The Golden Fare Rank Returns....By Thomas the Taxi.

Golden Rank, concerns from Taxi drivers still not addressed

Last night , saw the re-introduction of the Golden Fare Rank at Coventry Street (as announced last week on this blog). TfL have offered to finance the marshaling for a further five weeks, although as the marshals have only been moved from outside Tiger Tiger, there should actually be no extra financial commitment.

As the night drew on, drivers reported that they were losing out as the meter was exceeding the Golden Fare. One of the schemes critics Peter Rose was given a trip to the Elephant and Castle which was priced at £20, the actual amount on the meter being £24, due mainly to road works at Elephant and Castle which were not factored in to the fixed price. Other drivers complaints were £30 to SW19 which went £37.60 and a couple of Wanstead jobs that exceeded the Golden Fare of £40 by as much as £8.

One driver Joe said that "it seems the boundaries have been moved and TfL have failed to include our recent fare rise into the pricing. Getting in an out of this part of London is a complete nightmare".

Joe told me he would only put on the rank if he was local in future, as there now seemed to be no incentive to drive passed potential passengers to get there.


Like Mr Rose of Unite I believe that to make this rank work it needs to be a directional rank, which would encourage many more drivers to make their way in the hope of a going home job. But apparently, that would need the full time assistance of a Police officer to work alongside the marshals, an expense too far for TfL to consider.


This is another example that London's iconic Licensed Taxis are beholden to an authority that has little understanding of the principles of how our trade functions. Virtually all of TfL's top officers come from a bus background and have no experience or understanding of the cab trade. When our concerns were raised at a transport select committee meeting, TfL's transport commissioner Peter Hendy arrogantly replied "they should get out more often".
We have recently seen a young lady appointed to fill Robin Gillis important position, who also comes from a bus company back ground.
TfL need to start recruiting from within the Taxi trade to fill important roles in the everyday running of our industry, not just the odd knowledge examiner. 

Tombland Marshal Scheme Could Damage Trade, says Norwich Cabby's....By Norwich Taxi Driver.


After fears that customers may chose other modes of transport rather than pay a new £1 fee to fund marshals at the Tombland rank, the Taxi drivers make it clear they are willing to pick up, iirrespective of whether customers have paid a levy or not.

Below is an email received from a Norwich Taxi Driver who has asked for his name to be with held for fear of victimisation.  

For the past 18 months to 2 years Norwich Council have contracted local security door staff, to marshal the Tombland Taxi rank, between the hours of 22:00 and 03:00 on Friday and Saturday nights.

Because of the economic climate it was recently decided by the council, that a ticket machine should be installed at the point of the rank for use when marshals were in attendance, the cost of a ticket being set at £1.

In return for purchasing a ticket customers would receive a voucher that would give them a pound off in certain local clubs & bars etc. 

Part of the planning conditions imposed on the granting of permission for the machine was that a sign would be placed informing people that the fee was voluntary.

Sure enough the machine was installed during March with a 'go live' date of 27th March. It must be said that although i believe the vast majority of drivers are willing to accept a fair and proper marshal scheme operating at this rank, what we will not accept is our customers having to fund their attendance. I have yet to come across a driver who was in favour of the ticket machines implementation.

Opposite this rank are 2 bus stops that maintain official rank status after 23:30 so it was decided by drivers that we would move over there as soon as it was legal to do so, and boycott the marshaled rank. It was obvious that we would have to monitor the hour and a half before then to try and keep problems to a minimum. So when a customer approached the rank and the marshals tried to 'persuade' them to buy a ticket, any driver in attendance would intervene and inform the customer that we would rather they didn't pay.

At 23:30 the rank was vacated and all cabs moved over the road, to the annoyance of the marshals. This annoyed them so much that the police were contacted and the officers were requested to make us move back!!! Luckily our police have some intelligence and the marshals were told this was not possible and we were within our rights. The marshals were so upset that they went home early and we returned to working the other rank. The rest of the night ran smoothly.

So 22:00 the next night, Saturday, came round and the marshals arrived. We planned the same course of action but in the 1 1/2 hour before we could move there were certain flash points. These stemmed from customers being told the charge was compulsory! When at 23:30 the Taxis moved to the Bus stop rank, the marshals again went home.

During the following week a meeting was called at city hall with various parties present. It also came to light that no business had signed up to the voucher scheme anyway, so it was being sold under false pretences!

I am given to understand that the driver’s reps were told that any repeat action on our part would lead to the marshals being withdrawn and that this would be detrimental to the trade.

So the following Friday (last weekend) came round and what would happen? Unfortunately I didn’t work but I am told it all kicked off again, insomuch as the marshals were phoning a private hire company to come and collect fares from directly in front of the rank. Touting and illegal plying obviously comes into play. The marshals did not turn up at all on Saturday night.

At the start of this week another meeting was convened and the scheme has supposedly been scrapped, but we shall see.

I am given to understand that the driver’s reps were told that any repeat action on our part would lead to the marshals being withdrawn and that this would be detrimental to the trade.

So the following Friday (last weekend) came round and what would happen? Unfortunately i didn’t work but i am told that it all kicked off again insomuch as the marshals were phoning a private hire company to come and collect fares from directly in front of the rank. Touting and illegal plying obviously comes into play. There weren’t any marshals at all on Saturday night.

At the start of this week another meeting was convened and the scheme has supposedly been scrapped, but we shall see.

There is a subtext that a complaint is supposedly being investigated that a lone young female passenger felt she was “intimidated and forced to pay the fee”. She was told by a marshal that it was for charity! But this is totally unsubstantiated at this point, so is in no way to be relied on.

The council has stated that if the scheme was successful, it would be rolled out across other city ranks.

Be safe and keep up the fight in London.