ABACUS Cornhill....by Thomas the Taxi

In the early hours of Thursday morning, drivers from the London Taxi Drivers Forum descended on the bar Abacus, in Cornhill City of London.
Their aim to give the illegal touts a tough time.



This bunch of touts have become more and more aggressive. They now crowd the entrance and intimidate customers making it almost impossible for them to reach licensed taxis that are legally ranking up outside.
In a snub to the Licensed Taxi trade, the City of London and the PCO/TfL have placed the rank so far back and the wrong way round, that a customer leaving this bar would have great difficulty recognising the fact that these taxis are in fact for hire, as they would not be able to see any for hire signs.

TfL/PCO has made it increasingly easier all over London for mini scab drivers to plague the entrances of every Club, Bar and night venues, by relaxing the enforcement of regulations and parking laws.
If you were in any doubt, a trip along the Haymarket would show the extent to which these touts are taking liberties. Tiger Tiger has a 24 hour bus lane, double yellow lines, a bus stand and a traffic island which is impassable with the illegal ranks of touts, sometimes double parked. What makes this extremely unpalatable is the fact that a car bomb was left here disguised as a mini cab and still no one takes any notice of the goings on at this establishment. To add insult to injury, there is a Licensed taxi rank pushed down the street which is unusable as there is a barrier between the rank and the pavement. It would also be impossible for a wheelchair user to access a taxi from this rank, similar to the situation in Victoria Station.

Well done to Stef and the drivers of the LTDF, who put themselves out on a regular basis to take work away from this wild bunch of marauding bandits outside Abacus. You have to have a bit of bottle to do this, so its not every drivers cup of tea, but the number of disgruntled drivers is growing.

Most of our critics said this "Take the work back" action wouldn't last but they have been proved wrong, by drivers like Stef and his mates from the forum.

Important breaking news, I told you so!...by Thomas the Taxi

Some weeks back I was informed by my Mini Cab snout that Addi Lee had applied for ranks for their vans at Heathrow. I did a short article about this and told my friends who said, again, "they just cant do this out there, It will never happen, we'll bring the place to a stand still"
Well guess what?
Just got this email from the RMT rep at Heathrow;

Just been informed BAA have given Addison Lee/West One cars waiting areas at Heathrow. Trade liaison meeting was last Friday, no mention apparently. Meeting today held with LTDA, LCDC and Unite only. No more info at the moment.

The wonder of the blog bought to you just as it happens. You will now have to wait at least a week to have this confirmed in the trade press.

I wondered why there had been so much interest in my blog from Addi Lee who scan my pages every morning then again in the evening. Mind you so does the LTDA. Sometimes you have to wonder just who's side Bob is on and what his staff are doing for the money you pay them?

Westminster Escalate Hostilities Against the Taxi Trade...by Thomas the Taxi

After their initial assault on the licensed taxi trade with the inception of the first private hire rank in Whitcomb Street, Westminster City Council has decided to escalate the hostilities by banishing the word taxi from many of their bus lanes signs.

First we noticed the sign had been changed in Victoria Street, junction with Buckingham Palace Road, where the central bus lane now displays a newly erected sign that excludes taxis. As you go over the lights the word taxi is then visible on the sign at the beginning of the bus lane that runs along Grosvenor Gardens. Taxis have been allowed to use this lane for many years as it was felt necessary for the safety of the public and the driver when picking up from the tube entrance not to have to cross the bus lane, when wishing to go north. Now the right has been taken away, or has it?

Now we see a ridiculously laid out, purpose built bottle neck, at the junction of Charring Cross Road and Shaftsbury Avenue. Running from just passed Dean Street, the brand new bus lane excludes all traffic except bus and bike. As the traffic in the outside lane will also be turning right in to Charring Cross road, the tail back at this junction in busy times of the day, has become horrendous. This means taxis have to wait caught in this jam, with the meter running and cause's unnecessary expense to the unsuspecting passengers. Westminster obviously does not seem to understand, the reason why taxis were first granted the right to use bus lanes is, that we are in fact a metered service. The same reason why private hire vehicles, are not and should not, be allowed to use the lanes.

More and more square footage of the public highway is being denied to the licensed taxi trade every year, with Westminster being the worst offender. Bus lanes, environmental areas and thick red lined bus stops are making our job a headache. With more and more things we have to worry about we seem to be losing the right to just go about our daily work.

The Anderson shelter has written to Westminster Council and to the Mayor to find out if in fact they have a traffic order from the secretary of state for transport that details these changes, or has the wrong signage been erected.

We also ask if they will be prosecuting taxi drivers who as yet have not noticed this important change to their rightful passage through the borough.

Taxi Trade Being Sold Down The River......By Thomas the Taxi.

Just after the Taxi trade demo in Febuary, where disgruntled London Taxi drivers bought the center of London to a stand still, Westminster City Council's transport manager Martin Lowe, promised the London Taxi trade "ranks wherever you want them" on the James Whale show.

Well Martin where are they?

There has been some talk of three ranks, placed in highly dubious positions, but that's all it has been so far just talk. Probably just to judge our reactions by council officials with smug snide smiles on their faces.

Requests have been put in for a number of ranks to be placed outside clubs, bars and restaurants that at present, already have illegal ranks of touting private hire vehicles outside.

Most of the ranks requested were for restricted hours ranks that could revert back to pay and display parking bays, so no loss of revenue would be incurred by WCC.

We were then told, that the budget set aside for taxi ranks will not be sufficient, as each rank demands a cost of between £5,000 and £6,000 and the budget for this year was capped at £7,000.

This statement is in fact a blatant lie as a freedom of information request has revealed there is no such budget, as the funds would come directly from the transport budget.

Excessive ?
£7,000 for some paint and a board on a nearby post.

Who picks these expensive contractors?

Who authorises these excessive payments?

Are they not supposed to get quotes and pick the cheapest one?

We are then told by Westminster City Council, that there is no room for a rank outside the Buddha Bar on the embankment, even though every night, when this club is open there is on average 10 to 15 touts parked unlawfully outside, who scoop up unsuspecting members of the public that are charged inflated prices, sometimes treble what they would have to pay in a Licensed Taxi.


How do they sleep at night?
All this is happening with full permission of TfL/PCO, WCC and the Met Police under the safer streets banner. The fact that between 8-10 sexual assaults including rapes occur every month and have done since the mini cab trade was first licensed doesn't seem to matter as long as the streets are cleared.
Luke Howard from TfL keeps banging on about how much safer it is now the unlicensed touts have been cut in numbers. Get real man! the monthly 8-10 assaults we see now, are happening in licensed private hire vehicles, that's 120 a year for god sake.
Young unsuspecting females are being enticed by door staff acting like pimps, who sell their pray to illegal ranks of licensed mini cabs with your blessing.

Their fate is on your conscience.
There has even one case of an inebriated woman being raped by a rickshaw driver in Bloomsbury some time back that seems to have slipped under the media radar and gone unreported.
Perhaps the scheme should be renamed "The unsafe and highly dangerous streets scheme"?

Pedicab and Mini Cab Ranks?

Now we have the news from TfL's own web site, under the watchful eye of Mr Jeroen Weimar, Chief Operating Officer, Enforcement & Compliance, Surface Transport, they are planning to supply the private hire trade and Pedicabs with waiting areas (RANKS) all over the west end.

We already know that WCC are planning Bays (RANKS) for the death trap Pedicabs, with the first one already marked out. It is disguised as a loading bay and is currently being used by private hire drivers to form an illegal rank in Shaftesbury Avenue, just short of the Queens Theatre.

That's why they have narrowed the carriageway to accommodate these bays, future "Rickshaw ranks" in anticipation of WCC licensing them, when the so called Voluntary scheme falls flat on its face.
All this has been going on with the full knowledge of the general secretary of the trades top association, who has been present at most of TfL's transport committee meetings when these proposals were initially discussed... See John Kennedy's post click here

TOCU no better!
Last month the printers that print the license roundel for TfL was broken into and thousands of license discs were stolen. It is now suspected that there are thousands of cars with stolen license badges floating around central London.

So what does Joe Royal have his squad do last weekend over a two day period?
They stop and search Licensed Taxi's on the Bayswater Road.
What a great idea Joe, back to ticket searches on the buses for you then soon.



...........................................................................................

On a lighter note here is a great video from Luke Jackson directed by Murry John,
Called "Goodbye London" it was filmed on location in Camden Town. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Ed Thompson Resigns.....By Thomas the Taxi.

Its official, Ed Thompsom has stepped down from his job as head of the PCO.
He will not be missed by the trade that he leaves in utter turmoil.
He was never the right man for the job, never understood the Licensed taxi trade and his handling of the touting problem along with others based within TfL have left the licensed taxi industry in chaos.
Our Trade needs someone who knows and understands our needs and appreciates the fact we are not the same as mini cabs and do not do the same job.

There now needs to be a clean sweep of all the arrogant and biased amongst the officials of the PCO and TfL, who seem to be hell bent on destroying the "Best Taxi Service in the World", and replacing it with a substandard, untrained private hire outfit that is expanding faster than swine flu.

This is a perfect opportunity for the Transport commissioner to appoint some one from within our industry to this most senior position and bring about an amnesty to the current "Taxi War" that is about to kick off in central London.

But I wouldn't hold your breath.

Also nice to see the LTDA taking such an intrest in our little blog. Didn't realise you started that early Bob!!!

City Hall Demo....by Thomas the Taxi.

This morning at 9am a small contingent of Taxi drivers from a cross section of different representative bodies, RMT, LTDF, LTCPR , LTDA and the LCDC picketed the GLA City Hall building.

The aim of the protest was to gain an audience with members of the board of TFL and let them know that the trade is unhappy with the current level of enforcement appertaining to privet hire vehicles seen regularly touting and forming illegal ranks outside night venues in central London. Other grievances include the apparent lenient attitude of TfL officers when dealing with complaints against PHV operators and drivers.

Not wishing to cause a nuisance to members of the public going about their day to day business the drivers waited in an orderly fashion in the shadow of the blood red RMT banner, on the promenade in front on the main entrance. A representative was sent in to inquire if we could speak to members of the board and was told someone would speak to us at the end of their meeting.

After waiting patiently for a couple of hours we were informed that the board had left the building by a different exit.

Although disappointing, this demo was in fact a successful recognisance of the City Hall Building. Future demos will be strategically planned with pickets covering all exits.

The questions have to be asked;

As our man on the board of TfL, why did Bob Oddy sneak out of a back entrance? (The LTDA monitor the online trade forums, so he would have been aware of our presence).

Does Bob represent the whole trade or just his own membership?

Stop press;

Today, according to posts on the LTDF taxi forum, at around 15.00 hours, Ed Thompson phoned Grant Davis to tell him he was stepping down. (Did he jump or was he pushed?)

Now sit back and watch everyone from every association and union claim that it was because of something they have said or done.

I personally have the view, rather the devil you know.

Can you imagine the damage that can be done to out trade if a certain spokesperson or his ex bus driving colleague gets promoted into Ed's job.

In one respect this is an excellent opportunity for TfL to insert someone from our trade into their organization to even things up a bit. At the moment , virtually all of TfL top brass come from a bus company back ground.

As far as we know, there is only one person still working in TfL/PCO that comes from a Hackney cab back ground and she still holds a Bill to drive a cab!