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T&G Cab Trade Section Hail Victory At Watford Junction.

The Cab Trade Section of the Transport & General Workers Union are celebrating what they consider as a land mark victory for the taxi trade at Dacorum Magistrates Court. (Hemel Hempstead).

District Judge Mr Wicks found 4 Private Hire drivers guilty of “ Plying for Hire”, at Watford Junction Station. The operator of AA United the company they all drove for was also found Guilty of “Aiding and Abetting”.

The offences were committed following the decision of Silverlink the train operator at the Junction Station to replace the local hackney drivers with a Private Hire operation after failing to reach an agreement with the taxi drivers over fees for ranking on the station forecourt. This plan of action commenced on Sunday 11th of January although nothing actually happened until the Monday.

The case started on Tuesday 2nd of November with the defence trying to get the case thrown out as they claimed that it was an “Abuse of Process”. Council for the defence claimed that as the operator and Silverlink had informed the Council and the Enforcement Office of how they intended to work at the station, and that they were of the opinion the Council and Mr Lieb the Enforcement Officer were happy with the arrangement as they had not received any communications to the contrary.

Mr Leib then produced copies of his communications with AA United and claimed that it only showed that he was aware of how they intended to operate, not that he was giving any approval.

Judge Wicks decided that he would continue to hear the case but if whilst listening to the evidence he decided that the Defence Council was correct, and that in his opinion there was an “ Abuse of Process”, he would stop the case.

The case proceeded and Judge Wicks then heard the evidence for the prosecution and how after issuing warnings to AA United that he was not happy about the operation Mr Lieb had taken action and issued cautions and notice of intended prosecution to several drivers on the station forecourt and the proprietor. (This was after the Union’s legal adviser had written to him pointing out several legal precedents including the Eastbourne Judgement, where Lord Justice Pill and Mr Justice Bell found that, a Private Hire vehicle positioned on private land in this case a station forecourt could be “ Plying for Hire”, as the public must have a right of access to it, it must be considered a “Public street”.

Finding the drivers and operator guilty Judge Wicks saved his adverse comments for the local council and Mr Lieb. They had acted in a very unsatisfactory manner and this situation should never have been allowed to develop. Because of this he declined to fine the drivers and operator and wanted to split the court costs of £12,000 equally between defence and prosecution but the prosecution objected on the basis that the Judge had found the defendants guilty and so it was unreasonable that they did not pay the majority of the costs and so it decided that the defence should pay three quarters of the costs.

The Watford drivers were upset that the Judge had declined to fine the guilty parties and that is not surprising considering they have suffered a very serious loss of work since January that is understandable. Personally I feel that he was right not to fine the drivers as they were only following instruction from the operator and in the PH world if the “serfs” do not comply with the wish’s of their “Lord of the Manor,” then they do not work. The operator however is a different matter and he should have been presented with a large fine if only for not getting better, and more accurate legal advice. Although it is unusual for the victorious party in cases like this to have to pay costs, in my view this is more than appropriate as vigorous enforcement from their Enforcement Officer and legal knowledge would have ended this dispute before it started. Proof of this is how the Enforcement Officer in Peterborough, Ken Grey stopped in it’s tracks an attempt by TaxiBank (a PH Operator) to do exactly the same thing at Peterborough’s GNER run station a couple of years ago.

However we must not think that every thing in the garden is rosy now. As I write this I have received a phone call telling me that although the PH vehicles are off the station forecourt they are using the local bus station 50yards down the road to rank before getting called up to the station. Obviously this is just displacement of the offences and we will expect Watford Council to tackle this. They are still ranking up in view of the public. Should this enforcement show the same lack of conviction that prevailed in January then we must be prepared to return in force to support the local drivers.

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They must have a great legal team at Watford Council, it would appear they don't know their azz from their elbow. I'm very surprised at Leib's conduct because he used to run the national licensing online bulletin. He is looked upon as having a brain when it comes to licensing matters but he has displayed the exact opposite in this Station Farce.

Best wishes

JD

how can the T&G claim anything from this?

They let the situation arise in the first place.

They claim they acted on their members behalf's, if this is so, why did the contract with the rail operator not include their drivers belief that the forward rail work should go to their members?

Why was the signage not included in the contract?

Why were PH adverts not in the contract to be removed?

If they were included, the rail operator would have been guilty of breach of contract.

Whereas, the rail operator is surely equally guilty of aiding and abetting this situation.

regards

Captain cab

As I said, the 'rank' is still there. The judge considered the council equally at fault. The guilty drivers had no costs, and for that matter no real penalty. And the council had to pay most of their own costs.

Clearly a lesson on how not to run a licensing department.

And did the cab drivers win anything? No, they have gained nothing out of the hearing. They followed the T&G advice from day one by refusing to pay to ply, and it has cost them all thousands.

Many on here will have sympathy for that view, but the fact of the matter is that the PH firm still runs the 'rank', and it appears they now have another 'rank' at the bus station to feed the train station 'rank'.

The T&G have let the lads down big time, and I bet deep-down, the lads at Watford know it.

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IDFIMH

and maybe one day they'll grow up into a butterfly and admit it, wont hold my breath though

regards

Captain cab

What I do find slightly rich is the T&G having a pop at the Watford LO, when it was him that brought the bloody proceedings in the first place.

If the T&G were so concerned, then why didn't they stump up the cash themselves, and proceed with a private prosecution?

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IDFIMH

because they cannot!
they have not that power.

something else you didnt know Sussex

Don't they have private prosecutions in Yorkshire?

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IDFIMH

When negotiations where taking place over that long period of time I have been wondering why Mr Kavanagh never informed Mr Leib or Silverlink of the Case law appertaining to “Plying for hire on private land”.

It is understandable that Mr Sardar might not know the law but he was being advised by Mr. Kavanagh. The T&G could possibly have taken legal action to stop the Private hire vehicles from ever setting foot on station land.

The station doesn’t have to have a Taxi rank but the Taxi trade can certainly make sure that nobody else has one either.

Interesting stuff but I’m glad it went to court and I’m happy we got a court ruling on the matter. It sends a message to Licensing officers and station managers throughout the country that Private hire vehicles cannot rank up on any station in public view.

Best wishes.

JD

Because he was to busy fighting to save quotas, then to worry about the issues that he really should be concentrating his mind on.

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IDFIMH

a private prosecution is that, a trades union cannot prosecute anybody, there are strict rules about how members money can be spent.

Sussex a trades union is not like other kinds of bodies they have special right to be imune from laws under certain circumstances, but they cannot go round creating cases either.

I'll second that one

It would seem that the T&G have made a pigs ear of the whole sorry episode.

One of their key ideals, and advertised in CTN, is that they will negotiate on behalf of you, if you join. Yet here they seem to have forgot what their members wanted in Watford in the first place.

Now they claim a victory for something that the LO achieved, after very possibly not making him aware of the case law in the first place.

Shallow, very shallow.

It would be interesting to find out if Watford are any closer to getting back on the station.

regards

Captain cab

I still cant work out why that union fights for the Watford boys to work the station rank. But fights for the rights of some Brighton Cabbie to work Brighton station.
Really not a fan.

if you are so thick I will tell you
the ones they fight for at Brighton are T and G members
the rest are not
in cartel city, everything is neatly carved up, and this was Scanners boast!

some boast.