Taxi Driver Online

Hi

Just a heads up so say that there is another major Taxi meeting on Wednesday of this week at Newcastle Labour Club at 7.30pm.

We've been informed by the Chairman that Northumbria Police are going to be present and also David O’Brien from the licensing division of the City Council.

......should be interesting to hear what their views are.....

Hopefully another protest won't be needed!

Chris

I think we already know what they are going to say, please let us know when the hot air has dispersed from the room.

Regards

JD

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Don't forget your tin hat

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Good luck with the meeting Chris ................. try and keep everyone calm and the questions relevant.

Looking forward to seeing the progress.

B. Lucky

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"Here's a simple solution. If you don't want to pay more for a premium service then wait in the queue, problem solved".
Skull on TDO

TF pi$$ed on his chips.

Hi GA

Cheers for your post.

The meeting went fantastically well. We had around 100 drivers there (which again was a little less than we hoped) and many of them expressed their views and ideas surrounding the problems we have at the moment.

I believe that the Northumberland police sergeant was surprised but impressed with the passion many drivers had.

If I remember correctly, he was the Head Liaison Officer of Environmental issues with Northumbria police - don’t quote me on that.

What we didn’t expect was being informed immediately that Northumbria police have already been given a fund to help rectify the “flimping” by means of stopping Private Hire vehicles and checking their data etc.

Covert operations are planned from next week onwards with no time specified until the Police believe the problem has been “nipped in the bud”.

They also plan operations whereby they will be seen to be doing something eg stopping vehicles randomly (in police vehicles) and checking data heads etc. Also the CCTV Police control room has been informed of what to look out for and any Private Hire vehicle “ranked up” somewhere plying for hire will now get moved on and/or investigated.

We were assured that the police will help as best they can and are determined to crack down on this. He confirmed that the police are lenient with most Newcastle Hackney Taxis as they know how difficult our job is (that we obviously make their life easier by taking drunks home) and said an unwritten law allows taxis to rank up outside most bars as we have little to no rank space - I believe there are less than 100 rank spaces for 780 taxis.

What the officer did say is that he does not want a repeat of our protest and will do anything to stop that from happening again. What he is very afraid of is the possibility of a protest on a Saturday night whereby 200 to 300 hackney taxis boycott the city centre and let the police sort the problem out.


The Councillor said that they are working very closely with the police and have already signed an agreement with an outside agency for their members to try to get into Private Hire vehicles illegally. They are then told to ask the driver to take them to a certain destination whereby they are being met with an Enforcement Officer from Newcastle and a Northumbria police officer. We were told that they actually went out on Saturday night and caught 9 drivers by this method. All now being prosecuted. 6 were from Newcastle Private Hire companies and 3 out of town. The Enforcement Officers are now working until 3 or 4 in the morning and not going home at 12 as they did previously.


We have been told that this will be ongoing and at no point will the Council give details of when or where they plan to attack. They have many people in the agency from young females to older couples so unfortunately, picking up the “easy targets” may not be the ideal scenario for the flimpers.

I couldn’t have wished for a better outcome and certainly believe the Council and Northumbria police will cut down on flimping dramatically. I certainly don’t believe it will be stopped completely, but if the police can prosecute 9-10 drivers per week, I don’t think it takes a genius to understand that drivers will think twice if they could lose their licence for the sake of a £5 job.

Also, the council will start to crack down on things such as wrong top signs being used and illegal vehcile advertising etc. The standards are getting raised now and hopefully will continue.

Chris

Great news Chris .............. well done to you and everyone who organised and supported this action.

It sound very encouraging for the HC trade in Newcastle and worrying for anyone considering "quickly running us over to Jesmond".

The only point I would make is that the target should be anything that isn't a Newcastle Licensed HC ................ they may well have mean't that but from your post it wasn't clear.

I suppose you chaps pointed out the flimping "hotspots" and hopefully these PH boys will allow their offices to take bookings for them instead of turning their radio's off to flimp.

B. Lucky

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"Here's a simple solution. If you don't want to pay more for a premium service then wait in the queue, problem solved".
Skull on TDO

TF pi$$ed on his chips.

As I said in a previous thread, God loves an optimist.

CC

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

Chris007 writes

this sounds like Entrapment...very Dodgey stuff Entrapment.

do you think the officer of the law would have reacted any different Had you been the "Good and the Just" of the PH world taking the same type of drunk home and would he have shown the same amount of leniency if a PH guy was parked somewhat akwardly but legally whilst waiting for his Bona fide passengers to arrive....Yes he probably would. I think the officer just said what he knew you wanted to hear in order to placate you and thus diffuse the Situation that may have arisen by way of future Protests.

Quite right boggins, to try would be entrapment, opportunity to refuse on the other hand?

CC

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

Some may say entrapment, others may say test purchase. The driver can always say no and there wouldn't be a problem.

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Grandad,

It does depend upon how it is approached by the "customer" though doesn't it.

If they ask and are refused, then entice or ask twice then it is entrapment.

If thy just approch ask and are accepted I doubt they could rely upon entrapment as a defence.

We went through this some time ago, when there was actually some work in Gateshead, and I seem to remember the Police and Council being very wary of the laws regrding entrapment.

My corner shop recently lost its alchohol and tobacco licence after the Police sent a 14 year old in to buy cigerettes.

B. Lucky

_________________
"Here's a simple solution. If you don't want to pay more for a premium service then wait in the queue, problem solved".
Skull on TDO

TF pi$$ed on his chips.

Another one is where the police leave a car in a known hotspot with items on display and they wait for someone to break in to the car and then nick them. How many times have the police used female officers to catch kerb crawlers? As I see it by informing the trade that they are going to carry out these "test purchases", any PH driver stupid enough to carry on with the practice of picking up unbooked fares deserves all they get. They know the rules.

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Grandad,

...exactly!

Isnt the British Bobby just wonderful when he doing the Hackneyed worlds bidding...he may not be so wonderful as he is writing you a Ticket for speeding. he's a bit like the Curates Egg...."excellent, in parts".

Boggoff.

B. Lucky

_________________
"Here's a simple solution. If you don't want to pay more for a premium service then wait in the queue, problem solved".
Skull on TDO

TF pi$$ed on his chips.