TAXI drivers in Rossendale have taken a unanimous decision to strike if new licensing rules are introduced.

Drivers have expressed anger at Rossendale Council’s revised licensing policy and said that their concerns have been completely ignored.

David Lawrie, chairman of the Rossendale Taxi Association, has said that if the new rules are enforced at a meeting on Tuesday then the drivers will have “no choice” but to strike.

The revised draft policy sets out extra training required by drivers and also proposes a new ‘intended use policy’.

If adopted, the council will be able to suspend, revoke or refuse to renew a vehicle licence if the driver intends to ply for hire outside the valley.

Council bosses have produced the revised policy after a month-long summer consultation in which taxi drivers, eight neighbouring councils, councillors and MPs responded.

Mr Lawrie said: “We have had meetings with the council and they have completely ignored all of our concerns.

“The new intended use policy threatens the livelihoods of every driver.

“The council has said that it wants to to bring this in to address the increase of out of out-of-town drivers.

“This is ridiculous as hackney drivers can ply their trade anywhere.

“It could well mean that more than 2,000 cars are forced to work within Rossendale which would be chaos.”

The report states that the new policy may cause “hardship in certain cases”.

A spokesman for the council said: “The policy does need to be changed, and the extended consultation process took on board many of the comments from the Taxi Association.

“We have organised to meet imminently with the Taxi Association to see how we can avoid any potential strike action.”

The proposed changes come after Nasir Ali, 26, of Minnie Street, Keighley, admitted that he drove a hackney carriage vehicle plated by Rossendale Council when without the correct council-issued licence to drive it, on March 23.
     
He received a six-month conditional discharge and was ordered to pay £240 costs.

Usman Ali, 23, of Chatsworth Street, Keighley, received the same sentence as he was owned the cab.

http://goo.gl/DWkvBt
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 A 19-YEAR-OLD man died after his car collided head-on with a taxi in Burnley.

Two women and a second man also suffered serious injuries in the incident which happened on Manchester Road.

Police said a silver Ford Mondeo collided with a black cab around a quarter of a mile down from the junction with Rossendale Road at 1am on Saturday.

Eyewitnesses said the Mondeo was travelling down the hill from the Rossendale Road junction and the taxi was going up the hill.

The driver of the Mondeo, who police said was from St Helens, was pronounced dead at the scene. Next of kin were being informed over the weekend.

http://goo.gl/NUOlZy
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 LIVERPOOL

 James Bradley says freedom of earning money while setting own hours is attracting teachers, shop managers and other professionals to the trade


Teachers and shop managers are being tempted into the taxi trade according to the boss of a Liverpool firm celebrating a £1m digital revolution.

James Bradley, who runs Alpha Taxis, said the industry is becoming increasingly appealing to professionals attracted by the freedom to earn money while setting your own hours.

Teachers and shop managers are being tempted into the taxi trade according to the boss of a Liverpool firm celebrating a £1m digital revolution.

James Bradley, who runs Alpha Taxis, said the industry is becoming increasingly appealing to professionals attracted by the freedom to earn money while setting your own hours.

His comments came as the Childwall-based company celebrated the completion of a major technological overhaul as it seeks to compete with local rivals and international firms such as Uber.

Speaking to the ECHO at the company’s Childwall Valley Road nerve centre, Mr Bradley said: “We have teachers, shop managers and professionals who have discovered the modern taxi trade, at least at Alpha, is nothing like what they expected. It is a high-tec, sophisticated industry with much to offer.”

The company has invested heavily in its own software, which allows customers to book taxis online and track their driver’s progress while they wait.

Explaining the thought process behind the three-year, £1m exercise, Mr Bradley said: “The world and his dog has an app now, it’s not new technology. What we believe we have got is the local knowledge and we are using the technology to make the customer’s experience better.”

Alpha’s new software allows clients to contact their driver directly - for instance if their taxi has passed their location by mistake - though no numbers are exchanged in the process.

Describing the changes since he joined the trade three decades ago, Mr Bradley said: “As work on our upgrade has been progressing we took a hard look at the needs of a 21st century taxi operation. We had a special team contacting drivers who used to work for us to find out why they left, and what would have kept them with us.

“We then learned many lessons from the information we gathered to make our service better than ever. The result is we have increasing numbers of drivers who are very typical family men, with a wife, two kids and a mortgage.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/teachers-turning-taxi-driving-alpha-10410156
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 Chinese automaker BYD, which is partly owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, officially branded its two-year trial run of electric taxis in Hong Kong as a failure on Friday.

“I’m the one to take charge of BYD’s e-taxi project in Hong Kong,” said Ding Haimiao,assistant to the general manager at the carmaker.

“I have to say it’s a failure,” he added.

http://www.scmp.com/tech/innovation/article/1876321/electric-taxi-project-hong-kong-goes-belly-chinas-byd-brands-2-year
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CARDIFF

 A sex offender who staged a £16,000 “cash for crash” accident with a man he met in prison was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Thursday.

Moez Chammeme, 36, from Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff, became friends with Kais Bougoussa, 46, from Stratford Road, London, after they shared the same cell block in a Cambridgeshire prison.

Chammeme was jailed for eight years at Cardiff Crown Court in 2005 for attempted rape, false imprisonment and sexual assault of a female passenger in his unlicensed minicab in Cardiff.

Bougoussa was jailed for three years in 2008 at Southwark Crown Court for sexually assaulting a woman in the back of his unlicensed minicab in central London.


On September 27, 2012, Bougoussa called Admiral Insurance claiming that he had been in a car accident on Kew Gardens Road in Richmond the day before while driving his Jaguar.

In his statement to Admiral Insurance, he stated that he had been driving at around 30mph when Chammeme pulled out of a side road in his Kia Sedona and collided with his car. He also mentioned that he had a passenger in the car with him.

He described Chammeme as an Asian man who he had never met before.

On September 26, 2012, Chammeme also made a report to Ageas Insurance claiming that he had an accident at 8.30pm while driving his Kia Sedona on Broomfield road in Richmond to see his family in London.

He stated that he came out of a side road and collided with Bougoussa’s Jaguar.

He also described Bougoussa as an Asian man who he has never seen before.
The investigation

Admiral insurers investigated and found that both men had in fact been housed at Littlehey prison at the same time and were both Tunisian nationals.

Following this revelation, Admiral instructed an engineer to inspect both vehicles.

They found that there was overlapping damage on Bougoussa’s Jaguar indicating multiple impacts between the two vehicles. They also found that the damage to the Jaguar was consistent with it being stationery.

Investigators also found that Broomfield Road has an open junction with good visibility and it seemed unlikely that Chammeme would not have seen Bougoussa’s approaching Jaguar.

The case was referred to the City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) who made additional enquiries.
The police inquiry

Detectives found that both men were in the same cell block with cells opposite each other for 11 months between 18 February 2009 and 15 January 2010.

Records also show that Chammeme requested to send £100 in cash to Bougoussa’s wife in order to buy clothes for him.

It also transpired that there was no passenger in Bougoussa’s Jaguar at the time of the accident.

Chammeme, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation at the Old Bailey on August 11 and was sentenced to nine months imprisonment, suspended for two years and ordered to undertake 120 hours unpaid work.

Bougoussa also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation at the Old Bailey on October 13 and was sentenced to nine months imprisonment, suspended for two years and put on a two year supervision order.


City of London Police Detective Constable, Paula Doyle, who led the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department’s investigation, said: “It is very clear from the evidence that Chammeme and Bougoussa planned and staged a “crash for cash” accident so that they could defraud their insurers out of thousands of pounds for damages, personal injury, vehicle hire and other expenses.

“They thought they could trick insurers into believing that they were strangers without realising that their past together in prison would resurface.

“This investigation is another example of the Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department and the Insurance industry working together to bring criminals to justice and help reduce people’s insurance premiums.”
Admiral: 'Hard work has resulted in justice'

Susan Evans, Head of Claims Fraud at Admiral Group, said: “We are very pleased with the sentences handed down from the Old Bailey in this crash for cash case yesterday.

“The hard work of the IFED and the Admiral Fraud Department has resulted in these men rightly being brought to justice.

“The collaboration that we are seeing across the industry is now unprecedented. The work done by the IFB in successfully engaging the public in reporting insurance fraud is helping insurers detect fraud earlier and more efficiently.

“IFED then undertaking the enforcement action is resulting in a coordinated response to these crimes.”

http://goo.gl/cjk89O