Its no good just sticking up a sign on a board...Its amateurish and tacky.
We need to be bold
We know its a Taxi rank, but no one outside of our trade has the foggiest. when we tell them that this loading bay, or that stretch of bus lane is a Taxi rank, they laugh and take no notice.
Even Police officers and PCSO's have had to call their station for guidance, traffic wardens have issued tickets and the touts ignore the rules as there is virtually no enforcement.
SHARED SPACES AS TAXI RANKS, DON'T WORK. THEY NEED MARKING OUT PROPERLY.
It has taken nearly two years to get a taxi rank outside the sketch club on Conduit Street (at the request of the club) and every night the touts abuse the shared rank and loading bay. Some nights it gets quite dangerous for licensed Taxi drivers as the touts becoming aggressive and threatening.
Amazingly the door staff tell the Taxi drivers to stop causing trouble and not to argue with their friends.
The door staff at this venue have been hit in the pocket, as work is slowly being won back by Taxis. The customers want us, the club owners want us (indeed they paid all expenses to get the sign post and TMO in place).
But TPH/PCO stopped short of marking out the rank properly, WHY?
They know it causes problems but still the ignore our requests.
 |
| Two of the worst offenders, there most nights. |
This is where we as a trade let ourselves down.Take the situation at The Sketch club,The management there want us,The doorstaff dont,What we need is one of the organisations to take this up with them,Staing clearly we cannot service the club,Because of threats made to us by thier own doorstaff.Another problem is as most of us are older we tend to think of the doorstaff on the same lines as the old time Bouncer,who took great pleasure in giving you a clump around the ear,Its no longer like that,The fact is they cant touch you,And have to call the Police,and they wont want to be doing that.So dont let them intimidate you.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me that London is being taken over by foreigners that come from parts of the world that do not have any respect for the law,and will act the same here,as i found out on t4 on friday with the threat of termination.
ReplyDeleteThe liberal scum that run this once proud land must be really proud???????????
Diversity i want to throw up.
Last year I had to wait outside sketch fo a radio job and was told by the door staff I can't park outside the club as it was the clubs private cab rank ..... Now it's a cab rank I have tried it a few times but passing black cabs don't no it's a rank as its not marked out and you can sit there watching people come out walk past you and flag down passing cabs till the sun comes up.....
ReplyDeleteIt has always been the policy that part time cab ranks are not marked out on the roadway-regretably
ReplyDeleteCab ranks are appointed solely by LTPH (no matter what Westminster City Council imply on occasions) although all local authorities are responsible for marking out the ranks on the roadway - at their expense
The local authorities are also responsible for the implementation of Traffic Managemment Orders (TMOs) for individual ranks - again at their expense.
Regretably there is no legislation in place which forces local authorities to comply with the above two requirements
It is all a matter of close liaison between LTPH, local authorities and the Cab Ranks Committee - which seems to be sadly lacking of late
If my understanding is correct, they don't even attend site meetings these days, it's all done from sketch plans
In fairness to Westminster City Council again it is my understanding that it is their policy that all cab ranks within their area should have TMOs and these things do take time
However, as this is now a serious problem throughout all of the Metropolitan and City Police areas I think this is a brilliant idea that should be put forward to LTPH for further consideration as a matter of urgency
What chance have we got when Martin Low boss of WCC won't even answer Helen Chapman's emails?
ReplyDeleteWhy not the LTDA use their Com Cab windfall and paint them all yellow with a logo of Bob Oddy's face on them, I have an oil leak!
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, did not John Mason say he had a million pounds to spend? so forget the 'Save Grant Davis' stickers John, get this done first.
Probably for when the shared ranks come in...
ReplyDeleteEasier to change a sign than repaint the road markings
The shared ranks are here already mate
ReplyDeleteWhat a load of fuss about a few lines not being painted.We are the best in the world.They wont beat us.Just like my Grandad,40 Yrs ago,A docker,hard as nails oh no they wont beat us,25yrs ago a printer,they wont get us to go to wapping.Now 2011 they wont get us to share ranks,Reality is they will unless we get our head out of our arses and fight.
ReplyDeleteThe dockers and printers lost, but were willing to fight for their jobs. The problem with the cab trade today is we have been flooded out with badge holders... Unfortunately, there a few among us that are real cab drivers and the slags are killing our trade. These will be the very first at Addison Lee's doors when the hammer comes down on our trade. Davis will be one of the first, followed by the usual suspects!!
ReplyDeleteThe real fighters and activists are well known and identified. We all know who each other are. We need to come together collectively and deliver the devastating blow to all of the licensed cab trades enemies and collaborators and push this whole thing to the next level!
ReplyDeleteSTaN has been exposed and Kingston is now part of TfL's history to overcome and devastate the London Cab Trade. Unite and fight, or lay down and die!
After the years of blood sweat and tears spilled to obtain the coveted green badge, why should you need worry about rank space and criminal scum that infest these dives.
ReplyDeleteI'm only a yellow badge and I never rank or even stop unless I'm flagged and I make an impressive living in a fraction of the area an all London license covers.
The scabs should be nothing but a slightly offensive smell to you fully licensed Road Warriors, yet you bitch and whine like a nursery of spoiled brats and feel your being shafted by everyone else!!
Wake up and realise that you have the power to be the ALFA force on the streets but you can't taken seriously if you can't be bothered to seize it back...get up from in front of your computer screens and use your license as it's intended to be used not camping around like a clutch of young mums at a coffee morning, or a whoop of immigrants touting in the shadows!!
If I can earn a handsome living in the burbs without needing to cry about some scab sitting on a rank, and there is probably 5% of the street work available in the burbs, then I'm sure you can make it without breaking a sweat.
Even if the scabs were filling the ranks the decent travelling public will ignore the scum and flag a licenced and trustworthy professional EVERY TIME!!
TIMES HAVE CHANGED!
The days of chewing the cud between plum jobs have gone, whether you irradicate the scabs or not!
TFL are flooding the streets with Politically Hired Vermin and they have got to find somewhere to put them.
Leave em to it and go to work properly!! They won't be able to touch you!!
disenchanted i salute you!
ReplyDeleteffs you are licenced taxi drivers think about it LICENCED so are the scummy immigrant doorstaff licenced by the sia to work in westminster so report them if they threaten you same as a club they are licenced so report them under whatever law to the local licencing office/court for there staff supplying uninsured cars.you must have acess to a legal eagle and if there is a law which threatens a clubs licence the directors of the club will soon act otherwise go the old fashioned way and team up and sort them out.stop whinging
ReplyDeleteYeh right!
ReplyDeleteLike weve been reporting scabs to pco for ten years
And clipboard men and bent hotels and drivers nicking work and hanging up
Weve been reporting and no one gives a shit
So think again??????
No one gives a shit! surely you cannot be talking about the bold JM & co. at Palestra?
ReplyDeleteAfter his appearance (can you appear on the radio?) everyone know knows where he stands.
It sure ain't with us!
Can we get the exact number of private hire drivers from transport from London and check with the tax office how many are registered at the tax office and pay tax. And if a private hire driver lives in your street give his address to the DHSS. And say you think he is claiming ,,,,,, most are... Give them hassle . And if every p h v driver isn't registered with the tax office why not . .we get the tax man chasing us all the time...call the tax office and give them the drivers t f l sticker number and car reg and address and say you think this licensed tfl private hire driver who lives near you is a tax dodger. ..... Maybe nothing will be done , but it might give them a bit of hassle.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you put up the John Mason interview from the Eddie Nestor show. I think there are some very interesting things that need to be pointed out about this interview!!
ReplyDelete