LONDON CAB COMPANY

Carl-Peter Forster, the car boss who helped drive Jaguar Land Rover back into the black from the depths of recession, has taken the helm at Coventry's London Taxi Company.

Mr Forster, who stepped down as chief executive at Tata Motors in September 2011, has been unveiled as chairman of the Chinese-owned producer of the world-famous London Black Cab.

Mr Forster is a senior adviser to the firm's parent company, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, and has been a member of the board of both Volvo Cars Corporation and Geely Automobile Holdings since 2013.

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group rescued the London Taxi Company from administration in February 2013, restarting production of black cabs six months later.

Mr Forster has previously held senior positions at major automotive manufacturers such as BMW and GM Europe, where he was in charge of Opel and Saab operations.

He is best known in the West Midlands for his spell at Tata Motors, where, as Global Group Chief Executive Officer, he was also responsible for Jaguar Land Rover.

He left suddenly in September 2011, citing ‘unavoidable personal circumstances.' He had previously been credited, along with fellow German Ralf Speth, with turning around the fortunes of JLR, reversing vast losses into profits with a range of new models and creating thousands of new jobs.

http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/business/business-news/ex-jlr-boss-takes-helm-london-8822418
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TAXI drivers across the town are appealing for Warrington Borough Council to do more to support and protect them on the job.

Warrington Hackney Owners & Drivers Association (WHODA) has highlighted issues such as poor co-operation, unreasonable car checks and a lack of safety measures.

Recent cases have brought drivers under the spotlight but those pinned with the duty of transporting Warrington residents from place to place believe more should be done.

Approximately 149 licensed Hackney vehicles and 403 private hire vehicles currently operate in the borough.
"The implementation of the council's taxi policies which affect the drivers lacks consultation and communication with the drivers through a proper channel" said general secretary of WHODA, Khalid Hashmi.

"There has not been much support from the council, in terms of driver safety, even though we as taxi drivers provide this service on behalf of the council.

"They have mentioned things they want to do but nothing has happened.

"There is now more scrutiny on the state of the taxi vehicles - also drivers are now getting failed for having minor scratches and dents which are usually caused by the drunken passengers."


http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/11853988._/
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GLASGOW

Michael Boyd, 33, is facing jail for a series of creepy cab rides in Glasgow where he locked several women in his vehicle and asked them why he didn't have a girlfriend.

The Hampden Cabs driver also ogled female passengers and sat outside their houses for as long as half an hour after dropping them off,

Boyd admitted placing four women in a state of fear and alarm and lying to council bosses to get a taxi license when he appeared in court earlier this year.

He will have to wait to learn his fate - because a sheriff was only given a crucial psychiatric assessment "seconds" before he was due to sentence him.

He locked one terrified woman in the back of his private hire vehicle and told her he wanted to have sex with her.

He made the chilling comments to the woman while driving down a back road after pretending he was an old friend.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard that Boyd had been working as a taxi driver in his home town of Kilmarnock in 2013.
Several women made complaints about his behaviour while they were in his cab so he surrendered his license.

He then applied to East Renfrewshire council for a license to drive taxis in and around the Glasgow area.

He lied to get the new license, saying he had never held a taxi drivers' license before on his application form.

East Renfrewshire Council granted him a taxi driver's license on April 7 last year and he began driving for Hampden Cabs.

The incidents, which took place in Glasgow's Dennistoun area, the town of Barrhead and village of Neilston, East Renfrewshire, began taking place just a few weeks later.

When Boyd admitted his guilt Sheriff David Pender called for him to be assessed by social workers and a group that works with sex offenders in Renfrewshire.

He returned to the dock last month and sentence was deferred again after a social worker who interviewed Boyd suggested he be examined by a forensic psychiatrist.

He was back in court yesterday, expecting to finally receive his punishment his summer 2014 offences.

But Sheriff David Pender was unable to pass sentence because he received the crucial psychiatric assessment just seconds before the case began.

A court worker brought three copies of the assessment into the courtroom just before the case started.

He deferred sentence on Boyd until next week.


http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/taxi-driver-locked-women-in-cab-and-threatened-rape-200029n.120562076
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CONTROVERSIAL plans to make it easier for private hire taxis to operate in Worcester have been delayed until July - after angry cabbies packed into a council meeting to call it "disgraceful".

Worcester City Council wants to scrap the stringent exams private cabbies currently sit, which is based on detailed knowledge of city roads, and replace it with a watered-down version without any need to know anything about the routes.

Furious hackney carriage drivers have labelled it "a simpleton test" and say it will worsen standards and flood the market with new private hire drivers relying on SatNavs to get around.
The city council's licensing committee, which has going to launch it from April, has told officers to come back to the table with a better exam after viewing it in a meeting last night.

The main reason why the authority is launching an easier test is because the Law Commission has advised central Government that private hire cabbies do not need the same local knowledge as hackney drivers, which use the ranks.


http://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/news/evesham/11851317._/
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