LONDON

The all-new British-built and engineered Range Extended Electric (REE) Metrocab has been tested for the first time by London's taxi drivers and Mayor Boris Johnson.

Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA) General Secretary Steve McNamara, and London Cab Drivers Club (LCDC) Chairman Grant Davis, visited Metrocab's Surrey testing facility with their respective members to evaluate the Metrocab from a passenger and driver perspective. 

Following static observations the Metrocab was experienced first-hand on the test track and the association members were left impressed by the power delivery, ride quality and handling. 

Steve McNamara commented: "It's a smooth, quiet, electric vehicle. I'm a great fan of them and I think they are the future. Not just because of the emissions and environment but the silence. The worst thing about sitting in London traffic is sitting alongside noisy buses and diesel cars."

Grant Davis added: "Our members drove it today and everyone said they were impressed, amazingly impressed. I think the Metrocab gives the cab trade in London a great new future."

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "It's superb, an absolutely beautiful machine and a masterpiece of British engineering. I have just driven it and it's totally silent. It's the Rolls Royce of taxis and it will do 100mpg."


The Metrocab's REE technology delivers a range of 560km, typically saving a London taxi driver £20-£40 per day based on the average day and night duty cycle in the capital.

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SAN ANTONIO -- It was nearly a standing room only crowd of cab drivers and Lyft drivers that filled a room at downtown’s Municipal Plaza building to address members of the public safety committee.  

The meeting was also attended by San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, who addressed the committee on the city’s standing “Vehicle for Hire” ordinance. 

At issue was Chief McManus sending a cease and desist letter to the rideshare company, Lyft.

Lyft offers car rides to anyone who downloads the app to their smartphone. The passengers pay via a credit or debit car for their ride. Lyft’s signature trait is a large pink mustache adorned on the front of the car. 

The cars are privately owned usually by the driver. 

McManus said car ridesharing companies such as Lyft and Uber violates a city ordinance because companies are not inspected by the city. The driver’s also do not have to undergo background checks by the city.  

Both companies say they implement their own checks on their employees. 

Most of the cab drivers presented held handmade signs that read, “Support Your Local Cab Drivers.”

The concern is the adoption of Lyft and Uber in San Antonio will heavily cut into taxi cab profits. 

"What would Dr. Martin Luther King have said about that?” asked one cab driver who spoke. “I tell you what he would have said…Shame on you, shame on you, shame on you for embracing a bigoted, outdated business model.”

It was a shot at how the Lyft app rates drivers and drivers can rate passengers. 

"What If I don’t have a smart phone or a social media account or a credit card,” said John Bouloubasis to the committee. “I cannot ride. You're discriminating in a class of people.”

Leandre Johns, a spokesperson for Uber, says the controversy is nothing new to the company. 

"When you have new technology coming in, you have new ideas coming in you’re going to have opposition to it and that's what we've seen in every city that we've been in,” Johns said. 

Supporters of the rideshare companies say this falls right into place for what Mayor Castro has dubbed “City on The Rise” mantra. 

"If we are truly a city on the rise, a great city, a Google Fiber city,…we need as many tools in our tool box as we can when it comes to transportation," said Luke Holland representing LOOP, Leadership Organization of Professionals. 

"April is historically on the road in our area. The Launch of both Lyft and Uber marked a new triumph for the city and its fight against drunk and impaired driving - a costly act that saw more than 25,000 alcohol related accidents last year,” said Thea Setterbo. 

At the end of the discussion, Councilman Mike Gallagher was most vocal in saying he did not support any amendment what would make the current ordinance “weaker.”

The ordinance has been in place for more than 30 years. 

“We will look to see what is going on with other cities and what they are trying to rectify the issue and we'll come back to you in 60 days or if you want, we can do 30 days,” McManus said. 


Until any changes happen, McManus says police will still arrest Lyft drivers.

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Dudley.

THE first of a number of changes to taxi regulations in Dudley borough have come into force.

Hackney carriages now have to display door stickers showing the council’s logo.

Under measures agreed earlier this year by the council’s taxis committee door stickers have from April 1 become compulsory for hackney carriages and from June 1 private hire vehicles and hackney carriage vehicles will be allowed to be any colour.


People should report hackney carriages in Dudley which are failing to show the correct door stickers by calling the council's licensing team on 01384 815377.

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Edinburgh

CONTROVERSIAL plans to install CCTV cameras in taxis across the Capital are set to become reality.

The city council is expected to agree “in principle” to the idea when a report goes before the regulatory committee tomorrow.

Objections have been made that the cameras would constitute an “invasion of privacy”, with some couples arguing for the right to “canoodle” in the back seat without having to worry they are being watched.

But this has been dismissed by Tony Kenmuir, director of Central Taxis, who said: “People should not be behaving like that anyway in a privately owned vehicle.”

The Edinburgh and Lothian Taxi Partnership has been campaigning for the cameras for several years in a bid to cut down incidents ranging from disputes over fares to verbal or physical abuse against drivers.

Mr Kenmuir said the cameras would also help protect passengers, including women and vulnerable children.

He said: “Most people think of us picking up shoppers, running business people about and picking up revellers at night but we do a lot of others things.

“Our major contract is with the council and we are regularly driving unaccompanied and vulnerable children from foster homes to care homes. We also do things for the NHS, often driving around with sensitive materials and urgent prescriptions.

“There are a lot of sensitive situations involving taxis.

“Occasionally people do make spurious accusations that the driver did this or did that and to some extent we want to protect the driver.

“We have people trying to burst out without paying and people being highly abusive. If anything, my view is that CCTV is as much – if not more so – for the benefit of the passenger.”

Kevin Wood, chairman of Central Taxis, said he supported the idea because it provided protection for both customers and drivers.

But he insisted that footage had to be the property of the council or the police, and that drivers should not have access to any of the recordings.

Under the plans, sound recordings could also be made but it is understood that drivers would have to inform passengers before the system was activated.

Guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office states that CCTV “must not be used to record conversations between members of the public, as this is highly intrusive and unlikely to be a justified infringement of their right to privacy”. However, the report also said that audio recording would be justified in “certain circumstances”, including instances when a taxi’s panic button is flipped.

Councillor Gavin Barrie, convener of the regulatory committee, said: “There is a report going to committee tomorrow recommending that the council agrees in principle to consult on whether licence holders should be allowed to fit such cameras to their vehicles, subject to certain conditions.”

SAFEGUARDS would be put in place to make sure recorded images were not misused.

The council would pay for administrative and operational costs for inspecting the vehicles which would be recovered by a one-off £50 inspection fee.

If approved, black cab drivers and private hire cars across the Capital would be given the choice of having them installed but stickers would inform passengers they were being filmed.


The proposals will be subject to a six-month consultation period.

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Wolverhampton

A passenger stole a taxi in the Midlands and drove it to London before leading police on a high-speed chase around the streets of the capital, a court has heard.

Louis Anglin, of Willenhall, grabbed the driver from behind before taking off in the £13,500 car and driving it more than 120 miles.

Anglin, aged 20, of Littleton Road, was jailed for two years.

Wolverhampton Crown Court was told that he had been picked up by the taxi just after 6am on January 25 from the Grosvenor Casino in Walsall.

Mr Robert Edwards, prosecuting, told the court that the taxi driver had turned the car around when Anglin began acting suspiciously.

He said: "They were heading towards Willenhall when Anglin asked the driver if he could stop to pick up a friend.

"He also asked if there were any weapons in the car, so he decided to turn around and go back to the casino."

He said Anglin grabbed the driver who had got out of the car to run away and tried to take the car keys with him.

Mr Edwards said: "He couldn't grab the keys and and Anglin got into the drivers seat and drove the car away."

He was later spotted by an automatic number plate recognition camera in Tower Hamlets in London which alerted the Metropolitan Police, Mr Edwards said.

"The police had their blue lights and sirens on and he immediately stopped," he said.

"The vehicle then completed a u-turn and drove off. The vehicle was seen to undertake cars and drive at speeds of 60 miles per hour in built up areas."

Miss Sarah Allen, for Anglin, said: "He is a 20 years old, and still a young man who has managed to rack up quite a number of previous convictions.

"He has some difficulty with authority. The way he acts is impulsively and poorly.

"It is difficult for him to see a way forward. He will be moved from a youth offenders to an adult prison and that may be something that changes him."

Anglin admitted robbery, dangerous driving and driving with no insurance or license.

Judge Michael Challinor sentenced him to 18 months for the robbery and six months for the dangerous driving. He was given no separate penalty for the other two offences, but was banned from driving for two years.

Judge Challinor said: "You have an unexplained difficulty with authority figures. You are a dangerous young man but you have your whole life ahead of you.


"Stop losing your temper and being impulsive and begin to live a proper and industrious life which you are clearly capable of."
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Lochaber drivers fail to stop taxi fare hike

A CONTROVERSIAL taxi fare hike in the Highlands has been imposed by licensing chiefs – despite dozens of Lochaber drivers demanding the brakes be put on the move.

Passengers will have to fork out an extra 30p, regardless of the distance travelled, when they are first picked up by taxis in the “flag fall” – the initial amount on the meter.

It is currently £2.50, £3 and £3.60 for weekdays, nights and weekends and festive holidays, respectively.

The new rate, which was agreed by the Highland Licensing Board on Tuesday, will come into effect from May 26.

An increase in the cost of outward journeys for hires starting three miles or more away from the taxi or its home base, whichever is the nearest, was also ratified. It will go up from £6.50 to a maximum of £7.50.

More than 40 taxi drivers in Lochaber had objected to the price increase and called for drivers in rural locations to be licensed separately from Inverness.

They said they were struggling to attract passengers and warned the fare hike was not in their interest.

But board convener Maxine Smith said the Lochaber drivers had the flexibility to offer a cheaper rate to passengers if they wanted to. Taxi operators can charge any fare, provided it does not exceed the maximum provided for in the tariff.

The Inverness Taxi Alliance had suggested a revised tariff in line with that charged by Perth and Kinross Council, but Councillor Smith said it wanted to limit price increases because the economic climate was still challenging.

“There has been a lot of press coverage and a representation from Lochaber taxis who feel they don’t want an increase at all,” said Councillor Smith. “I think it is reasonable given that there are still some austerity measures and this is not as expensive for the public as suggested by the Inverness Taxi Alliance. Lochaber can do what they want to make it more palatable to their customers.”

Committee member and Lochaber councillor Allan Henderson said he had “no problem” with the fare change because there was scope for drivers in his area to charge less.

The fare increases are the first in 18 months.

The committee had insisted it had considered the costs of operating taxis like fuel and vehicle maintenance.

There are 786 licensed taxi drivers in the region.

A small working group, comprising senior board members, was set up to hold regular meetings with taxi groups to debate issues like pricing in future.