Taxi Driver Online

If you believe the Law Commission's minds are open I think should read their initial thoughts.

Everyone has been quick to condemn the current system.....the one we're going to get will be infinately worse.

CC

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

I know, but TBH I'm quite please no-one has sent an invitation to Sussex Manor inviting me to the meeting. And 31 attendees, all with big fat egos, means that in that 3-hour meeting very few points are going to get across.

However I think someone should send in a selection of TDO comments to the Law Commissions from all sides of the trade and viewpoints.

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IDFIMH

Never like to quote myself, but I feel I need to clarify what I mean.

Without operator licenses no record will need to be kept for PH bookings, so existing illegal pick ups will be virtually impossible to prove, as drivers will just say the person booked, and LOs will not be able to prove otherwise.

This would even apply, IMO, to sting operations, as the driver will just say someone rang me last week and asked me to meet him here at this time. How could anyone prove otherwise?

So if operator licenses go, then I can't see the Law Commission not allowing ( sorry for double negative) PH to pick up anywhere, other than maybe an approved taxi rank.

The Captain is warning people that things are liable to change big-time, and he is right.

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IDFIMH

Technology

Our principal concern with the modified two tier model relates to the impact of possible technological development. It is arguable that even current mobile phone technology is starting to undercut the distinction between plying for hire and pre-booking. It is possible that some technological futures will result in price competition for taxis (for example, mobile phone technology and private mobility brokerage systems ); or, alternatively, that advances will undercut price competition for pre-booking (for example, Oyster-type cards used with booking kiosks). This also means that the relative size of the pre-booked and non-pre-booked markets may vary considerably. A challenge for the project is, therefore, to ensure that the legal/regulatory system is sufficiently stable for those in the trade to make reasonable decisions, but also sufficiently flexible to accommodate technological change.

Now lets get this right.

We were told; "of the need to modernise to reflect technological change"

A challenge to the law commission would surely be, if technology was one of the reasons why they felt modernisation was necessary....why the single paragraph?

CC

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

Thanks for the clarification although I knew what you meant anyway Perhaps with other technical aids it will be possible for the LOs to prove illegal pick ups. If all ph were to have CCTV, with voice, then it will clearly show if the driver is taking a flagger. Under current law if they do away with the need for an operators licence then there would be no record of any bookings, but, this will not be under current law. It may be that they do away with the operators licence but still require that proper records are maintained by drivers.

I too believe that there are big changes ahead, but, I believe the taxi trade has a lot more to lose than the ph. I can't see many ph drivers attempting to interfere with the current consultation. The people in the ph trade that stand to lose the most are the greedy operator companies and I believe they get everything they deserve because IMO it is they who started this ball rolling with their desire to broaden their horizons. Then again I could be completely wrong, it wouldn't be the first time

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

To be fair to the LC, the document isn't supposed to be an exhaustive exploration of the issues.

It's early days yet - they're just summarising some major discussion themes.

Indeed, it all seems a bit unwieldy, and seems unlikely to add much to the sum of human knowledge. What they should or may also be doing is merely asking these people to submit their views on the preliminary points in writing and taking it from there.

A meeting of that size and that duration per se is unlikely to help much, but perhaps that's the kind of thing they have to be seen to be doing to show that they're engaging with 'stakeholders', irrespective of whether or not it's of much substantive use.



From the one exploratory email I sent them they seem to be expecting the trade's great unwashed to submit responses at the formal consultation stage next year, ie once they've come up with some concrete proposals.

But clearly from the feedback on here many seem to think that by then it'll all be a bit too late and the whole thing will be something of a fait accompli.

I'm inclined to think that way myself, but in any case I don't think I'll be sumbitting anything substantial to them because I wasted a lot of time on a submission to the OFT and thought that largely pointless, so I doubt if I'll be repeating that mistake.

Not sure if TDO doing anything is a good idea, since there's not really anything likely to appear as regards anything approaching a consensus.

Perhaps better for everyone to send in individual responses, and if they think it'll help then to do so at this time rather than wait for the formal consultation.

And as regards Captain Cab per se, surely he's in a better position than most in that his views will be conveyed via the NTA's representation on the advisory group.

If not then perhaps that begs the question, what's he doing in the NTA?

Having noted the concerns being expressed that the meeting didn't involved any full-time taxi or PH drivers I sent Richard Percival an e-mail pointing that out to him.

To his credit he e-mailed back by return the following comments.

Re the advisory group, we ask representative organisations to send people along, and who they send is up to them. Having said that, we are keen to hear the voice of the man-in-the-rank, as it were, during the consultation period, and will be trying to make sure we set up events to ensure that.

In all fairness it is not him that nominates who represents certain sections of the trade, but I'm please he was made aware.

Alex

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ʎɐqǝ uo pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ɐ ʎnq ı ǝɯıʇ ʇsɐן ǝɥʇ sı sıɥʇ

Simply the best taxi forum in the whole wide world. www.taxi-driver.co.uk

It's a good job the good Mr Percival is a busy chappie, god forbid he should have time to be bored and wander on here. He'd have to wade through pages of insults before he found any relevant information At least now, thanks to Alex, we know why the representation is the way it is

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

I'd like to know why he employs a mop

CC

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

Does he actually employ the mop or is it just part of the team

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

I got my man paul going there tommorrow, I'll ask him how clean the floors are

CC

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

You're bad

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

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C. Oakes


The Hackney Association Ltd
bbha@btinternet.com

We have set up a meeting with his team for December ...... they were only too happy to oblige...... in Sefton.

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!