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| Festival City cabs targeted by vandals http://taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4335 |
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| Author: | JD [ Wed Sep 06, 2006 2:14 am ] |
| Post subject: | Festival City cabs targeted by vandals |
Evening News (Edinburgh) September 5, 2006, Tuesday HEADLINE: We want to know who's vandalising our yellow taxi cabs.. BYLINE: Joanna Vallely DISTINCTIVE yellow private hire vehicles have been targeted in a series of attacks since hitting the streets of Edinburgh. The cars and people carriers have had their tyres slashed and windows smashed when drivers have left their vehicles for a short break. The owners of Festival City Cabs believe they are the victims of a hate campaign after the four vehicles were attacked seven times. But they say they do not know why they are being targeted. Three of the attacks took place near the home of one of the company's directors after his home address was posted on the internet. The new vehicles are designed to look like New York's famous yellow cabs and have the firm's name emblazoned on the side. The attacks have all taken place since Festival City Cabs - which has more than 200 private hire vehicles and has been operating in Edinburgh for more than a decade - introduced them in May. The firm is offering a cash reward to anyone who can provide information which leads to prosecution of whoever is behind the attacks. The most recent incident happened on Friday morning, when one of the people carriers was parked in George Street, near the corner with Hanover Street. Cameron Calvert, who works in the firm's accounts department, left the car for half an hour to visit a client in Rose Street. When he returned at around 11.40am, he found the car wasn't running properly and pulled over on Hanover Street to see what was wrong. He said: "The back tyre was slashed. "It was rough to drive so I pulled over and had to leave it in Hanover Street and organise to have it towed. "I had heard about the other people carriers being done but I was shocked as I was just going about doing my job." David Coutts, a partner and marketing manager at the firm, said all the attacks had taken place since it brought in the people carriers three months ago. He said three of the seven alleged attacks took place near his home in East Fettes Avenue after his address was published on a trade website. He said: "It's too much of a coincidence that this happened after details of where I live are printed on the internet. "The taxi and private hire business in Edinburgh is a very competitive market. Someone is unhappy with a private hire car firm doing something high profile." Mr Coutts said the first incident took place outside Broughton High School on East Fettes Avenue when the rear window and two side windows of a saloon car were smashed. Then in early July all four tyres were slashed on a Mercedes Viano people carrier parked on the same road and later that month the same thing happened again. The next attack took place in McLeod Street outside Tynecastle Primary School when Mr Coutts believes darts were used to burst all four tyres on a yellow people carrier. Around two weeks ago a people carrier had its tyres slashed outside Somerfield supermarket at Davidson's Mains and on August 25 a car had all its tyres cut, again in East Fettes Avenue. Mr Coutts added: "If anyone comes forward with information leading to a prosecution then we would be willing to offer a substantial reward." Police are investigating the attacks and studying CCTV footage recorded in Hanover Street to see whether it can shed any light on the most recent attack. A police spokeswoman said: "We have a number of recorded incidents and we appeal for anyone with information to come forward." ............................................. |
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| Author: | jimbo [ Wed Sep 06, 2006 12:19 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Don't Scottish PH have the "shall not have the appearance of a hackney carriage" law? |
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| Author: | JD [ Wed Sep 06, 2006 2:39 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
jimbo wrote: Don't Scottish PH have the "shall not have the appearance of a hackney carriage" law?
Don't Edinburgh have distinct hackney carriages topped off with a "for hire" light? In the case of Durham, wasn't it stated that "all that was needed to distinguish a Taxi vehicle from any other, is a "for hire" sign? Upheld at apeal. we have evidence before us that hackney carriages already have 3 distinctive features, namely a sign on the top, a logo on the door and the plate itself. The public should be able to clearly identify a Durham hackney carriage and distinguish it from a private hire vehicle by its current identification marks. To ensure public safety - again we believe the present distinguishing features are adequate to deter the passing off of unlicensed vehicles as Hackney Carriages and thereby sufficient to secure passenger safety. Regards JD |
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| Author: | diesel [ Wed Sep 06, 2006 3:21 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
these particular vehicles don't have phc plates when they are left in george st etc but have phone numbers adverts! so it's not phc (or pretend taxi) thats being vandalised but mobile adverts. on another subject why are Festival city cabs allowed to have the words taxi on the windows of their premises in granton? they don't have taxi's on their fleet(yet) |
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| Author: | Sussex [ Wed Sep 06, 2006 5:26 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
jimbo wrote: Don't Scottish PH have the "shall not have the appearance of a hackney carriage" law?
Apart from the odd one or two, and the chap in Leicester, where in this country do you find enough yellow cabs to associate the colour yellow with a cab? 
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| Author: | dundee wav [ Wed Sep 06, 2006 10:01 pm ] |
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in dundee a few years ago a company called handys thought of the all yellow cab thing ,the idea was to copy american taxis, davie coutts was involved with handys at the time, handys ordered 80 yellow skodas and allowed all the plate owners who couldnt get finance to take them and pay for the cars along with their fees, there was a mixture of hack/ph, the ph gained because the yellow skoda stood out a mile and they were assumed to be taxis, the hacks lost out when selling their cabs as everyone knew it was a taxi ,after dundee council opened up to wavs all the ph skodas were sold to hack plate owners |
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| Author: | Skull [ Thu Sep 07, 2006 12:32 am ] |
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I think they are getting the jitters in Edinburgh reality will be biting them on the ar** after the festival. Now they only have Christmas and last year it never kicked off until a few days before Christmas day. Then Jan-Feb-March and you know the rest this is were those that bought a plate get to find out just what they paid for? 
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| Author: | Paisley Buddie [ Thu Sep 07, 2006 1:45 am ] |
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jimbo wrote: Don't Scottish PH have the "shall not have the appearance of a hackney carriage" law?
No such regulation in the Civic Government Act (Scotland) 1982, it's up to the individual local authorities to specify vehicle type Here in Renfrewshire there are Peugeot Euro 7's on the road as private hire ! There's a black one on the road that looks like a Glasgow taxi ! The one thing the council have in their defence is taxis are white All the following types of multi person vehicles (MPVs) have been approved for use as either a licensed taxi or a private hire vehicle providing that the vehicle is adapted to be fully wheelchair accessible. Hackney TX1 (taxis only) Hackney TX2 (taxis only) Citroen Dispatch Taxi Citroen Le Cab Noir Fiat 200 T.W. Fiat Dakota Fiat Combo Fiat Scudo Ford Torneo Connect Mercedes V2 Mercedes V220 Mercedes Vito Mercedes Traveliner Peugeot Euro 7 Peugeot Expert E7 Peugeot Voyager Renault Trafic Volkswagen Caravelle Volkswagen Sharan Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle Volkswagen Taxi Bus |
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| Author: | dundee wav [ Thu Sep 07, 2006 2:33 am ] |
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dundee council have only one condition for ph, it must seat at least four ,astras/volvos/ escorts(remember them) id like to nominate dundee as having one of the least expensive cars on the road , we currently have a l reg cavelier on as a hack, if you check my posts from a few year ago you will see me mentioning it then, its still on ,and must be worth roughly £100.00 if the buyer didn,t know it was a taxi, before anyone shouts if its in good nick it should be okay why not come to dundee and get into the said car, its a street car which works the main rank ,the operator can usually be seen wearing shorts a baseball cap and smoking in the car, in the meantime dundee council are insisting that all new operators invest in £20000.00 cabs, what other buisness would put up with being penalised like this ? |
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| Author: | Stinky Pete [ Thu Sep 07, 2006 2:48 am ] |
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dundee wav wrote: must be worth roughly £100.00 if the buyer didn,t know it was a taxi, before anyone shouts if its in good nick it should be okay why not come to dundee and get into the said car, its a street car which works the main rank
Ah well, heres one for you, remember the press cutting where a 16 year old cab was seen by the press being push started up the railway rank well I was speaking to the said driver as a punter walked up, [the driver who thinks its a work horse and don't cost nowt to run] the punter came up to the said vehicle other day and told the the driver "Im not getting in that sh*t heap" and got the next cab |
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| Author: | Fae Fife [ Thu Sep 07, 2006 4:58 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
jimbo wrote: Don't Scottish PH have the "shall not have the appearance of a hackney carriage" law?
There's something in the Act about PH cars not displaying any "word, sign, notice, mark, illumination or other feature which may suggest that the vehicle is available for hire as a taxi" But I couldn't see this applying to general appearance, presumably it's to stop taxi roof signs and for hire lights etc. (I think some councils allow roof signs, but not with the word taxi.) |
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| Author: | TDO [ Thu Sep 07, 2006 6:44 pm ] |
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diesel wrote: these particular vehicles don't have phc plates when they are left in george st etc but have phone numbers adverts! so it's not phc (or pretend taxi) thats being vandalised but mobile adverts.
Well that's OK then.
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| Author: | Paisley Buddie [ Thu Sep 07, 2006 8:33 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
jimbo wrote: Don't Scottish PH have the "shall not have the appearance of a hackney carriage" law?
CIVIC GOVERNMENT (SCOTLAND) ACT 1982 CHAPTER 45 PART II LICENSING AND REGULATION--PARTICULAR ACTIVITIES LICENSING AND REGULATION OF TAXIS AND PRIVATE HIRE CARS s 14 Signs on vehicles other than taxis. (1) Subject to subsection (2) below, there shall not be displayed on or in a private hire car any word, sign, notice, mark, illumination or other feature which may suggest that the vehicle is available for hire as a taxi. (2) Subsection (1) above does not apply in relation to any licence plate or other thing issued by the licensing authority for the purpose of indicating that the vehicle to which it relates is a private hire car or in relation to any sign required by virtue of section 21 of the Vehicles (Excise) Act 1971. (3) Any person who-- (a) drives a vehicle in respect of which subsection (1) is contravened; or (b) causes or knowingly permits that subsection to be contravened in respect of any vehicle, shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding [level 3 on the standard scale] [FN1]. |
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| Author: | GBC [ Thu Sep 07, 2006 8:51 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
diesel wrote: these particular vehicles don't have phc plates when they are left in george st etc but have phone numbers adverts! so it's not phc (or pretend taxi) thats being vandalised but mobile adverts. on another subject why are Festival city cabs allowed to have the words taxi on the windows of their premises in granton? they don't have taxi's on their fleet(yet)
Would'nt he be better off advertising in the papers opposed to spending that sort of money on cars that don't do anything?
Lets hope the drivers of these 'adverts' are'nt tempted to take fares when people approach them after seeing the signage. 
. . . . or is that the intention? or heres a card?
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| Author: | chipper [ Sat Sep 09, 2006 4:38 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
diesel wrote: these particular vehicles don't have phc plates when they are left in george st etc but have phone numbers adverts! so it's not phc (or pretend taxi) thats being vandalised but mobile adverts. your right there diesel they are mobile adverts and thats all. diesel wrote: on another subject why are Festival city cabs allowed to have the words taxi on the windows of their premises in granton? they don't have taxi's on their fleet(yet)
take a close look at the office windows again diesel and you will see that the word taxi has been removed and for quite some time now. |
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