Edward Davey Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Treasury), Acting Leader, Liberal Democrats, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Social Justice)

I welcome the micro-loans scheme, but may I press the Chancellor to do more for the self-employed—in particular the self-employed who are not in his scheme, many of whom have only modest incomes, such as cleaners, builders, taxi drivers and musicians? Such self-employed people often work through limited companies, relying on dividends for income, and are getting little or no help, with devastating consequences.

 I know that the Treasury is worried about fraud, but I wrote to the Chancellor on 8 April with a Liberal Democrat proposal to help those self-employed people and protect the taxpayer. Will he please now help self-employed people who are dependent on dividends, before it is too late?

(Citation: HC Deb, 27 April 2020, c114)
Rishi Sunak The Chancellor of the Exchequer

The right hon. Gentleman mentioned groups that I engaged with specifically in the design of the self-employed scheme, and who I am fairly certain released reasonably positive comments on the day it was released, notably the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association and, I believe, one of the musicians’ federations.

 I spoke to them both personally as we developed the scheme, and I believe that they were very supportive at the time.

We have designed these schemes at pace to get support to as many people as we can in the time available, and the decisions that we have taken enable that. At this point, complicated changes to the schemes would just mean delay in getting support to millions of people who are either already in receipt of it or very shortly about to receive it.
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GLASGOW

TWO men charged with committing separate knifepoint robberies against taxi drivers within minutes of each other have been locked up.
 

Michael Glancy and Lee Gray are accused of carrying out the alleged hold-ups in Port Glasgow on Saturday April 18. 

Detectives were hunting suspects following raids on two cabs at around 4am in different parts of the town. 

Police said that the drivers of the vehicles had been left 'badly shaken' following the incidents.
Glancy, 35, and Gray, 37 — both of Port Glasgow — appeared separately in private on petition at Paisley Sheriff Court and made no plea. 

It's alleged that a man wearing a black and white Halloween-type mask threatened one cabbie with a knife and grabbed a two-figure sum of money in Grampian Road at 3.50am. 

In the other reported incident, police say the driver was robbed after taking a man from an address in Greenock to the Port. 

A knifeman is alleged to have pulled a blade on the driver and then fled with the taxi's keys and a piece of equipment from the vehicle following a physical struggle. 

Accused Gray appeared in court charged with two counts of alleged robbery and one of possession of a sharply pointed or bladed item. 

Glancy is facing one charge of robbery, one of blade possession and another of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner. 

Sheriff Sukwhinder Gill has remanded both men in custody and has continued their cases for further examination.

https://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/18403059.pair-charged-committing-separate-knifepoint-robberies-taxi-drivers-locked/

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LONDON

The advertising placed on the bodies of black taxis working in the capital now has its own green credentials thanks to one marketing company in the industry.

Ubiquitous who are one of the leading players in the taxi advertising market have developed a three point plan to ensure that their advertising strategies are green for both the trade and their clients going forwards.

Their first step is a simple and somewhat expected one; recruit as many cabbies that own a zero-emission capable taxi to place their adverts on.

A spokesperson from Ubiquitous said via their website: “Since the arrival of the hybrid LEVC TXe black taxi in London, we have seen a number of brands choose taxi advertising because the channel now offers a ‘green’ solution, and for many brands this is either already extremely important, or is growing more so.

“The advent of the TXe cab represented a watershed moment for Londoners; black taxis account for 20% of the NOx emissions in London – there is no doubt that having more TXes on the road (and fewer diesel cabs) will improve the quality of the air we breathe.

“Historically our campaigns have been on diesel taxis, but this has rapidly changed - hundreds of TXe drivers have already joined our media fleet. Ubiquitous sees this vehicle as the future of taxi advertising and we’re significantly invested in maintaining and building on the number of electric cabs that are available for brands.”

The second step focuses on the rest of the London taxi fleet currently driving around in diesel taxis. There are currently around 3,400 zero-emission capable taxis on London’s roads which make up the 18,000 vehicles in the capital.

As a result, Ubiquitous decided they needed to address the issue of diesel emissions from the classic TX taxis in its fleet and created an offsetting programme.

For as little as £1,000 brands can off-set the diesel emissions from a 4-week, 400-taxi advertising campaign.

So that’s the vehicles themselves turned green. What about the advertising wrapped on to the taxi?

Last winter Ubiquitous started and continue to test biodegradable vinyl, to assess its suitability for the exterior of hard-working, rain-or-shine, black cabs. However, the type of vinyl currently used during taxi campaigns goes into a landfill and can take centuries to degrade.

So, while Ubiquitous wait for a suitable biodegradable option to become available, the firm have found a unique alternative solution to bypass the landfill option.

Ubiquitous explained: “After conversations with the local authority that collects waste for Ubiquitous, they discovered that the council simply contracts-out the waste management to a third party, but under that agreement, just a limited number of waste solutions are available – only landfill for vinyl.

“So, our Ops Team took it up a notch and spoke directly to Veolia (the contracted provider) and guess what? They do offer a better solution for vinyl disposal: ‘waste-to-energy’ incineration. So, we quickly struck a direct deal with Veolia and committed to this greener strategy.”

Waste-to-energy incineration involves a high temperature burn of vinyl products that results in a zero-emission, zero-landfill output.

The energy is then cycled into power for the local community and the waste ash left is recycled as road surface aggregate.

Ubiquitous finally added: “We’re proud to have achieved our goal, and in doing so, to have created a new ’out of home’ (OOH) opportunity: Iconic black taxi advertising - now available in green.”

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/black-taxi-advertising-turns-green-ubiquitous-finds-solution-to-offer-eco-friendly-campaigns