Newcastle, Staffs.

FURIOUS taxi drivers have launched a petition to fight plans to tighten age restrictions on their vehicles.

Newcastle Borough Council is looking to stop re-licensing hackney carriage cars when they are eight-years-old.

But 87 cabbies have added their names to a campaign s against the proposals.

Members of the Newcastle and Kidsgrove Taxi Association fear the cost of buying a new vehicle will put many of them out of business.

Chairman Tariq Mahmood, aged 50, of North Road, Cobridge, who has been working as a cabbie taxi driver for eight years, said: “A lot of won’t be able to afford to buy new cars if this restriction is passed. Just because a car is old, it doesn’t mean it is unsafe.

“There are buses still operating which are older than 20 years and we don’t put an age limit on those.

“It just doesn’t make sense why they are targeting taxis.

“At the end of the day, it is our livelihoods at stake and it would be devastating for a lot of drivers if this was passed.

“At the moment, it is a struggle for many of us to keep afloat and if this policy is passed, we will be out of business.”

Saloon cars can currently remain licensed as hackney carriages as long as they pass an annual MOT, while those licensed as private hire vehicles have to be ‘retired’ after eight years.

Officers believe applying the same rule to all saloon taxis will ensure their safety and reliability.

Plans for the rule change come after the council temporarily shut Hassell Street in the town centre as part of a major project to upgrade and relocate the town market.

Cabbies have been complaining the closure is also damaging their trade.

The work – which will see a new night-time taxi rank created – began last month and is expected to be completed by mid-April.

Group secretary Teresa Jones said: “I have no idea who has complained about the state of hackney carriages because we have had a good fleet for the last five years.

“Hackney carriages are part of the national transport system.

“We have got buses running around in Newcastle which are older that don’t get taken off so I can’t see where it is coming from that the vehicles should be taken off the road.

“There are currently more than 157 hackney carriages in Newcastle and these cars are tested by the council and they have MOTS and they are kept in good condition.

“A car which is five-years-old could have done more miles than an eight-year-old car.

“We are talking about a massive increase in fares if every eight-year-old vehicle is taken off the road meaning that taxi drivers will have to buy a new car.

“The drivers have already suffered with the closure of Hassell Street and this is just another blow for them.”

Members of the council’s public protection committee will make a decision on the age rules next month.
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Sutton

River suspected of falling asleep at the wheel.

The taxi crashed onto Mrs Crossby's driveway and into her car.

A cab driver ploughed into three parked cars after allegedly falling asleep at the wheel.

Grandparents Jean, 64, and Robert Crossby, 71, were woken up by a loud thud in the early hours of Sunday morning after a taxi careered into their drive and crashed into their Volkswagen Touareg, in Middleton Road, Carshalton.

Mrs Crossby, who has lived in the house for 40 years, looked out the window to see a taxi where her car normally sat while hers had been pushed sideways into the house.

She said: "I thought someone was breaking in. I woke my husband up and I thought someone was trying to break the door down.

"The back wheel was on my next door neighbour’s car. Luckily enough we’ve got a drive that’s got a step down - that’s the only thing that stopped it going through my house.

"It still hit the house but would have been worse - it would have gone straight through.

"I said to him, when I opened the door, ‘what have you done?’ and he said ‘I have had an accident’. I said ‘well you can see that’.

"My husband said ‘have you been drinking?’and he said ‘I fell asleep’.

"It is a dangerous road anyway. But you don’t expect that. It was a freak accident.

"The police breathalysed him and he was clear. We had to go and knock on the other neighbour’s doors and let them know their cars were involved. It was pretty unbelievable."

Mrs Crossby is set to get a replacement car and has reported the crash to Sutton Housing Partnership as a precaution - to make sure the house is still structurally sound.

A spokesperson for Sutton Police said they were called at 5.30am to reports of a car being involved in a collision with four parked vehicles and added: "One of the vehicles ended up in a resident’s garden.

"The driver’s details have been taken and sent to the Met’s traffic team for further investigation."
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Chicago

The rise of the Taxi Snatchers.

Ray Markovich started driving a taxi in Chicago three years ago after shuttering his struggling wireless phone store. Driving a cab wasn’t particularly gratifying or lucrative—he had to pay $400 a week just to lease his 2011 white Ford Escape. It was predictable if monotonous work.

Well, there’s nothing monotonous about it now. In June, Markovich, a thin, well-dressed man with short brown hair and spots of gray in his mustache and goatee, walked into the local office of Uber, the San Francisco-based taxi technology startup. Uber put him through an hour of orientation, gave him a free iPhone that carries its car dispatch app and some gear to mount it on the windshield, and sent him on his way.

Since then, Markovich has had to dodge flak from traditional cabbies who complain that they can no longer pick up riders in the city’s tonier neighborhoods, and he’s receiving a constant flood of e-mails from Uber itself, offering steep discounts on new cars and other perks to secure his loyalty. At the same time, he has increased his earnings by about 20 percent and says he’s simply evolving along with his customers. “No one under the age of 40 with a smartphone is going out and getting a cab anymore,” says Markovich. “I say if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

There’s a battle for the future of transportation being waged outside our offices and homes. Uber and a growing collection of well-funded startups, such as the ride-sharing service Lyft, are trying to make getting a taxi as easy as booking a reservation on OpenTable (OPEN) or checking a price on Amazon.com (AMZN)—just another thing you do with your smartphone. Flush with Silicon Valley venture capital, these companies have an even grander ambition: They want to make owning a car completely unnecessary. They’re battling each other, city regulators, entrenched taxi interests, and critics who claim they are succeeding only because they run roughshod over laws meant to protect public safety. “Being out in front of the taxi industry, putting a bull’s-eye on our back, has not been easy,” says Travis Kalanick, the 37-year-old chief executive of Uber. “The taxi industry has been ripe for disruption for decades. But only technology has allowed it to really kick in.”

“I pushed a freaking button, and a car showed up, and now I’m a pimp,” is how Kalanick described to colleagues the vibe he wanted

Nearly four years ago, Uber introduced the idea of allowing passengers to book the nearest town car by smartphone, then track the vehicle on a map as it approaches their location. After the ride, the service automatically compensates the driver from the customer’s preloaded credit card—no awkward tipping required. It’s a simple experience and a much more pleasant way to get a ride than stepping onto a busy street and waving at oncoming traffic.

Uber has raised $307 million from a group of backers that include Google Ventures, Google’s (GOOG) investment arm, and Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. It operates in 70 cities around the world and was on track to book more than $1 billion annually in rides in 2013, according to financial information that leaked to the gossip website Valleywag last November. In February alone, Uber expanded to Dubai, Honolulu, Lyon, Manila, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Tucson, Ariz., and Durban, South Africa.

In the process, Uber has managed to become one of the most loved and hated startups of the smartphone age. Its customers rave about the reliability and speed of the service even as they bitterly complain about so-called surge pricing, the elevated rates Uber charges during hours of high demand. Uber has also been blocked from operating in several markets, including Miami and Austin, Tex., by regulators out to protect the interests of consumers or entrenched incumbents, depending on whom you ask. In Boston and Chicago, taxi operators have sued their cities for allowing unregulated companies to devalue million-dollar operating permits. Things grew especially heated recently in Paris, when incensed taxi drivers shut down highway exits to the main airports and gridlocked city traffic.

Kalanick calls the cab industry a “protectionist scheme.” He says these protests are not about the drivers but cab companies “that would prefer not to compete at all and like things the way they are.”

His opponents are equally critical. They accuse Uber of risking passengers’ lives by putting untested drivers on the road, offering questionable insurance, and lowering prices as part of a long-term conspiracy to kill the competition, among other alleged transgressions. Fueling the anti-Uber cause is the tragic case of a 6-year-old girl in San Francisco who was struck and killed by an Uber driver. “Would you feel comfortable if you had a 21-year-old daughter living alone in the city, using a smartphone app to get in a vehicle for hire, and that vehicle ends up being a 2001 Chevy Astro van with 300,000 miles on it?” says Trevor Johnson, one of the directors of the San Francisco Cab Drivers Association. “I’ve made it my personal mission to make it as difficult as possible for these guys to operate.”

http://tinyurl.com/mtzs4ep
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Retford, Notts



Police are urging the public to come forward after a woman was dumped at the side of the road just outside Retford by a bogus taxi driver who returned to rob her.

The force would like to speak to witnesses after the 24-year-old victim was robbed near North View Farm, between Retford United's ground and the Welham/Little Gringley crossroads on Leverton Road, at about 8.30pm on Tuesday, February 11.

The victim was in Retford when she got into the attacker's car, thought to be a dark saloon, mistakenly thinking it was a taxi.

While they were driving along Leverton Road, the man pulled over and got her out of the car. He drove off before returning to take her phone and handbag.

The man was Asian in appearance, in his late 20s/ early 30s, with dark hair. He was clean shaven, just under 6ft, and of medium build. He wore dark clothing, including a polo shirt with a jumper or cardigan on top.

When the Times reported the attack on www.retford times.co.uk readers reacted with shock and concern.

'This is terrible,' wrote one. 'What is the world coming to?'

Another said: 'What's happening in our little town? The poor woman. Take care ladies when travelling home.'

The reaction was so strong because the incident was initially announced as a sexual assault - which would have been the second such crime in a matter of days in the town.

But two days later the Times was told by Chief Inspector Paul Murphy that the police were no longer pursuing the sexual nature of the attack.

"We are investigating the matter as a robbery and keeping an open mind," he said. "We'd like people to keep an eye on how much they're drinking and think about how they're going to get home.

"Before getting into what you think is a taxi, check it has a licence plate and make a note of the registration number."

Chief Insp Murphy said officers were out in Retford on Saturday night to reassure people about the two crimes, both of which he said were isolated and unconnected. Police are appealing for witnesses to the Leverton Road attack to come forward.

Did you see the dark saloon? Did you see the woman on the side of the road? Or perhaps you recognise the suspect's description?

If so, you can call Notts Police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
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Glasgow's taxi drivers have the knowledge when it comes to issues that matter in the city

They have an answer or solution to any problem, their general knowledge is astounding, they have the best gossip when it comes to famous people getting cabs when they've obviously had one or two sherries (unfortunately in my experience the stories are usually about me, a kebab and serenading them with the one Celine Dion song I know in French at 3am in the morning) and they are now the 'go to' men and women for Independence debates.

In the last week I've had two or three drivers debate the upcoming referendum with such passion and gusto while sitting in the back of their cars I'm certain even Jeremy Paxman would have found it hard to outsmart them when it comes to the bare facts or lack of them.

Yes our taxi drivers are a force to be reckoned with and I'm sure everyone of us has a funny or embarrassing story they could recount, I have many although one does stand head and shoulders above the rest.

It was 1998 and my parents and three younger sisters were in Spain on holiday leaving myself and my younger sister Lynsey home alone for the first time ever and in charge of the house.

My mother had spent the best part of an hour before she left carefully describing to us the world of pain we were in for if we even dared to misbehave or step out of line.

We both promised to be perfect angels but of course the reality was that only three hours after waving them all goodbye our house had 40 teenagers squeezed into it for the party of the century.

I awoke the next day with a phone call from my manager asking why I hadn't turned up for work that morning to which I responded with some wild excuse and promised to be at my desk within the hour.

I jumped into a shower and opened my wardrobe door to find all of my clothes gone and one single coat hanger swinging on the rail.

Turns out my younger sisters had emptied every wardrobe and drawer into their suitcases and left us with nothing.

I've always been on the bigger side and must have been a good size 18 even back then but I managed to find an oversized silk shirt (it was the 90s) and a Lycra size 12 skirt.

It took all my strength to get the skirt over my hips and backside but even Dynamo couldn't get the zip to close which was fine as the shirt covered most of the skirt anyway.

I called a taxi and in no time was zooming over the M8 and on my way to work.

Now to this day I'm still not quite sure what exactly happened but I think I tried to cross my legs while sitting in the back seat chatting to the driver when my skirt gave up the fight and split completely up the back through the zip and because it was made from Lycra flew off my body and into the passenger seat of the car leaving me wearing nothing but a satin shirt and a pair of 15 denier tights which now had a huge ladder up them caused by the force and speed of which the skirt was ripped off my body.

To say that poor taxi driver almost went into cardiac arrest would be an understatement and I spent the remainder of the cab journey back to my house trying to convince him that I didn't take my skirt off and throw it at him.

Yes that's my embarrassing taxi story so if you were that taxi driver and you're still in therapy I apologise and for future drivers fear not my clothes will remain firmly on unless of course you start asking me questions such as 'what's that Simon Cowell was really like?", then I'm afraid all bets are off.

http://tinyurl.com/o7zu2fc
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New york

Plans to switch off Taxi meter's if Cab goes over speed limit.

City officials have no clue who will foot the bill to outfit taxis with a device to turn off the meter whenever the driver is speeding — and the technology may not even ­exist yet.

The proposal is part of a sweeping, 63-point safety plan called “Vision Zero” that the city says will likely cost tens of millions of dollars in an ambitious effort to eliminate all traffic deaths by 2024.

Taxi and Limousine Commission spokesman Allan Fromberg said Wednesday that critical details of Mayor de Blasio’s meter-shutdown idea have yet to be addressed, including determining whether the technology on which it would rely has been invented.

“It’s unclear if it exists as to exactly what we will want to accomplish,” Fromberg said.

The TLC spokesman also said the issue of cost — and who would pay to put the gear in each of the city’s 13,000-plus yellow cabs — “will be part and parcel of the exploratory process.”

De Blasio spokesman Phil Walzak said “final cost determinations” for Vision Zero would be included in de Blasio’s executive budget, expected by early May.

Taxi-meter experts said they hadn’t heard of the type of technology that de Blasio wants, but said it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.

“Technically, anything can be done,” an industry source said.

“The only question is how much the engineering costs.”

Michael Aula, a technician at American Taximeter and Communications in Long Island City, Queens, said the “simplest way” would be to tinker with the onboard computer that collects trip data using global-positioning satellites.

Two high-ranking NYPD sources were skeptical of the mayor’s proposal, saying well-heeled riders could easily pay their drivers to ignore the meter and speed them to their destinations.

“I don’t see how this is going to work,” one source said. “They really need to think this out more.”

Another police source said “it could really complicate things both for the driver and the passenger” and “lead to fighting over the fare” if the meter shuts down.

Meanwhile, an internal Department of Transportation report obtained by The Post reveals that despite de Blasio’s stated goal of zero traffic deaths by 2024, the DOT set targets of more than 100 fatalities a year past 2030.

According to the Feb. 4 report, titled “NYC Traffic Fatalities Dashboard,” the DOT set a “target” of 229 deaths last year — but a total of 289 pedestrians, drivers, passengers, motorcyclists and bike riders were actually killed on city streets and highways.

A DOT spokesman insisted, “As the mayor announced this week, the goal is to eliminate fatalities on New York City streets.”
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