However we believe that these identifiers are not the solution, the solution is to massively increase enforcement on the streets not just for Taxi drivers but predominantly for the army of licensed and unlicensed minicab touts.
Although these identifiers may have some effect we believe that TfL are ducking their responsibilities and are attempting to obtain enforcement on the cheap, this will only lead to infighting and set driver against driver.
The UCG will continue its fight to increase the number of enforcement officers and are currently making representations to TfL in respect of this issue.
Also see Euston, We Had A Problem. (Click Here)
Soory chaps ypu are out of touch on this one! Touts are the biggest problem but hundreds of Yellow Badges working outside their sectors is still a problem. As the saying goes get your own house in order!
ReplyDeleteOne can only wonder why the LCDC did not campaign as vociferously about 'No Booking, No Ride' Stickers for PH.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt we will all benefit from the avalanche of work now that the 3000 (or is it 300,000 LCDC?)YB drivers never pick up a job out of sector again.
Still PH will pick up the slack as we are losing cabs daily due to the flawed 15 year policy agreed by Grant Davis and others for NOTHING in return (Well at least for us the working driver).
They aint got no sectors and they are laughing at us!
The LCDC NEVER says a word in the Badge about LTPH's complete disregard of the Law and woeful enforcement.
WHY?
Disgraceful, Despicable, Disrespectful!
Well done UCG leading the way in the fight against touts
ReplyDeleteSo, when I knock down a cyclist turning left at a junction because of poor visibility, I will sue TfLs Mason who has made threats that if I don't or refuse to display ID badge he will revoke my license.
ReplyDeleteFantastic work by the combined operational inteligence team of TFL !
ReplyDeleteWhoever thought of these trade saving identity squares should be saluted !
As a result, 2012 will see an immediate upsurge in available work in the centre of London. With so many of our yellow badge colleagues chased back out into the sticks, the great days of the early nineties should be back this week ! Money for old rope ! Work everywhere and the 5 hour day is back !
Thankyou TFL, your great identity idea has truly saved us !
Im just ordering my house in Spain now. The good old days are back again !
2011 was the year in which our Great London Taxi Trade was saved, simply by eradicating thousands and thousands of illegally plying yellow badged London Licensed Taxi drivers from the centre !
Why on earth did it take so long to think of such a simple idea to save us ?
To everyone involved in this truly trade saving operation, I thank you and respect you. At last we can sleep well.
Just putting my little green square in the cab now, and will get out to earn my fortune. With no yellows around, it's going to be mega !
TFL and Palestra are obviously far shrewder than we imagined. Of course we no longer need ENFORCEMENT ! The yellow badges have been moved on ! What on earth do we need ENFORCEMENT for now ?
Stockholm Syndrome is a strange condition. I never thought I would suffer from it.
Life is strange sometimes, isn't it ?
8829 Semtex
The statistics on the ltdf for yb drivers is worrying ,far to many in all areas this is helping paranoid gbs justify the Ids.
ReplyDeleteparanoid gbs?
ReplyDeleteHow is the increase in the number of enforcement officers to be funded?
ReplyDeleteI guess in the same way that TFL funded the ID scheme. Isn't it this funding what we pay licence fees for ?
ReplyDeleteHow much do you think it would cost to employ 100 enforcement officers?
ReplyDeleteWell lets price them at a modest £30k each (although in reality the cost will be double that) the total cost would be £3 MILLION A YEAR TO IMPLEMENT OR JUST UNDER 50% OF WHAT LTPH RECIEVES IN LICENCE COSTS PER ANNUM.
Now imagine the cost if we had the same level of enforcement that they have in New York. Forget about any massive rise in enforcement by way oof specialist policing because economics dictate that will NOT HAPPEN.
In light of this will the UCG please get over the issue and stop harping on about extra enforcement.
The RMT London Taxi Branch are also opposed to the identifiers.
ReplyDeleteI have said it before and I will say it again, this is a case of divide and rule. We are all cab drivers and should not be fighting over a few YB drivers taking a bit of work.
What about the thousands of minicabs taking our work and ranking in the street?
Surely this is far more damaging to the licensed taxi trade than a few YBs
YB drivers working out of thier sector needs to be dealt with but not by cab drivers, but by strong enforcement.
The main way to make the law work is to ENFORCE IT and not by having websites that will allow people to find out drivers details and then complain about them.
Enforcement officers and Police on the Street are the only way, identifiers are enforcement on the cheap.
The post from Anonymus timed at 18:56 has left me speechless for once !
ReplyDeleteI assume that this person is not a London Taxi Driver.
What on earth does he or she expect to control over a 100,000 licences, driving around London then ? An honesty box screwed on the outside of Palestra wall ?
Absolutely incredible statement.
8829 Semtex
why is there no opposition to the wearing of yellow or green badges around our necks?whats the difference between these and the id stickers?we all know why the ybs are up in arms dont we.....but cant understand why the ucg is so vehemently opposed to them.is it because of the subscription being offered in feb?ucg in bed with the ybs?you talk about tfl dividing us but your not doing a bad job of it yourselves gentlemen.....maybe you can come out and clarify your posistion on the front page of your next edition.i can gurantee it will be as popular as silly bobs plan for a fare hike during the olympics.i really did believe you had your finger on the pulse of the working cab driver, but you are completely out of touch on this one.
ReplyDeleteAs a yb driver who fully supports the UCG,who realizes you are the only trade group who supports all taxi drivers gb and yb ,I would ask that you now encourage gbs to put the ids in ,until you all put them in we are not going to know what mess we are really in out in the sectors only when we know where palestra has put us can we do something about it ,so please put them in don't make us wait another two months to find out
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 20.28
ReplyDeleteYou gave the game away with your reference to UCN5 where the LTDA have seriously damaged the trade's reputation.
Hurting you is it?
If the LTDA were any good there would be no UCG.
Your representation of your members has been so lacklustre it's shameful.
I've left you to join the ucg and I am telling everyone I know to do the same.
Your only hope is to get rid of Oddy, until then you are finished.
I found this quoted post particularly frustrating and upsetting:
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
why is there no opposition to the wearing of yellow or green badges around our necks?whats the difference between these and the id stickers?we all know why the ybs are up in arms dont we.....but cant understand why the ucg is so vehemently opposed to them.is it because of the subscription being offered in feb?ucg in bed with the ybs?you talk about tfl dividing us but your not doing a bad job of it yourselves gentlemen.....maybe you can come out and clarify your posistion on the front page of your next edition.i can gurantee it will be as popular as silly bobs plan for a fare hike during the olympics.i really did believe you had your finger on the pulse of the working cab driver, but you are completely out of touch on this one.
07/01/2012 20:28
I am a member of the UCG, but not an elected spokesman on their behalf.
However the insuation that the ploy and stance that the UCG are 'in bed ' yellow badge colleagues to gain support for the subscriptions in February, is bitterly gutting for me personally.
Also, the accusation that the UCG are vehemently against the id stickers is again seriously misleading. The UCG have never been against the concept in general, but cannot see why it has been priorotised above extremely serious issues such as the ludicrous lack of working enforcement.
To suggest that there is an ulterior motive to earn money out of the idea by befriending yellow badges so that they subscribe to the UCG really offends me.
Once again, I have no office to reply or comment on official UCG policy or action, and will probably get a bollocking for saying what I already have, but it is so annoying to try and fight a battle when you have your own kind nit picking and rumour mongering, and standing for TFL's brilliant game plan like complete mugs.
UCG have elected and extremely good press office representation, who will no doubt give clarification of the position that they see regarding this issue. So I best leave it to them.
To the likes of our distrustful colleague above, I say this. Put yourself in the shoes of a senior TFL officer, read the posts (your own one especially) and decide if you think the id scheme has helped the cause.
It has certainly assisted TFL by giving them valuable breathing time as our trade fights with each other. But do you honestly think that this expensive scheme is such a blinding idea for rank and file drivers ?
I could put a photo on this site of a blinding green id snide, who none of you would give a second glance at. 150 quid from a geezer in Hackney !
As I have said a million times before, the id sticker scheme will top up the same as the wheelchair conversions, smoke emission quipment and receipt printers........totally unecessary, waste of money and futile.
Will it protect our heritage ? Will it resolve the tout issue ? Will it regain our sliding foothold ? Will it see an upsurge in work ? Will it assist our battered trade back off the ropes ?
Of course it wont ! So tell me what it was invented for ? To stop hundreds of thousands of yellow badge colleagues earning their coin on green badge ground ?
Thank God Winston Churchill didn't have half of you lot on his War Office battle plan team. We'd have been eating bratwurst for breakfast and getting up at 5 in the morning to nick a sunbed by now !
To those like our mate above who distrusts the intent of people like the UCG, myself and anyone else who is trying to preserve your badges for the future, I hope you have an escape tunnel, because if we get beat out there this year, our livlihoods are finished.
8829 Semtex
In reply to Semtex
ReplyDelete'The post from Anonymus timed at 18:56 has left me speechless for once !
I assume that this person is not a London Taxi Driver.
What on earth does he or she expect to control over a 100,000 licences, driving around London then ? An honesty box screwed on the outside of Palestra wall ?
Absolutely incredible statement.
8829 Semtex'
To be honest £3 million for 100 enforcement officers was a complete under-estimation, real term costs would more likely be in the region of £6 million pa to implement. This figure is nigh on the total income that ltph recieves from it drivers licences.
Personally I cannot see ltph spending such a vast amount of income on enforcement per se.
Whilst it is undeniable that both the taxi & p/h industry need greater enforcement, in the real world we have to conclude that it is never going to happen due to the economics of the situation.
How many dedicated enforcement officers do you want? how much will they cost? have you presented your plan to Helen over a cup of tea? and most important of all....how are they to be funded during times of economic hardship?
For a start it's not up to the Taci trade alone to fund enforcement
ReplyDeletePrivate hire are flouting the law and should bare most of the cost
So
32,000 YB/GB taxi drivers
70,000 PHV drivers
Enforcement costs funded by direct debit monthly just like the way you pay your stamp
£10 a month would give LTPH over £12m per year
Would you be willing to pay £2.50 a week for mass enforcement?
After all 9000 of you are paying £4.50 a week to Oddy for a landyard and a diary once a year.
Get your priorities right.
You want enforcement then you got to pay for it.
Thomas the Taxi (RMT and UCG member)
I must say, and hopefully without sounding too patronising, that Jim is of course correct.
ReplyDeleteI have a shotgun and Firearms licence. Enforcement of the Rules & Regs ? Not my problem ! I pay my licence fee, and I expect specialised police firearms officers to check me out properly, check my guns and gun safes and ensure I abide by the strict rules of owning a shotgun and other arms. If one day they decide that they haven't got the resources or manpower to enforce the law, then it's not my problem...it's theirs ! I'm not going to sit round the table with a cup of tea and the Chief Inspector wondering what we are going to do about THEIR problem am I ?
Transport for London appear to have no problem cashing the cheques, processing the credit card payments and taking the cash for the thousands of mini cab roundels.
I am afraid that to issue those permits out and not have the resources to police the drivers and enforce the laws that they drive under, is at best maliciously incompetent and at worst fraudulent.
When licences for anything are granted to people for various vocations, pastimes, sports and professions, part of the licence fees are set aside for the control and enforcement of the very licences that that body, force or authority are licensng.
If they have spent the money set aside without taking the responsibility seriously, then they should be sent to prison for fraud, dishonesty, failure to provide a service and professional incompetence.
So as far as sitting around the table with Helen discussing HER PROBLEM, i would rather sit around the table with her and discuss what SHE intends to do about it, to prevent her getting a prison sentence.
8829 Semtex
if there is any cab drivers yellow or green who know of fake ids being sold can you do the decent thing and report it to the police.i find it very worrying that in the past few days there has been talk of side green stickers doing the rounds in the pubs.i know there are people taking issue with the ids but surely these fake ones are also a threat to the trade.the fact someone thinks there is money to be made from these ids tells me there is more than a few ybs working up town....a snide for a snide eh?wouldnt winston call them 5th columnists?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 09:01 - Most of the people buying these fake IDs are not yellow badges, they are cloned bill owners, and they might even be convicted rapists. Most of the cabbies that have caused the bad journey stories you hear from your customers will also be non-cabbies with cloned bills. If TfL bothered enforcing properly they would get caught, but since TfL is using the IDs as an excuse for cutting back on enforcement there is less likelihood than ever that they will be caught. So you're supporting the IDs that will make your own problems worse, just because you've been tricked into thinking that anything that's bad for a different type of cabbie must be good for your type of cabbie.
ReplyDeletehead against the wall banging.there seems to be an answer for everything on here.moral absolutism replacing democracy.if you think the vast majority of greenbadges are wrong on the point of the ids then say so on the front cover of the ucg magazine.a simple request.but i tell you what,i wont be holding my breath waiting for it!you and everyone else attached to the ucg know it will be a massive own goal if you hand the mags out at stations with the front page telling the gbs they who support ids are narrow minded and self serving and should join a trade org that supports their petty little grievances pertaining to the ids.now i know the replies will state that no one has ever stated gbs were small minded etc but your just playing with words and it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.hasnt the fact the ybs are threatening allsorts of action,rang any alarm bells in your heads.if ybs working in london was such a small minority,why the threat of blockading heathrow and legal action against tfl/pcp?they have now resorted to calling us pussies for not helping the driver attacked by the cbj !of course if ybs were allowed to work in london legally they would of firmed up and given that cbj a good thrashing!my god............
ReplyDelete