New Year, Same Old Problem....By Thomas the Taxi.

Welcome to the Olympic year of 2012.

Deputy Director of LTPH Helen Chapman

In a bid to take some of the pressure off the extremely poor performance of LTPH over the last two years, the director John Mason, has decided to hand over the job of enforcement and compliance to his deputy Helen Chapman. Helen remains as Deputy Director but takes on the extra role vacated by Dave Stock.


The biggest issue facing our trade, that of illegal plying for hire (forming unlawful ranks), by private hire drivers, is in a worse state now, than when John Mason and his team took up the appointment.


Two years ago, as ranks and highways representative for the RMT, I spoke to John Mason and bought this issue to his attention.
I pointed out that one of LTPH's officers (Luke Howard) had sent out an email informing drivers that after consulting with TfL's legal department and in their opinion, PHVs could legally wait to be hired outside any venue if legally parked. When I tried to refer to recent case law and relevant Hackney Carriage acts, John stopped me in mid-flow and said;
"If I had been in charge at that time, these emails would never have been sent out"
This statement inferred that he (Mason) agreed that PHVs could not legally wait to be hired and we left Palestra believing this matter would be dealt with.


However since that day, Mason has done absolutely nothing about the issue and has now put up a barrier between representative groups in the shape of an unworkable engagement policy. A policy that contravenes the Data protection act, whereby all members records would be available to LTPH.


Also, Section 4 states; that any trade body with a media outlet, be it a  Blog, Magazine or Paper, if commenting on TfL/LTPH, must first submit copy to Mason for approval or face expulsion from consultation meetings. So basically a gagging order, denying freedom of speech.


Mason initially excused trade bodies he felt would not rock the boat.
This group known to the trade as the United Trade Group, did not have to sign or conform to the engagement policy, Mason gave them a free pass. 


Another condition of acceptance to consultation rights was the need to have at least 5% of the trade as members, a condition that 2 of the 3 UTG members (LCDC and Unite) did not meet. The engagement policy does not apply to private hire groups such as the GMB and the PHA, who wish to consult with LTPH.

If and only if, Helen Chapman is not working under orders from on high and has a complete free hand to deal with the problem, this could be one of the best things that has happened to the trade for many years.


An LCDC blog moderator recently went against the grain to criticise LTPH's lack of will to address the problem and dug up information on case law and relevant acts that state PHVs can not stand and wait to be hired ( Click here for article).


We have seen many cities around the UK deal with this problem and now it is time to deal with it in the capital.


Good luck Helen, I think you're going to need it.




Editorial Comment.


The lies have to stop!
Multi agency action has to take place on a large scale. 
Drivers illegally plying for hire must be prosecuted using the law that is there to protect the License Taxi trade.


Before any new policy is introduced this issue must be dealt with. 
It can be done, just look at what Birmingham City Council have achieved.