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This article highlights the casm between London Black cab drivers and those who wanted to see the licensing of minicabs. How many innocent victims suffered through their obstinance?
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Sunday Times
August 16, 1992, Sunday
HEADLINE: Driven to desperation
BYLINE: Gita Conn
TODAY someone, somewhere, in London has been frightened by a minicab driver.
They may have been subjected to a verbal or physical assault or just alarmed by dangerous driving. According to research by the Suzy Laplugh Trust, such distressing incidents have affected one in four passengers. And last week the Metropolitan Police officially pronounced London's unlicensed minicabs the most dangerous form of public transport.
In Britain, minicab passengers are protected by licensing laws everywhere except in London. This scandalous situation is the result of legal anomalies stretching back to the last century. Recent legislation has actually increased the risk to Londoners.
Throughout the rest of the country, local authorities are responsible for licensing taxi-drivers and, since April, they have been able to obtain criminal records of applicants. Now drivers who have failed to reveal convictions are being suspended, charged and sentenced. But the smart criminal can avoid this process by driving his cab to London.
Hard though it is to believe, there is no public licensing body for the 40,000 private hire cars in the capital. As long as you are appropriately insured, your car can become an instant minicab.
Minicabs were reckoned to be a high-risk ride even before the new law drove criminal cabbies to London. A year ago, research by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust concluded that passengers suffered twice as many ''distressing incidents'' in minicabs as in black cabs. ''Something must be done,'' says the trust's director, Diana Lamplugh, who is campaigning to protect passengers.
The police actually the Public Carriage Office of the London Metropolitan Police license more than 20,000 black cab drivers after vetting them thoroughly for ''the knowledge'', driving ability, character and any previous convictions. But this applies only to hackney carriages; the statute book gives them no jurisdiction over minicabs.
So how about London's local authorities taking responsibility? ''We are not empowered,'' says Nick Lester, transport officer for the Association of London Authorities. ''We did try to get a bill through parliament three years ago, but it was not accepted.''
Everybody agrees that ''something must be done'', including the Ministry of Transport, which has just been presented with a thumping great document by the Working Party for the Safety of Users of Taxis and Minicabs. But everybody seems to want a different ''something''.
The black cabs want police to license all taxi-drivers to a single standard. In contrast, minicab drivers want neither the police nor the local authorities to license them. ''We want a new licensing authority with the power to regulate and license vehicles, drivers and operators,'' says Gideon Fiegl of the Private Hire Car Association, which represents a quarter of London's minicabs.
Everyone claims to be concerned about protecting passengers, but the feuding between black cabs and minicabs smacks more of profit protection; and all the lobbying in the world won't shift the legislative machinery fast enough to bring in controls for at least another year or so.
''The most vulnerable sections of society are at risk,'' says Diana Lamplugh but even she fears the working party's report will be ''swept under the carpet''.
Last month the Association of London Authorities called for new regulations for minicabs, with licences issued by either the local authorities or the police, separately from those for black cabs. Both vehicles and drivers would be vetted. But there is a lot of lobbying to do before this becomes law.
Passengers don't care who issues licenses to taxi-drivers, as long as they can be confident of arriving at their destination quickly and in one piece. But it looks as though we'll have to do an awful lot of walking before that day comes.
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