat from yellow badge drivers is so small one wonders why they are getting so worked up about it.
The enfocement teams ARE sorting this out and yellow badge offenders, like green badge offenders, are being taken to task.
It sounds as if some of these overly-bitter complainers had their way they'd be out there doing their vigilante bit with pick-axe handles.
The trade focus should be on the real threat to our trade and that comes from certain sections of the LPH trade and the thousands of unlicensed minicabs TfL has indicated are at the root of the vast majority of the muggings, sexual assaults and rapes and appear to have increased in spite of the STaN Report, or perhaps even because of it.
And it must be remembered that this was the issue the three main trade representative groups refused to either support or attend on the recent successful demos and are reported as telling John Mason they would not support them.
However, there seems to be some in our trade who will not be happy until all suburban drivers have had their licenses revoked and their houses burnt down - such is the venom and seeming malice in the way they write.
To claim that yellow badges are massively underming us is a gross distortion of the true position. The figures the zealots give don't stack up - but we must not be fool enough to believe their false claims and exaggerated propaganda.
Wiser heads should prevail and give more effort at seeking out the REAL enemy in an effort at protecting our trade and the public and not be side-lined by any bigots trying to stir up hatred against other cab drivers.
you are a sophisticated rhetorate, inebriated by the exuberance of your own verbosity, born out of ignorance !
ReplyDeleteWhy won't grant davis talk about STAN?
ReplyDeleteDid he do a deal to stay silent in exchange for identifiers?
Demo now and again and again till we are told the truth where is the UCG why the silence? Has LCDC bought their silence too?
Yeading Lane said:
ReplyDeleteyou are a sophisticated rhetorate, inebriated by the exuberance of your own verbosity, born out of ignorance !
How very interesting - I wonder where you read this little ditty?
Even though you used these fine academic words, perhaps in order to impress others with your vocabulary, you were unable to capitalize and punctuate them properly. Oh dear!
Writing in this style actually makes this point about you. Why not try and defeat the arguments put forward rather than try and denigrate or try to ridicule the person who makes them?
Perhaps you can be so kind, and point out to us all, any single point in the statement where something has been written in ignorance or is untrue.
If you could bring yourself to do that perhaps a real debate could be carried out - or is that what you are afraid of?
It is not a crime to use 100 words when perhaps only 80 may have been sufficient, but for people like yourself perhaps a full explanation is necessary to make sure you cannot possibly misunderstand what is being said.
Okay the way I see it is,If YBs were doing it all right and staying in thier sectors then why are they so against the identifiers,Also not only will it stop YBs working in town,it will also stop them working in other sectors,For me it makes sense,As it stands at the moment whats to stop say an Ealing Driver working City Airport,and visa versa.Its a bit like the DNA debate,if you are doing nothing wrong what do you have to worry about
ReplyDeleteMassive numbers man said:
ReplyDeleteYellow badges stealing our work In massive numbers? How do you know this or is it just your belief? It has to be assumed you have evidence to support these accusations or is it just more of the propaganda garbage?
Everyone will be interested to learn how you identify these massive numbers in SW3, SW6 and W8 as you claim they go about stealing our work.
You’re not exaggerating again are you? Or are you now beginning to believe your own propaganda? Surely you took the plate numbers of the massive numbers of offending cabs and reported them. If not - why not? The way you describe it they must have been absolutely everywhere.
But can you let us all into the secret of how you spot them?
There can be no doubt that having coloured sector identifiers can be of great help here and I am sure it will be of great use in keeping down any opportunist interlopers.
Some drivers might object but no matter what system is employed it won’t please everyone, but clearly some system is required, to act if nothing else, as a deterrent and encourage suburban drivers to only ‘ply for hire’ in their own sector.
They are not our enemy – the minicab drivers are, but this point seems to escape you.
As someone else has already said frequent Badge & Bill checks can be very effective here.
Bring on the sector identifiers by all means - but please spare us all the childish nonsense you would have us believe. This identifier was suggested to the PCO more than 25 years ago before the LCDC was ever heard of. I still have the original correspondence.
Your scare tactics about yellow badges being here in hordes are unfounded and I think you know this.
What is surprising is that you never mentioned minicabs picking up in the street when a cab with a job in was hailed by a potential customer and couldn’t stop for them, but the minicab following behind the cab pulled in and offered HIS services. Funny that. With 10,000+ minicabs this is a much more likely scenario.
You have also not mentioned about the thousands of minicab drivers ranking-up in SW3, SW6 and W8, the west-end, the city and hundreds of other venues as though what they do is insignificant. Do you only have eyes for the relatively low offending of yellow badge drivers?
Methinks you doth protest too much. (Please forgive the Shakespeare misquote).
It seems the suburban driver issue is little more than a smokescreen to take the spotlight off why the sections of the STaN Report that are harmful to our trade are not being mentioned, discussed or even brought to the attention of taxi drivers at large via our trade papers.
Perhaps you can give us your views on the STaN Report or why it is being avoided like the plague as though you and our trade groups have never heard of it.
The UCG are never silent, and we are not for sale.
ReplyDeleteMassive numbers man said:
ReplyDelete"Okay the way I see it is,If YBs were doing it all right and staying in thier sectors then why are they so against the identifiers ..."
Suburban drivers pro rata are not breaching the terms of their licence any more than green badge drivers are, regardless of what you may think or say - why not check with LTPH?
The imposition of the 12 mile compellable distance was not brought about by the actions of yellow badge drivers but because of the many refusals by Green Badge drivers.
You have a peculiar point of view if you see yellow badge drivers as a serious threat to our livelihoods. Your arguments are clearly unsustainable and appear prejudicial and biased.
It is fairly obvious why some may be against the identifiers as no-one likes to be labelled in this way as though it is some sort of punishment and/or discrimination, even if it isn't.
Yellow badge drivers have had a very hard time in the last few years as the mincabs have encroached into their working lives in a way we are now seeing happening to us.
The Kingston saga with the 3 minicab booking kiosks was a deadly blow - and this is an area Green Badge drivers can ply for hire in - but Green Badge drivers were totally disinterested in it. In fact the LTDA was in favour of it. After it was all set up TfL announced that the pilot scheme at Kingston was successful and would be rolled out in many other London boroughs.
No doubt there are some yellow badge drivers who may wish to remain unidentifiable but I don't expect their point of view to be more than a minority one. They may also resent the fact that Green Badge drivers are getting a bit haughty and want to do them down - and judging by your viewpoint they may be right.
You might feel the same if minicab drivers were trying to do something similar to you - after all they are lobbying TfL and want all licensed cabs to have their two-way radios stripped out so that pre-booked radio jobs will be their sole right and we will only be allowed to do the street work.
To expand on your other point - Why don't all licensed cab drivers have their fingerprints taken and be asked to give a DNA sample just in case they commit a crime? If they have nothing to fear then why not?
Is that the sort of thing you are advocating with your line of reasoning? I hope not.
Where do you get this silly nonsense from?
What is to stop a Green Badge driver from picking up at Stansted, Gatwick or even Luton Airport which are all out of their area? I have heard drivers boasting that they have done this when setting down a job there and managed to 'nick' one. Are they like scum too?
What about the Green Badge drivers that set down at Heathrow and 'nick one' without going through the feeder park. They too are nicking your work or does stealing your work only apply to yellow badge drivers?
What about those Green Badge drivers who try to get in front of you - even overtaking you on the inside - just to 'nick' the next job along the road. Or, Green Badge drivers who pull out in front of you from a side street to make sure they are in front of you when they should, by rights, wait at the 'Give-Way' signs and pull in behind you?
So many drivers moan at this kind of conduct from cab drivers today - are all these offenders yellow badge drivers or do you just have a one-eyed view of those who you claim steal our work?
The STaN Report advocates having LPH marshalled pick up points - ranks - with the cars ranked-up outside the satellite offices with our representative groups not mentioning a word about it.
Whilst you play silly beggars over the yellow badge issue all this is going virtually un-noticed under our very noses and supported by TfL with our trade groups remaining silent.
Let's hear what you have to say about that.
With the ids can we as suburban drivers refuse a job that goes in to town ? I dont want to be beaten up by agressive green badge drivers every night im scared of the ids now ,will these police and grunt and fanny leave us in peace please .
ReplyDeleteWhen the first physical confrontation occurs(probably on day one)the reaction of Mason and Chapman will be very interesting.
ReplyDeleteWe as suburban drivers will hold Mason and Chapman accountable for any trouble caused within our trade we just dont need the hassle we work the suburbs not the town .
ReplyDeleteYou ask why, the issue ID arisen. Quickie knowledge mate, quickie knowledge. It has got around that you can be a taxi driver, and drive a taxi vehicle without the full London knowledge, after all the public will not know will they? They think they are getting into a black cab.
ReplyDeleteHere is how it works, choose an nice easy suburb sector, knowledge wise, pass it, get a nice approved taxi type vehicle then go and ply for hire up town.
Mr Quicke Knowledge said:
ReplyDelete"You ask why, the issue ID arisen. Quickie knowledge mate, quickie knowledge".
It's a pity you couldn't even say it properly.
You are beginning to sound like an obssessive and unable to digest what has previously been written. A closed mind perhaps?
The figures previously given do not support your child-like arguments and you are obviously avoiding talking about the STaN Report.
We can only guess who's pulling your strings.
The quickie knowledge for a Suburban driver takes up to 2 years to complete - some quickie knowledge that.
With 72,000 LPH now reported to be out there, (and only 3,400 yellow badge drivers over a 24 hour period)there is obviously enough work available for the huge fleet of minicab drivers; so they are growing at our expense as their work volumes increase and ours doesn't.
Is that what you want?
The demand for personal transport is growing and it looks like it is mostly being taken up by LPH as they grow and we stagnate by comparison.
They are outgrowing us at an alarming rate and all you worry about is a few yellow badge drivers. Are you mad?
As written elsewhere on the AS - If every new candidate doing a yellow badge did work in town the effect would still only be minimal to the threat posed by LPH/minicabs.
Tunnel vision is a terrible affliction and is harmful to the entire London taxi trade. With your kind of vision for our future you should be a prime candidate for a top-ranking position in the UTG.
So what has your argument got to do with a handful of allegedly offending suburban drivers? Can't you understand this?
The issue of drivers working out of their area is being seriously addressed but your venom is still there. Anyone thinking that the suburban drivers are a serious threat to green badge drivers and their income needs to go and lie down in a dark room.
Come on - be brave - tell us how long it took you to do the knowledge. The over-long London Knowledge is one of the reasons we have so many minicab drivers but have you got the brains to work that out for yourself?
Minicab drivers do NO knowledge at all and are out their pretending to be taxi drivers and some are mugging, sexually assaulting and raping lone females. Can you not see this this? Yellow Badges are not - so perhaps it's time you woke up to the reality and directed your poison and ill-considered points of view at the real enemy.
Dear Mr Angry 37 Members.
ReplyDeleteNo one pulling my strings mate. I am independent and independent minded. I will not fall for your self serving line. Your aim is to get as many member bums on seats as you can get. And your only growth area is yellow badges. Why? They know you will be fighting their corner at the expense of green badges, as you are doing now. Your angry post tells me I have caught and landed you into the keep net.
If takes 2 years for the yellow driver to complete a suburban sector shows why they will not take on the all London knowledge. They would be at it for ten years. The KOL can be passed with commitment to your bike, back door bandits
When Mr Angry 37 Members says that LPH:
“are growing at our expense as their work volumes increase and ours doesn't.”
So by adding yellow badges to the green badges areas will increase the work volumes for the green taxi trade? Don’t be daft! It makes matter worse for green badges but better for the quickie knowledge merchants who number your membership
Mr Angry 37 Members says: “As written elsewhere on the AS – [well that makes it gospel then] If every new candidate doing a yellow badge did work in town the effect would still only be minimal to the threat posed by LPH/minicabs.”
The answer to that is that the more it becomes general knowledge that the likes of you and your organisation support that yellow badges can circumvent the KOL and become black cab drivers working in town then new yellow badge candidates will grow and grow.
I tell you what, if all of this yellow badge effort sitting at a computer desk using blogs and inputs to the RMT and UGC were put into the knowledge and onto the bike their problems would be solved.
ReplyDelete