Taxi and Private Hire law change will put the public in danger.... By Jim Thomas.

Unbelievably, baroness Kramer has come out in support of a relaxation in Taxi and Private Hire laws, that were put in place to protect public safety.

In most of the UK, only the licensee can drive a licensed minicab. But here in London a minicab driver can lend his vehicle to anyone. This has seen Cab related serious sexual assaults including rape statistics go through the roof.

Transport Minister Baroness Kramer said: "The Deregulation Bill will not put taxi passengers at risk and drivers will continue to have their backgrounds routinely checked. Councils will have strong tools to assess drivers’ and operators’ suitability and to carry out enforcement activity.

As London Taxi drivers know, proper enforcement from our licensing authority (TfL) is virtually non existent 

Baroness Kramer is hailing "the London experiment" has been a huge success. Unfortunately she is grossly mistaken.

There have been many minicab-related sexual assaults across Britain in the last year including places such as Cardiff, Birmingham and Nottingham, but nothing on the scale of Central London.

Last year, there were 37 serious sexual assaults, including rapes, in Manchester. But In London there were 71 just between April and November, considered by many as the quiet months, before the storm of the Christmas party season.

More:
http://taxileaks.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/taxi-and-private-hire-law-change-will.html

Comment:

It should be remembered that Baroness Kramer used to be a Vice President of Citibank Chicago. her husband John used to work for Goldman Sachs.

Both these Companies, were coincidently involved in the Carlyse Group take over of Addisson Lee.

Also note the phrase 'London Experiment'. 

The Law Commission have repeatedly used the words level playing, in relation to London, Plymouth and the rest of the UK.

London have no limit on the number of Hackney carriages, over 80% of the rest of the U.K. have no limit on Hackneys.

Where does that leave Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire, in terms of leveling the playing field.

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ComCab drivers using other taxi apps 

Dear Driver

Over the past couple of years a number of ComCab drivers have taken to downloading and using a variety of third party taxi apps, including Hailo, and other similar apps.

ComCab has always taken a relaxed approach to this, knowing that a driver can do what they like on their own mobile phone, including downloading and using other apps. Our view was that provided the use of such apps does not interfere with the workings of the circuit, or the interests of our customers and drivers, we were really not too worried.

More recently however there has been an increasing sense of confusion among our account customers about drivers who are on ComCab whilst using another app. We have also seen a rise in complaints regarding drivers using other apps whilst fulfilling a ComCab account trip and ComCab taxis carrying branding for other apps, again most commonly this has been Hailo branding.

Now, we find the confusion and anxiety from our customers and our drivers has dramatically increased since the announcement by Hailo of their apparent intentions to offer private hire services over the Hailo app and to use this to target corporate account customers.

Irrespective of anyone’s view on that decision, many ComCab drivers who were using Hailo now feel the service no longer represents their interests. Our customers are now more uncertain than ever about the position of a ComCab driver who also uses the Hailo app. The fallout from this change of Hailo’s position means we are forced to take a firmer compliance line regarding third party apps going forward.

Therefore, with effect from 1” June 2014, ComCab will consider the use of any other taxi hailing app, and the carrying of any other taxi app or service branding, as conduct prejudicial to the interests of the circuit, its drivers and its customers. Any drivers found using another taxi hailing app, or carrying any other app stickers, logos, seats ads or other branding may find themselves subject to compliance proceedings and suspended from the ComCab service while that process takes place.

ComCab is enjoying good growth in job numbers from major account clients. This benefits our drivers. We cannot afford to risk that work by confusing our customers with contradictory branding and the impression that ComCab drivers are not entirely focussed on servicing our important and loyal clients. We do not want the ComCab brand tarnished by the decisions of others or confused with any account offering by Hailo or any other app operator.

Of course, you can still benefit from all the work generated by our own ComCab taxi app – this is work which comes direct to your in-cab MDT without the need for you to download any app or pay any cut of the fare to us. 
We have received a lot of feedback from ex-Hailo drivers on this subject and we believe the majority of our fleet support this position.

May I take this opportunity to thank all our ComCab drivers for their ongoing loyalty, support and coverage of our major account work.

Yours faithfully

Malcolm Paice 
General Manager – ComCab London