Taxi Driver Online

another juicy nuggett

n its report published this week, the UK Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Taxis calls on the Government to give the Mayor of London, and other Mayors, the power to cap the number of private hire vehicles (PHVs) on London’s streets, stop cross border hiring and set out a robust set of minimum licensing standards for taxis and PHVs across the country.

GMB, the union for private hire and taxi drivers, welcomed the report, saying a cap would improve the quality of life for drivers and hopefully reduce the hours that drivers are forced to work.

It claims that without a cap the industry could well see further exploitation of drivers by companies such as Uber and Addison Lee who attempt to deny their drivers any worker or employment rights in order to maximise profit and avoid their obligations to contribute to the public purse.

Tony Warr, head of Legal, GMB London Region, said, “Private hire drivers already work in very precarious conditions and while overall we welcome the report it was disappointing to note operators licensing will not be conditional on drivers receiving even the basic of employment rights."

The report also calls for the creation of a statutory definition of cross border hiring whereby a journey must “begin or end in the licensing authority where the licence was issued”, as well as consultation on statutory guidance for taxi and PHV licensing and a robust set of minimum licensing standards for all licensing authorities.

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

Thing is a considerable number of TfL cars aren't on London's streets, so quite how you would assess the number is a question I would love to see answered.

Maybe the way to reduce the number of TfL drivers would be to improve standards, along the lines of knowledge and communication skills. Sort of issue the GMB are campaigning against at the moment.

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IDFIMH

Actually TFL know exactly how many vehicles and drivers are working. All operators are required to upload vehicle and driver details every week.

But working where?

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IDFIMH

The main point is following an FOI request, the figures for December 2016 busiest month of the year. Only 71,132 were registered as available to work by Operators. So the best part of 46,000 London licensed are not working at all. These numbers dropped to 61,000 in January 2017 but TFL keeps talking about 117,000 licences.

The main point is the operators are telling porkies by registering the cars that are probably working the streets of London but the other 50,000 are working through out the Country totally unregulated.

Sorry but you do not understand the triple licensing. The driver and vehicle must be licensed by TFL to a London Operator. If the driver has a booking and not registered with a London Operator, it is a straightforward offence. Your 50,000 claim is misguided to put it politely as there are only 87,000 TFL licensed vehicles and as previously stated at best 71,132 drivers available for work.

Thanks for your input Patrick.

I think my point would be the obvious, with the amount of vehicles, and if what you say is correct about operators having to supply TfL with vehicle and driver details, who checks the details, because we have reports of TfL licensed vehicles working all the time out of London purely because its easier to be granted a license there.

I think the point folk are trying to make is that these vehicles and drivers are going un-checked in the areas they are working and predominantly this is through Uber.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin