PORTSMOUTH
A woman was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a man posing as a taxi driver in Portsmouth.
Police today revealed that the 28-year-old victim was attacked in the early hours of Sunday.
A Hampshire Constabulary spokesman said: ‘The incident happened some time between 3am and 4.30am. The victim was in Guildhall Walk, Portsmouth, when she was approached by a man who posed as a taxi driver; he led her to his car in Dorothy Dymond Street and drove off with the victim.
‘It is alleged that the man sexually assaulted the woman in the car before she managed to escape from the vehicle in Purbrook Heath. The woman alerted police to the incident shortly after at 4.30am.
‘A 38-year-old man from Portsmouth has been arrested on suspicion of kidnap – common law and sexual assault on a female. He has been bailed until July 28.
‘Police would like to hear from anyone who witnessed the incident, or anyone who has been approached recently by a man posing to be a taxi driver in Portsmouth.
‘Anyone with information is asked to call 101 quoting 44160163366.’
http://goo.gl/bQWMkC
----------------------------------------------
DARTFORD
Independent and family-run cab companies – some of which have been in the town for decades – say they fear closing or downsizing after budget taxi firm Uber started advertising for more drivers, specifically from Dartford.
Uber is an increasingly popular app-only taxi service, where users can book simply by tapping their details into a smartphone. It sends back the driver’s name and vehicle, and payment is cashless as credit card information has already been logged.
Uber is not licensed with Dartford council, but local cabbies say they have seen a rising trend in Uber drivers encroaching on the town’s streets by loitering on the border with London, and then hanging around Kent towns after booked jobs.
A Messenger reporter put it to the test, requesting an Uber between Dartford and Northfleet. His first trip, with “Ahmed”, was free – an Uber perk.
For his return identical journey at £15.90 he was picked up in Northfleet by Ilulian
Laurentiu within minutes of making the booking, despite the town being 10 miles from the London border.
Said Djannine, the owner of DA1 Cars, said: “The amount of work we have in Dartford is already limited – there’s not enough for more people to come in without it affecting us.
“They’re doing everything they can to kill off other licensed businesses until they’re all that’s left, and then just watch – the cheap fares will end and they’ll rocket the prices up, with no competition left to stop them.
“Of course, it’s competition. We’ve always had competition, but this competition really isn’t fair.”
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/dartford/news/taxi-drivers-fear-closure-as-95411/
Thursday, 5 May 2016
Parliament TV. Wednesday 4 May.
Click on the following link, debates start at 18:55 PM and last for 35 minutes.
http://goo.gl/KToj26
Click on the following link, debates start at 18:55 PM and last for 35 minutes.
http://goo.gl/KToj26
Wednesday, 4 May 2016
COVENTRY
Four-year-old disabled boy lifted from chair and carried out of city-built black cab
Noah Wall whose wheelchair had to be lifted out of a taxi by Coventry firefighters after the taxi ramp broke
Firefighters came to the rescue to get a wheelchair out of a Coventry taxi after the ramp buckled.
Disabled four-year-old Noah Wall was lifted out of his heavy wheelchair and carried out of the city-built black cab.
But that left his mum puzzling how to get the wheelchair out without risking pushing it down the damaged ramp.
In the end firefighters from Coventry Fire Station were called to haul the chair out of the taxi.
Since the incident, Noah and his mum Shelly have been invited by the London Taxi Company to help redesign the ramp on the black cabs.
The drama began when Shelly Wall, 44, called a taxi for herself, Noah and her 23-year-old daughter Steph to travel to their hotel in The Butts, Spon End.
The family, from Cumbria, were staying in the hotel on a visit to Coventry to find a vehicle adapted for carrying Noah’s wheelchair.
Shelly was horrified when the ramp buckled as Noah’s wheelchair was pushed into the taxi.
When the family reached the hotel Noah was carried inside leaving Shelly puzzling about how to get the wheelchair out.
She didn’t want to risk pushing it down the buckled ramp. The hotel manager arrived to help and called the fire brigade.
Full time mum Shelly, who campaigns on disability issues, said: “I didn’t want to risk pushing the wheelchair down a buckled ramp.
“My daughter took Noah inside and went to fetch the hotel manager who called the fire brigade.
“People need to know when they are calling a taxi that they need to check if the ramp can take a wheelchair"
“I want to raise awareness that this is something that can happen.”
She added: “If it started tipping with him in it then I wouldn’t be able to personally save him from tipping. I’m not going to put my son at risk.”
Noah is partially paralysed. He has spina bifida and hydrocephalus.
Read more Visually impaired Coventry student refused taxi with guide dog 'because of driver's religion'
A spokesperson for the London Taxi Company said: “We are sorry to hear about this incident and our first thoughts are with Noah and his family and we regret any distress caused.
“We have already launched our own investigation and while we don’t know the full details we are committed to working with all the relevant authorities to ensure lessons are learned.
“The London Taxi Company remains absolutely committed to supporting the provision of high quality, safe and fully accessible transportation services that support a full range of disability needs.”
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/firefighters-come-rescue-wheelchair-out-11275610?
-------------------------------------------
PORTSMOUTH
Police have this evening arrested a taxi driver for drink driving after he cab was involved in a following a multi vehicle collision on St Mary’s Road in Fratton.
Part of St May’s Road was closed on Wednesday evening following the collision involving multiple vehicles. It is believed that the taxi driver who has been arrested by Police collided with a Mini Cooper ,Nissan and Ford outside the Cemetery entrance on St Mary’s Road.
Officers from Hampshire Road Policing set up a hard road closure whilst they dealt with the aftermath of incident involving the recovery of a number of vehicles.The road was closed just after 10pm this evening for recovery specialists to removed the damaged vehicles and clear away the road that is littered with pieces of cars.
http://uknip.co.uk/2016/05/taxi-driver-arrested-after-multi-vehicle-road-traffic-collision-on-st-marys-bridge-in-portsmouth/
-----------------------------------
Four-year-old disabled boy lifted from chair and carried out of city-built black cab
Noah Wall whose wheelchair had to be lifted out of a taxi by Coventry firefighters after the taxi ramp broke
Firefighters came to the rescue to get a wheelchair out of a Coventry taxi after the ramp buckled.
Disabled four-year-old Noah Wall was lifted out of his heavy wheelchair and carried out of the city-built black cab.
But that left his mum puzzling how to get the wheelchair out without risking pushing it down the damaged ramp.
In the end firefighters from Coventry Fire Station were called to haul the chair out of the taxi.
Since the incident, Noah and his mum Shelly have been invited by the London Taxi Company to help redesign the ramp on the black cabs.
The drama began when Shelly Wall, 44, called a taxi for herself, Noah and her 23-year-old daughter Steph to travel to their hotel in The Butts, Spon End.
The family, from Cumbria, were staying in the hotel on a visit to Coventry to find a vehicle adapted for carrying Noah’s wheelchair.
Shelly was horrified when the ramp buckled as Noah’s wheelchair was pushed into the taxi.
When the family reached the hotel Noah was carried inside leaving Shelly puzzling about how to get the wheelchair out.
She didn’t want to risk pushing it down the buckled ramp. The hotel manager arrived to help and called the fire brigade.
Full time mum Shelly, who campaigns on disability issues, said: “I didn’t want to risk pushing the wheelchair down a buckled ramp.
“My daughter took Noah inside and went to fetch the hotel manager who called the fire brigade.
“People need to know when they are calling a taxi that they need to check if the ramp can take a wheelchair"
“I want to raise awareness that this is something that can happen.”
She added: “If it started tipping with him in it then I wouldn’t be able to personally save him from tipping. I’m not going to put my son at risk.”
Noah is partially paralysed. He has spina bifida and hydrocephalus.
Read more Visually impaired Coventry student refused taxi with guide dog 'because of driver's religion'
A spokesperson for the London Taxi Company said: “We are sorry to hear about this incident and our first thoughts are with Noah and his family and we regret any distress caused.
“We have already launched our own investigation and while we don’t know the full details we are committed to working with all the relevant authorities to ensure lessons are learned.
“The London Taxi Company remains absolutely committed to supporting the provision of high quality, safe and fully accessible transportation services that support a full range of disability needs.”
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/firefighters-come-rescue-wheelchair-out-11275610?
-------------------------------------------
PORTSMOUTH
Police have this evening arrested a taxi driver for drink driving after he cab was involved in a following a multi vehicle collision on St Mary’s Road in Fratton.
Part of St May’s Road was closed on Wednesday evening following the collision involving multiple vehicles. It is believed that the taxi driver who has been arrested by Police collided with a Mini Cooper ,Nissan and Ford outside the Cemetery entrance on St Mary’s Road.
Officers from Hampshire Road Policing set up a hard road closure whilst they dealt with the aftermath of incident involving the recovery of a number of vehicles.The road was closed just after 10pm this evening for recovery specialists to removed the damaged vehicles and clear away the road that is littered with pieces of cars.
http://uknip.co.uk/2016/05/taxi-driver-arrested-after-multi-vehicle-road-traffic-collision-on-st-marys-bridge-in-portsmouth/
-----------------------------------
UBER MANCHESTER
A party of young women from Salford were charged almost SEVENTY pounds for a taxi from Manchester to Tyldesley by controversial firm Uber.
Nicole Owens, 25, from Boothstown, Worsley, said her and three other friends had been partying in trendy Northern Quarter bar Hula till about 3.30am on Bank Holiday Monday morning when they wanted to get a taxi home.
They eventually got an Uber taxi - but were left shocked at the final bill - which even included a £15 DISCOUNT.
Now only after the M.E.N. took on her case have Uber agreed to a full refund.
The group were taken back to Ellenbrook, then Boothstown, then Tyldesley, and then back to Worsley village.
Nicole said: “We couldn’t get a taxi at all.
“There were none about, so my friend said I should download the Uber app because they have a promotion on where you get £15 off your first order so we thought it would end up costing £20 at most.”
Nursery nurse Nicole said that she installed the app and set up an account.
She added: “It asked for my card details and I put all my details in and the promotion code to get my £15 off.”
Without the £15 promotional discount the fare would have been £82.49.
A breakdown of the charges is clearly shown on the receipt, and states that the normal price for the ride would have been £30.55, but the ‘surge’ was charged at £51.94, bringing the price to £82.49 before the £15 discount.
The app-based taxi service has come under fire before for its ‘surge’ charges that mean the busier it gets, the more it will cost.
And according to Nicole the taxi arrived within 60 seconds, suggesting to her that the firm wasn’t busy.
Nicole said: “Friends had told me they could be expensive.
“I understood that they have a surge charge which means they can charge more when they’re in high demand, but I never thought it would be 80 pounds. I couldn’t believe it when I got the notification when I got in.”
Nicole said that she was not offered an opportunity to reject the surge charge. She said: “It didn’t give us a price at all. We didn’t accept anything about a high demand.”
But a spokesman told the M.E.N. that the new pricing model is ‘very clear’ for customers and that they are asked to confirm the pricing multiplier in the app two times before they book a trip.
However they offered a full refund to Nicole after the M.E.N. contacted them.
A spokesman for Uber told the M.E.N.: “The pricing is made very clear to the user when they book: Open the app, the uberX option will be marked with a thunderbolt to represent that dynamic pricing is in effect.
“Once you select the uberX option, there is a confirmation screen that notifies the user that the pricing is at 2.7 x the normal rate, users have to confirm with an “I accept” button.
“Following this, the rider is required to manually type in the numbers 2 and 7 to re-confirm that they understand.
“We understand that for new riders, this pricing model is different so our policy is to adjust the trip to the normal fare for the first time."
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/uber-taxi-first-timer-shocked-11284562
A party of young women from Salford were charged almost SEVENTY pounds for a taxi from Manchester to Tyldesley by controversial firm Uber.
Nicole Owens, 25, from Boothstown, Worsley, said her and three other friends had been partying in trendy Northern Quarter bar Hula till about 3.30am on Bank Holiday Monday morning when they wanted to get a taxi home.
They eventually got an Uber taxi - but were left shocked at the final bill - which even included a £15 DISCOUNT.
Now only after the M.E.N. took on her case have Uber agreed to a full refund.
The group were taken back to Ellenbrook, then Boothstown, then Tyldesley, and then back to Worsley village.
Nicole said: “We couldn’t get a taxi at all.
“There were none about, so my friend said I should download the Uber app because they have a promotion on where you get £15 off your first order so we thought it would end up costing £20 at most.”
Nursery nurse Nicole said that she installed the app and set up an account.
She added: “It asked for my card details and I put all my details in and the promotion code to get my £15 off.”
Without the £15 promotional discount the fare would have been £82.49.
A breakdown of the charges is clearly shown on the receipt, and states that the normal price for the ride would have been £30.55, but the ‘surge’ was charged at £51.94, bringing the price to £82.49 before the £15 discount.
The app-based taxi service has come under fire before for its ‘surge’ charges that mean the busier it gets, the more it will cost.
And according to Nicole the taxi arrived within 60 seconds, suggesting to her that the firm wasn’t busy.
Nicole said: “Friends had told me they could be expensive.
“I understood that they have a surge charge which means they can charge more when they’re in high demand, but I never thought it would be 80 pounds. I couldn’t believe it when I got the notification when I got in.”
Nicole said that she was not offered an opportunity to reject the surge charge. She said: “It didn’t give us a price at all. We didn’t accept anything about a high demand.”
But a spokesman told the M.E.N. that the new pricing model is ‘very clear’ for customers and that they are asked to confirm the pricing multiplier in the app two times before they book a trip.
However they offered a full refund to Nicole after the M.E.N. contacted them.
A spokesman for Uber told the M.E.N.: “The pricing is made very clear to the user when they book: Open the app, the uberX option will be marked with a thunderbolt to represent that dynamic pricing is in effect.
“Once you select the uberX option, there is a confirmation screen that notifies the user that the pricing is at 2.7 x the normal rate, users have to confirm with an “I accept” button.
“Following this, the rider is required to manually type in the numbers 2 and 7 to re-confirm that they understand.
“We understand that for new riders, this pricing model is different so our policy is to adjust the trip to the normal fare for the first time."
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/uber-taxi-first-timer-shocked-11284562
PARLIAMENT
Labour MP Andrew Gwynne talks to PoliticsHome about closing a loophole in nineteenth-century taxi licensing laws which currently enables previous offenders to drive cabs unchecked.
What do you do if you’ve been refused a taxi licence by your local authority for a history of violence, or even child sexual exploitation? For thousands of would-be cab drivers, the answer has been “Rossendale.”
Thanks to a loophole in hackney carriage law that dates back to 1847, a small local authority in Lancashire is handing out taxi licences “like sweeties” to anyone rejected by their own council, as a way of generating extra income.
While the hackney carriage licence stipulates that drivers must only operate as a hackney carriage - able to pick up customers from the street or taxi ranks - within the boundaries of the issuing authority, they are permitted to operate with a private hire company, such as Uber, anywhere in the UK.
“Its an abuse of power, and the consequences are really quite serious,” said Andrew Gwynne, Labour MP for Denton and Reddish, a nearby constituency. “Not just for local taxi companies - because it’s flooding the market with Rossendale taxi plates - but also because passengers are effectively getting into cars with people who their local authority have deemed unsuitable to have a taxi licence.”
“In Tameside, and other Greater Manchester authorities, they have stringent checks for people who apply for taxi licences. They look at criminal records, incidences of violence, child sexual exploitation, all those kinds of things,” he added.
“Yet there’s a local authority, Rossendale, that’s basically handing out taxi licences like sweeties as an income generation scheme, and it’s a problem for every other local authority.”
According to figures released today by Tameside Council, Rossendale issued 2,500 hackney carriage licences in 2015, for a population of around 70,000; one taxi for every 28 people and, more than all ten of Greater Manchester’s metropolitan authorities put together.
In contrast, Tameside Council has a population of 220,000, and only 150 hackney carriages.
Rossendale taxi plates have been spotted operating as far away as Bristol. This alternative route is so well-known in fact, that when typing ‘hackney carriage’ into Google the first suggested search term is ‘Rossendale.’
“The fact is they’re using it as income generation, to subsidise their libraries and swimming pools and council services,” Gwynne added. “That’s great, but actually it’s really destroying the taxi business across Greater Manchester, which is the nearest neighbour to Rossendale, and it’s also undermining some of the fundamental principles of the taxi license regime.”
He gave an example from one of his constituents in Tameside, who after being racially abused by a private taxi driver, took down the taxi plate and reported the incident to Tameside Council. It later emerged the driver had been refused a licence by Tameside for ‘legitimate reasons,’ but then received one from Rossendale without the same checks.
“If you decided that you wanted to be a taxi driver in Bristol and you’d been turned down by Bristol Council for various reasons - it might be a history of violence, or because you have racist views, a variety of reasons you’d be refused - but you know that you can get one from Rossendale and operate on the streets of Bristol, you’re going to do it.”
With the rise in app-based private hire companies, such as Uber and Lyft, the need to update the licensing regime is even more urgent.
“This applies to Uber in exactly the same way,” said Gwynne. “They’re private hire vehicles that come to pick you up when you order a taxi through Uber. In terms of public safety and assurance, you want the confidence that the person who’s come to pick you up to take you wherever it is you’re going, actually has been subject to the appropriate checks, and not just been given a licence willy-nilly.
“The rules need tightening up,” he added. “I’m sure in 1847 when these rules were drafted nobody appreciated all those years later that Rossendale Council would be exploiting what they’ve found is an income generating loop hole.”
https://goo.gl/5qRMFY
----------------------------------------
CHICAGO
A federal judge who has written that Chicago's differing rules for taxis and ride-share companies "appear utterly arbitrary" reiterated that view in a recent ruling but expressed reluctance to step into the fray, saying it seemed to be an issue for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the City Council to resolve.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman last week rejected another attempt by the city to dismiss a lawsuit filed by taxi interests who say less stringent requirements for Uber, Lyft and other ride-share services are driving the highly regulated cab industry to financial ruin.
In October, she made a similar ruling that included the "utterly arbitrary" phrase. But this time she expanded on that, saying a new regulation allowing ride-share services to pick up passengers on the upper arrival level at O'Hare Airport, while requiring limousine and taxi drivers who arrange pickups through a smartphone app use the lower departure level, made a valid claim for "disparate treatment."
Coleman, however, declined to grant a preliminary injunction that would have prevented the city from enforcing its taxi ordinance and also allow taxis and limos to pick up passengers on the upper O'Hare level.
The taxi and limo companies "are essentially asking the court to dictate the city's transportation policy," Coleman wrote. "The court declines to grant such an extraordinary remedy."
Even if the taxi interests that filed the lawsuit end up winning their case, they "will have to address their concerns to the City Council because it is clear that monetary relief will not resolve the ultimate problem for the plaintiffs," Coleman added. "It is the City Council that has the authority to remedy the situation at hand, and not this court."
Mara Georges, an attorney for the taxi interests, said an ordinance proposed by Transportation Committee Chairman Anthony Beale, 9th, "makes strides" toward addressing her clients' concerns.
Beale's ordinance, backed by a majority of the city's 50 aldermen, would require ride-share drivers to be licensed, fingerprinted, pass a background check and go through a day of training, like limo drivers. But Emanuel continues to defend his current approach to regulating ride-share companies.
Emanuel has taken a dim view of Beale's ordinance, saying he wants to foster competition, allow the ride-share companies to create part-time jobs and give consumers more ride choices.
Asked this week why he is working to kill the alderman's proposal, the mayor said he doesn't "agree with the characterization," before pivoting to talk about how he says the ride-share companies are doing a better job of offering rides in Chicago's minority neighborhoods.
Uber has launched a public relations campaign in opposition to the changes.
Coleman instructed attorneys in the case to return to court Friday. Georges and her colleagues "should be prepared to address what remedy they are in fact seeking that this court would have the authority to impose," she wrote.
http://goo.gl/yfkrol
-------------------------------------------------
UBER/ ALIPAY Worldwide.
Taxi-hailing service Uber and China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group have agreed a deal that will allow Chinese travellers to pay for a taxi in any country where Uber operates.
It means they can pay for their rides in yuan using their Alipay accounts.
US car sharing service Lyft and China's Didi Chuxing recently launched a similar service.
The growth in smartphone transport services is encouraging firms to build international partnerships.
Before the agreement, mainland Chinese travellers using the Uber app overseas needed to connect a dual-currency credit card with their Uber account and were billed for their journeys in US dollars.
Alipay is the online payment service of Ant Financial Services, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Alibaba is an investor in both Didi and Lyft, on top of its partnership with Uber.
Uber said its customers had been able to use Alipay for their journeys in mainline China since 2014 and in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau since early 2016.
The San Francisco-based company said the cross-border payments arrangement would cover mainland Chinese travellers in 400 cities.
Uber and Alibaba said they intended to expand co-operation in India through Alipay's links with Paytm, which is India's largest mobile payment provider.
Early last year, Ant Financial teamed up with parent company Alibaba to invest more than $500m (£341m) in Paytm.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36192471
---------------------------------------
THE SHARKS ARE CIRCLING UBER
Uber Technologies grew to a $60 billion market value by disregarding just about every law, regulation and entrenched special interest standing in its way. But the car service is finally up against a wealthy special interest it probably can’t get around: The class-action bar.
Late last month Uber tentatively agreed to pay as much as $100 million to settle lawsuits covering drivers in California and Massachusetts that were filed by Boston attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan.
Yesterday Uber was hit with another lawsuit in Illinois, this one intended to cover the rest of the country. Think of Uber as a company in play: Having offered $100 million to make one lawyer go away, it opened the floodgates for similar claims. Another case in Florida also purports to represent drivers nationwide and there surely will be more.
Settling cases “is a business decision they’ve made” on the march to a multibillion-dollar initial public offering, said Richard Reibstein, a partner with Pepper Hamilton in New York who advises companies on labor issues. “They can afford it as a cost of doing business.”
The Illinois case was filed by Milwaukee attorney Brian Mahany, who boasts he got a piece of the largest whistleblower settlement in history, $16.6 billion Bank of America paid to settle fraud claims that generated $170 million in bounties. It’s a little different from Liss-Riordan’s case because it is a collective action filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act and requires drivers to opt in, meaning Mahany will have to recruit a critical mass of drivers who believe they are being ripped off by Uber in order to produce enough leverage for a any big settlement.
But that may not be so difficult, Reibstein told me, even though Uber maintains 90% of its drivers don’t want to be employees.
“The standard expectation is you get 25-33% of former employees and 10-15% of current ones” in an FLSA collective action, Reibstein said. “I’ve seen enough collective actions where you are absolutely stunned by the number of people who are active employees and opt in.”
http://goo.gl/tN3Luv
Labour MP Andrew Gwynne talks to PoliticsHome about closing a loophole in nineteenth-century taxi licensing laws which currently enables previous offenders to drive cabs unchecked.
What do you do if you’ve been refused a taxi licence by your local authority for a history of violence, or even child sexual exploitation? For thousands of would-be cab drivers, the answer has been “Rossendale.”
Thanks to a loophole in hackney carriage law that dates back to 1847, a small local authority in Lancashire is handing out taxi licences “like sweeties” to anyone rejected by their own council, as a way of generating extra income.
While the hackney carriage licence stipulates that drivers must only operate as a hackney carriage - able to pick up customers from the street or taxi ranks - within the boundaries of the issuing authority, they are permitted to operate with a private hire company, such as Uber, anywhere in the UK.
“Its an abuse of power, and the consequences are really quite serious,” said Andrew Gwynne, Labour MP for Denton and Reddish, a nearby constituency. “Not just for local taxi companies - because it’s flooding the market with Rossendale taxi plates - but also because passengers are effectively getting into cars with people who their local authority have deemed unsuitable to have a taxi licence.”
“In Tameside, and other Greater Manchester authorities, they have stringent checks for people who apply for taxi licences. They look at criminal records, incidences of violence, child sexual exploitation, all those kinds of things,” he added.
“Yet there’s a local authority, Rossendale, that’s basically handing out taxi licences like sweeties as an income generation scheme, and it’s a problem for every other local authority.”
According to figures released today by Tameside Council, Rossendale issued 2,500 hackney carriage licences in 2015, for a population of around 70,000; one taxi for every 28 people and, more than all ten of Greater Manchester’s metropolitan authorities put together.
In contrast, Tameside Council has a population of 220,000, and only 150 hackney carriages.
Rossendale taxi plates have been spotted operating as far away as Bristol. This alternative route is so well-known in fact, that when typing ‘hackney carriage’ into Google the first suggested search term is ‘Rossendale.’
“The fact is they’re using it as income generation, to subsidise their libraries and swimming pools and council services,” Gwynne added. “That’s great, but actually it’s really destroying the taxi business across Greater Manchester, which is the nearest neighbour to Rossendale, and it’s also undermining some of the fundamental principles of the taxi license regime.”
He gave an example from one of his constituents in Tameside, who after being racially abused by a private taxi driver, took down the taxi plate and reported the incident to Tameside Council. It later emerged the driver had been refused a licence by Tameside for ‘legitimate reasons,’ but then received one from Rossendale without the same checks.
“If you decided that you wanted to be a taxi driver in Bristol and you’d been turned down by Bristol Council for various reasons - it might be a history of violence, or because you have racist views, a variety of reasons you’d be refused - but you know that you can get one from Rossendale and operate on the streets of Bristol, you’re going to do it.”
With the rise in app-based private hire companies, such as Uber and Lyft, the need to update the licensing regime is even more urgent.
“This applies to Uber in exactly the same way,” said Gwynne. “They’re private hire vehicles that come to pick you up when you order a taxi through Uber. In terms of public safety and assurance, you want the confidence that the person who’s come to pick you up to take you wherever it is you’re going, actually has been subject to the appropriate checks, and not just been given a licence willy-nilly.
“The rules need tightening up,” he added. “I’m sure in 1847 when these rules were drafted nobody appreciated all those years later that Rossendale Council would be exploiting what they’ve found is an income generating loop hole.”
https://goo.gl/5qRMFY
----------------------------------------
CHICAGO
A federal judge who has written that Chicago's differing rules for taxis and ride-share companies "appear utterly arbitrary" reiterated that view in a recent ruling but expressed reluctance to step into the fray, saying it seemed to be an issue for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the City Council to resolve.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman last week rejected another attempt by the city to dismiss a lawsuit filed by taxi interests who say less stringent requirements for Uber, Lyft and other ride-share services are driving the highly regulated cab industry to financial ruin.
In October, she made a similar ruling that included the "utterly arbitrary" phrase. But this time she expanded on that, saying a new regulation allowing ride-share services to pick up passengers on the upper arrival level at O'Hare Airport, while requiring limousine and taxi drivers who arrange pickups through a smartphone app use the lower departure level, made a valid claim for "disparate treatment."
Coleman, however, declined to grant a preliminary injunction that would have prevented the city from enforcing its taxi ordinance and also allow taxis and limos to pick up passengers on the upper O'Hare level.
The taxi and limo companies "are essentially asking the court to dictate the city's transportation policy," Coleman wrote. "The court declines to grant such an extraordinary remedy."
Even if the taxi interests that filed the lawsuit end up winning their case, they "will have to address their concerns to the City Council because it is clear that monetary relief will not resolve the ultimate problem for the plaintiffs," Coleman added. "It is the City Council that has the authority to remedy the situation at hand, and not this court."
Mara Georges, an attorney for the taxi interests, said an ordinance proposed by Transportation Committee Chairman Anthony Beale, 9th, "makes strides" toward addressing her clients' concerns.
Beale's ordinance, backed by a majority of the city's 50 aldermen, would require ride-share drivers to be licensed, fingerprinted, pass a background check and go through a day of training, like limo drivers. But Emanuel continues to defend his current approach to regulating ride-share companies.
Emanuel has taken a dim view of Beale's ordinance, saying he wants to foster competition, allow the ride-share companies to create part-time jobs and give consumers more ride choices.
Asked this week why he is working to kill the alderman's proposal, the mayor said he doesn't "agree with the characterization," before pivoting to talk about how he says the ride-share companies are doing a better job of offering rides in Chicago's minority neighborhoods.
Uber has launched a public relations campaign in opposition to the changes.
Coleman instructed attorneys in the case to return to court Friday. Georges and her colleagues "should be prepared to address what remedy they are in fact seeking that this court would have the authority to impose," she wrote.
http://goo.gl/yfkrol
-------------------------------------------------
UBER/ ALIPAY Worldwide.
Taxi-hailing service Uber and China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group have agreed a deal that will allow Chinese travellers to pay for a taxi in any country where Uber operates.
It means they can pay for their rides in yuan using their Alipay accounts.
US car sharing service Lyft and China's Didi Chuxing recently launched a similar service.
The growth in smartphone transport services is encouraging firms to build international partnerships.
Before the agreement, mainland Chinese travellers using the Uber app overseas needed to connect a dual-currency credit card with their Uber account and were billed for their journeys in US dollars.
Alipay is the online payment service of Ant Financial Services, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Alibaba is an investor in both Didi and Lyft, on top of its partnership with Uber.
Uber said its customers had been able to use Alipay for their journeys in mainline China since 2014 and in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau since early 2016.
The San Francisco-based company said the cross-border payments arrangement would cover mainland Chinese travellers in 400 cities.
Uber and Alibaba said they intended to expand co-operation in India through Alipay's links with Paytm, which is India's largest mobile payment provider.
Early last year, Ant Financial teamed up with parent company Alibaba to invest more than $500m (£341m) in Paytm.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36192471
---------------------------------------
THE SHARKS ARE CIRCLING UBER
Uber Technologies grew to a $60 billion market value by disregarding just about every law, regulation and entrenched special interest standing in its way. But the car service is finally up against a wealthy special interest it probably can’t get around: The class-action bar.
Late last month Uber tentatively agreed to pay as much as $100 million to settle lawsuits covering drivers in California and Massachusetts that were filed by Boston attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan.
Yesterday Uber was hit with another lawsuit in Illinois, this one intended to cover the rest of the country. Think of Uber as a company in play: Having offered $100 million to make one lawyer go away, it opened the floodgates for similar claims. Another case in Florida also purports to represent drivers nationwide and there surely will be more.
Settling cases “is a business decision they’ve made” on the march to a multibillion-dollar initial public offering, said Richard Reibstein, a partner with Pepper Hamilton in New York who advises companies on labor issues. “They can afford it as a cost of doing business.”
The Illinois case was filed by Milwaukee attorney Brian Mahany, who boasts he got a piece of the largest whistleblower settlement in history, $16.6 billion Bank of America paid to settle fraud claims that generated $170 million in bounties. It’s a little different from Liss-Riordan’s case because it is a collective action filed under the Fair Labor Standards Act and requires drivers to opt in, meaning Mahany will have to recruit a critical mass of drivers who believe they are being ripped off by Uber in order to produce enough leverage for a any big settlement.
But that may not be so difficult, Reibstein told me, even though Uber maintains 90% of its drivers don’t want to be employees.
“The standard expectation is you get 25-33% of former employees and 10-15% of current ones” in an FLSA collective action, Reibstein said. “I’ve seen enough collective actions where you are absolutely stunned by the number of people who are active employees and opt in.”
http://goo.gl/tN3Luv
Tuesday, 3 May 2016
Carlyle Group, the private equity company that bought a majority stake in Addison Lee for £300 million last year, is planning to sell the private hire giant on after just 18 months after receiving “unsolicited offers” for the business.
The sale is expected through an auction, with the highest bidder expected to pay up to £800m for the minicab firm, which operates around 4,000 cars in London. This would provide a major return for Carlyle, as well as a further windfall for the Griffin family, which founded the company nearly 40 years ago.
Carlyle is believed to have invited other private equity firms, including BC Partners, CVC Capital and Charterhouse to bid. Carlyle has not confirmed the move, and analysts are surprised by the speed at which the private equity company has moved to sell the business on – normally, investments are retained for around four or five years.
But recent strong financial results from Addison Lee may have forced the decision – Addison Lee announced trebled net profits to £16m in its latest financial year, with turnover rising to £172m.
The business was founded by former taxi driver John Griffin with a single car in 1975, and now carries more than 10m passengers a year in London. Addison Lee has launched services in Paris and New York and plans to launch in other cities. John Griffin recently stood down as chairman of the company, though son Liam remains as CEO.
http://www.prodrivermags.com/news/389-carlyle-group-plans-to-auction-addison-lee-for-800-million
-------------------------------------
NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court’s decision to not extend its deadline for banning all diesel and petrol-run taxis in Delhi-NCR is a step in the right direction as far as cleaning up its air is concerned. However, the authorities need to address the concerns of taxi drivers and inconvenienced commuters for the measure to be successful.
The judicial move led to protests by taxi drivers, causing a massive traffic jam on NH-8 at the Gurugram-Delhi border and a number of other arterial roads on a particularly hot Monday. The situation was further worsened by a shortage of taxis caused due to nearly 40,000 vehicles being taken off the roads. Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari has already promised taxi unions that he will request the court for another extension on the ban.
Justifying the tough stand taken by the judiciary, Supreme Court lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayanan said, “The apex court kept extending the deadline on their request, and finally lost patience. More than six months were given when they asked for more time to convert their engines to CNG. Suddenly, they brought forward an argument the day before yesterday that there was no technology for making the conversion.”
“Eighteen years is not a short period for taxis to convert from diesel to CNG,” he added, pointing out that the first decision on the matter was taken in 1998.
The court decision came on the back of several steps taken by the Delhi government to curb pollution levels in the Capital, including the adoption of a revolutionary traffic formula where odd and even-numbered vehicles were allowed to ply only on alternate days. Reports that pollution levels in Delhi were on the verge of crossing that of Beijing – the world’s poster-child of bad air quality – had set alarm bells ringing among environmentalists and city officials alike.
However, the apex court must take into account the practical implications that could prevent the smooth implementation of its direction. Commuters who relied on taxis during the second phase of the Delhi government’s odd-even scheme will have to find other alternatives if it is rolled out again. Cab owners, on the other hand, complain that the cost of converting their vehicles to CNG will burn a sizeable hole in their pockets.
Here are some interim measures that the judiciary as well as the government could consider to make the implementation process smoother. For one, diesel taxi owners can be permitted to retrofit catalytic converters to their vehicles, reducing the emission of pollutants. Alternatively, the government could ease the financial burden on taxi drivers by subsidising the cost of PNG conversion through funds from the clean environment cess introduced in Union Budget 2016-17.
To address the larger problem faced by the environment, the Centre should ease subsidies on dirtier fuels like diesel, making them more expensive. It could also reduce duties on hybrid and electric cars – providing consumers with a financial incentive to invest in cleaner technology.
It must be acknowledged that air quality degradation is a complex issue with more than just one cause. The government should identify every source of pollution, and with the knowledge gained, put in place a comprehensive plan that addresses the needs of the environment without hurting anybody’s livelihood.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/battle-against-pollution-delhi-s-diesel-taxi-ban-is-not-enough/story-mRUSSXluQKVKuIeL783ToM.html?
----------------------------------------------
Drivers from Stockholm’s biggest taxi firm are suspected of helping fuel the sex trade despite the purchase of sex being illegal in Sweden, a TV4 report shows.
Ten out of 14 drivers were happy to help a reporter with a hidden camera who claimed to want to find a prostitute.
The drivers gave the reporter tips on how to find prostitutes, how much to pay, and how to avoid detection by the police.
“This is pure illegal activity, and they are consciously engaging in it,” said Simon Häggström, the head of a police unit that combats prostitution in the Swedish capital.
The report also shows a taxi driver picking up a prostitute and taking her to a secluded car park. When the driver notices the camera he and the woman both exit the car through the rear doors.
The driver denied paying for sex when confronted by the reporter, but police say they have arrested several taxi drivers in the area around Malmskillnadsgatan, the street in Stockholm most closely associated with the sex trade.
“This is the profession we have arrested most often for sex purchases,” Simon Häggström told TV4.
Taxi Stockholm said it was not aware that its drivers were helping clients find prostitutes and described the ones that did as just “a few rotten eggs in the basket”.
“What you have found shows that there may be individuals who are facilitating this. It is unacceptable and deeply unfortunate,” Taxi Stockholm’s CEO Johan Lagerhäl told TV4.
Taxi Stockholm, which has 4,500 drivers spread across the city, said it would review its screening procedures in light of the news investigation.
The report will be broadcast on Tuesday evening as part of TV4’s investigative news programme Kalla Fakta.
http://www.thelocal.se/20160503/stockholm-taxi-drivers-help-clients-find-prostitutes
---------------------------------------------
Hungary moved closer to winding down Uber Technologies Inc.’s local car service in the eastern European country after the government submitted a bill that would allow authorities to block access to the mobile application and fine media promoting it.
Taxi drivers have blocked traffic in the capital several times this year, including Tuesday, in protest against the company which they say breaks domestic regulations on carrying passengers.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s cabinet has sided with traditional drivers, whose business model has been disrupted by the ride-sharing firm across the globe. Taxi drivers in Budapest are obliged to follow strict rules on their services, including regulated pricing and limits on the age and make of cars they can use.
Uber said its more than 1,200 Hungarian drivers are "licensed and tax compliant."
"It is likely that the government’s plan is unconstitutional and violates EU law," Zoltan Fekete, Uber’s general manager in Budapest, said in a statement before the draft bill was submitted. "In the meantime Uber will continue operating in Budapest and fully supporting drivers using the platform.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-03/hungary-to-tighten-taxi-rules-as-anti-uber-protests-persist
------------------------------------
SOUTH RIBBLE
A horrified mother has spoken of her disgust after the taxi driver she accused of abusing her five-year-old daughter was allowed to remain behind the wheel for 13 MONTHS while on police bail.
The 41-year-old says she warned police and council bosses of her daughter’s claims, but the driver was allowed to keep his licence for over a year.
The shocking claim of the sex assault led to a child exploitation scandal which hit South Ribble Council in Lancashire last month.
The mother said: “I’m stunned and angry. It has been a disaster since day one. Days after giving statements to the police, I was walking with my daughter to school when this man passed by us driving a taxi.
“He slowed down as he went past us and my daughter totally freaked and had a full-blown panic attack.
"I couldn’t believe he was still behind the wheel.
“For the next few moments he tortured us, driving slowly past us as we walked to school, until police told him to change his route.
“The police told me he was school runs. I felt utter revulsion. I thought he’d be taken off the road as soon as he was put on bail.”
The mother says she is furious the Crown Prosecution Service decided her daughter was too young to give evidence, despite the report revealing police “consider the driver did commit the offence”.
The shocking report, which bears a horrifying similarities to the Rotherham sex abuse scandal, was said to have found children in South Ribble, Lancashire, were put at risk after the local authorities failed to carry out proper checks on at least 44 drivers working on council-funded school runs.
The report detailed a number of shocking cases, including a five-year-old girl who was left “totally traumatised” after allegedly being touched inappropriately by a taxi driver. In another incident a 16-year-old says she feared she would be raped.
It is understood that a full report, due to be released next month, will detail another five cases of children being exploited by taxi drivers in the area.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/666635/South-Ribble-council-taxi-driver-sex-abuse-scandal-school-run
------------------------------------------
MIDDLESBORO
Police are appealing for information after a 12-year-old boy was punched twice in the face by a taxi driver.
The boy was assaulted on Broadwell Road in Middlesbrough, near to Beechwood and Easterside Social Club, at 7.40am on April 26.
Police say a snowball 'accidentally hit a taxi' and an argument began between the driver and three young boys.
The victim was left with minor facial injuries but did not receive medical treatment.
The driver is described as an Asian male, around 5ft 6” tall, aged between 20 and 30 years old with short, black hair which was spikey on top. He was wearing a black hooded top and was driving a red Skoda Octavia taxi.
Last updated Tue 3 May 2016
http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/update/2016-05-03/boy-12-punched-twice-by-taxi-driver/
--------------------------------------------
ROTHERHAM
All taxis drivers in Rotherham will be required to have CCTV cameras installed in their cars from July, in an attempt to prevent child sexual exploitation.
Drivers will also have to activate an audio recording device whenever they transport an unaccompanied child or vulnerable adult , under a series of measures introduced by the council to rebuild trust in the taxi industry.
The measures are a grim reminder of the past failures of Rotherham borough council but also a testament to the determination of some of the town’s abuse survivors to ensure no other girls suffer the horrors they did.
The council took action following a campaign by some of the survivors and whistleblowers, who have formed a steering group that aims to educate authorities on how to detect child sexual exploitation.
Last month it emerged that more than 50 Rotherham taxi drivers had been stripped of their licences under regulations introduced after the town’s sex-grooming scandal.
One Rotherham survivor, known as Elizabeth, told the Guardian that if there had been CCTV in taxis when she was being abused, her complaints would have been heeded by police.
“I had a child protection officer, a social worker and the police were frequently involved, but they just never took any notice, They just put me down as a naughty little girl,” she said.
“If there had have been CCTV, there would have been evidence that I was telling the truth. I would have had justice, there would have been charges and people would have known what was going on.”
On Tuesday the steering group urged all UK councils to follow Rotherham’s lead. “This isn’t just about child sexual exploitation. It will reduce all crime and will protect both the driver and the passenger,” said Jessica, a survivor who is spearheading the campaign.
In February Jessica’s abuser Arshid Hussan, two of his brothers and two other associates were found guilty of 55 serious offences, some of which dated back almost 20 years.
Some of the abuse took place in taxis, and cars were also used to traffic girls to various locations around the town.
The steering group wants other measures to be introduced, including installation of shield glass separating the driver from passengers in minicabs, a ban on under-16s sitting in the front seat, and enhanced disclosure and barring (DBS) checks on drivers.
Taxi drivers in other parts of the country say it could prove a costly and lengthy battle to get CCTV accepted, with cameras costing more than £500 to install and data protection a potential legal obstacle.
Dennis Conyan, a director of the National Taxi Association, said anything that enhanced safety was good, but the arguments for CCTV had been rehearsed before.
“All local authorities have their own policies. And there are arguments about data protection – who would be given access to the footage? We would need to ensure it was only police and licensing enforcement officers,” he said.
Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, which represents around half of the 11,000 black cabs in London, said that if Transport for London decided CCTV was necessary and was “willing to provide drivers a cost-neutral way of installing”, it would be “100% behind” the initiative.
Black cabs already have glass separators and no front seat. McNamara said he wanted to see minicab firms “up their game in guaranteeing passenger safety”.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/03/rotherham-abuse-survivors-stricter-taxi-safety-measures
---------------------------------------
DONCASTER
A taxi driver who sped off from a taxi rank with his cab door still open - causing a passenger to fall out - has been banned from driving for two years.
Asif Ahmed, aged 24, picked up a group of six people from outside Doncaster railway station in July last year.
When the group started singing as Ahmed started the cab, he demanded they stop. When the passengers started to sing for a second time, Ahmed lost his temper, reversed at speed back into the taxi rank and ordered them to leave his cab, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
But as the group attempted to get out, Ahmed pulled away at speed with the door open, causing one of the passengers to fall out.
The court heard that while the others screamed at the taxi driver to stop he drove erratically around the station car park until he collided a stationary car - ripping off his cab door.
He then drove into the nearby bus station, where the cab’s wheelchair ramp, which had come loose and was hanging out of the vehicle, hit a metal pole.
Ahmed, of Elmfield Road, Hyde Park, Doncaster, then drove his passengers to a police station.
A British Transport Police spokesman said: “The court heard how the four passengers repeatedly screamed at Ahmed to stop the car as they were thrown around in the back of the vehicle, desperately attempting not to fall out of the side of the car.
“On leaving the bus station, Ahmed continued to drive his passengers in a dangerous manner to a police station, calling his father on the way to tell him he feared he would be attacked by his passengers.
“In police interview, Ahmed claimed he had done nothing wrong and only drove in such a reckless manner because he was in fear of his life as he believed one of the group would beat him up.”
But a dashboard camera recorded audio and visual evidence of the terrifying incident and was presented in court, where Ahmed pleaded guilty to dangerous driving.
He was banned from driving for two years, given a 12 month community order and ordered to pay £2,800 in prosecution costs.
He must carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
DC Ian Grice, of British Transport Police, said: “Ahmed’s actions that evening were incredibly dangerous as reflected in the driving ban and substantial fine he has been ordered to pay.
“The incident could have been far worse but all six of his passengers were left bruised, battered, badly shaken and shocked by what happened and were lucky not to have been seriously injured.”
http://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/taxi-driver-banned-after-passenger-fell-out-of-cab-in-terrifying-ordeal-in-doncaster-1-7889873
---------------------------------------
The sale is expected through an auction, with the highest bidder expected to pay up to £800m for the minicab firm, which operates around 4,000 cars in London. This would provide a major return for Carlyle, as well as a further windfall for the Griffin family, which founded the company nearly 40 years ago.
Carlyle is believed to have invited other private equity firms, including BC Partners, CVC Capital and Charterhouse to bid. Carlyle has not confirmed the move, and analysts are surprised by the speed at which the private equity company has moved to sell the business on – normally, investments are retained for around four or five years.
But recent strong financial results from Addison Lee may have forced the decision – Addison Lee announced trebled net profits to £16m in its latest financial year, with turnover rising to £172m.
The business was founded by former taxi driver John Griffin with a single car in 1975, and now carries more than 10m passengers a year in London. Addison Lee has launched services in Paris and New York and plans to launch in other cities. John Griffin recently stood down as chairman of the company, though son Liam remains as CEO.
http://www.prodrivermags.com/news/389-carlyle-group-plans-to-auction-addison-lee-for-800-million
-------------------------------------
NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court’s decision to not extend its deadline for banning all diesel and petrol-run taxis in Delhi-NCR is a step in the right direction as far as cleaning up its air is concerned. However, the authorities need to address the concerns of taxi drivers and inconvenienced commuters for the measure to be successful.
The judicial move led to protests by taxi drivers, causing a massive traffic jam on NH-8 at the Gurugram-Delhi border and a number of other arterial roads on a particularly hot Monday. The situation was further worsened by a shortage of taxis caused due to nearly 40,000 vehicles being taken off the roads. Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari has already promised taxi unions that he will request the court for another extension on the ban.
Justifying the tough stand taken by the judiciary, Supreme Court lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayanan said, “The apex court kept extending the deadline on their request, and finally lost patience. More than six months were given when they asked for more time to convert their engines to CNG. Suddenly, they brought forward an argument the day before yesterday that there was no technology for making the conversion.”
“Eighteen years is not a short period for taxis to convert from diesel to CNG,” he added, pointing out that the first decision on the matter was taken in 1998.
The court decision came on the back of several steps taken by the Delhi government to curb pollution levels in the Capital, including the adoption of a revolutionary traffic formula where odd and even-numbered vehicles were allowed to ply only on alternate days. Reports that pollution levels in Delhi were on the verge of crossing that of Beijing – the world’s poster-child of bad air quality – had set alarm bells ringing among environmentalists and city officials alike.
However, the apex court must take into account the practical implications that could prevent the smooth implementation of its direction. Commuters who relied on taxis during the second phase of the Delhi government’s odd-even scheme will have to find other alternatives if it is rolled out again. Cab owners, on the other hand, complain that the cost of converting their vehicles to CNG will burn a sizeable hole in their pockets.
Here are some interim measures that the judiciary as well as the government could consider to make the implementation process smoother. For one, diesel taxi owners can be permitted to retrofit catalytic converters to their vehicles, reducing the emission of pollutants. Alternatively, the government could ease the financial burden on taxi drivers by subsidising the cost of PNG conversion through funds from the clean environment cess introduced in Union Budget 2016-17.
To address the larger problem faced by the environment, the Centre should ease subsidies on dirtier fuels like diesel, making them more expensive. It could also reduce duties on hybrid and electric cars – providing consumers with a financial incentive to invest in cleaner technology.
It must be acknowledged that air quality degradation is a complex issue with more than just one cause. The government should identify every source of pollution, and with the knowledge gained, put in place a comprehensive plan that addresses the needs of the environment without hurting anybody’s livelihood.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/battle-against-pollution-delhi-s-diesel-taxi-ban-is-not-enough/story-mRUSSXluQKVKuIeL783ToM.html?
----------------------------------------------
Drivers from Stockholm’s biggest taxi firm are suspected of helping fuel the sex trade despite the purchase of sex being illegal in Sweden, a TV4 report shows.
Ten out of 14 drivers were happy to help a reporter with a hidden camera who claimed to want to find a prostitute.
The drivers gave the reporter tips on how to find prostitutes, how much to pay, and how to avoid detection by the police.
“This is pure illegal activity, and they are consciously engaging in it,” said Simon Häggström, the head of a police unit that combats prostitution in the Swedish capital.
The report also shows a taxi driver picking up a prostitute and taking her to a secluded car park. When the driver notices the camera he and the woman both exit the car through the rear doors.
The driver denied paying for sex when confronted by the reporter, but police say they have arrested several taxi drivers in the area around Malmskillnadsgatan, the street in Stockholm most closely associated with the sex trade.
“This is the profession we have arrested most often for sex purchases,” Simon Häggström told TV4.
Taxi Stockholm said it was not aware that its drivers were helping clients find prostitutes and described the ones that did as just “a few rotten eggs in the basket”.
“What you have found shows that there may be individuals who are facilitating this. It is unacceptable and deeply unfortunate,” Taxi Stockholm’s CEO Johan Lagerhäl told TV4.
Taxi Stockholm, which has 4,500 drivers spread across the city, said it would review its screening procedures in light of the news investigation.
The report will be broadcast on Tuesday evening as part of TV4’s investigative news programme Kalla Fakta.
http://www.thelocal.se/20160503/stockholm-taxi-drivers-help-clients-find-prostitutes
---------------------------------------------
Hungary moved closer to winding down Uber Technologies Inc.’s local car service in the eastern European country after the government submitted a bill that would allow authorities to block access to the mobile application and fine media promoting it.
Taxi drivers have blocked traffic in the capital several times this year, including Tuesday, in protest against the company which they say breaks domestic regulations on carrying passengers.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s cabinet has sided with traditional drivers, whose business model has been disrupted by the ride-sharing firm across the globe. Taxi drivers in Budapest are obliged to follow strict rules on their services, including regulated pricing and limits on the age and make of cars they can use.
Uber said its more than 1,200 Hungarian drivers are "licensed and tax compliant."
"It is likely that the government’s plan is unconstitutional and violates EU law," Zoltan Fekete, Uber’s general manager in Budapest, said in a statement before the draft bill was submitted. "In the meantime Uber will continue operating in Budapest and fully supporting drivers using the platform.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-03/hungary-to-tighten-taxi-rules-as-anti-uber-protests-persist
------------------------------------
SOUTH RIBBLE
A horrified mother has spoken of her disgust after the taxi driver she accused of abusing her five-year-old daughter was allowed to remain behind the wheel for 13 MONTHS while on police bail.
The 41-year-old says she warned police and council bosses of her daughter’s claims, but the driver was allowed to keep his licence for over a year.
The shocking claim of the sex assault led to a child exploitation scandal which hit South Ribble Council in Lancashire last month.
The mother said: “I’m stunned and angry. It has been a disaster since day one. Days after giving statements to the police, I was walking with my daughter to school when this man passed by us driving a taxi.
“He slowed down as he went past us and my daughter totally freaked and had a full-blown panic attack.
"I couldn’t believe he was still behind the wheel.
“For the next few moments he tortured us, driving slowly past us as we walked to school, until police told him to change his route.
“The police told me he was school runs. I felt utter revulsion. I thought he’d be taken off the road as soon as he was put on bail.”
The mother says she is furious the Crown Prosecution Service decided her daughter was too young to give evidence, despite the report revealing police “consider the driver did commit the offence”.
The shocking report, which bears a horrifying similarities to the Rotherham sex abuse scandal, was said to have found children in South Ribble, Lancashire, were put at risk after the local authorities failed to carry out proper checks on at least 44 drivers working on council-funded school runs.
The report detailed a number of shocking cases, including a five-year-old girl who was left “totally traumatised” after allegedly being touched inappropriately by a taxi driver. In another incident a 16-year-old says she feared she would be raped.
It is understood that a full report, due to be released next month, will detail another five cases of children being exploited by taxi drivers in the area.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/666635/South-Ribble-council-taxi-driver-sex-abuse-scandal-school-run
------------------------------------------
MIDDLESBORO
Police are appealing for information after a 12-year-old boy was punched twice in the face by a taxi driver.
The boy was assaulted on Broadwell Road in Middlesbrough, near to Beechwood and Easterside Social Club, at 7.40am on April 26.
Police say a snowball 'accidentally hit a taxi' and an argument began between the driver and three young boys.
The victim was left with minor facial injuries but did not receive medical treatment.
The driver is described as an Asian male, around 5ft 6” tall, aged between 20 and 30 years old with short, black hair which was spikey on top. He was wearing a black hooded top and was driving a red Skoda Octavia taxi.
Last updated Tue 3 May 2016
http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/update/2016-05-03/boy-12-punched-twice-by-taxi-driver/
--------------------------------------------
ROTHERHAM
All taxis drivers in Rotherham will be required to have CCTV cameras installed in their cars from July, in an attempt to prevent child sexual exploitation.
Drivers will also have to activate an audio recording device whenever they transport an unaccompanied child or vulnerable adult , under a series of measures introduced by the council to rebuild trust in the taxi industry.
The measures are a grim reminder of the past failures of Rotherham borough council but also a testament to the determination of some of the town’s abuse survivors to ensure no other girls suffer the horrors they did.
The council took action following a campaign by some of the survivors and whistleblowers, who have formed a steering group that aims to educate authorities on how to detect child sexual exploitation.
Last month it emerged that more than 50 Rotherham taxi drivers had been stripped of their licences under regulations introduced after the town’s sex-grooming scandal.
One Rotherham survivor, known as Elizabeth, told the Guardian that if there had been CCTV in taxis when she was being abused, her complaints would have been heeded by police.
“I had a child protection officer, a social worker and the police were frequently involved, but they just never took any notice, They just put me down as a naughty little girl,” she said.
“If there had have been CCTV, there would have been evidence that I was telling the truth. I would have had justice, there would have been charges and people would have known what was going on.”
On Tuesday the steering group urged all UK councils to follow Rotherham’s lead. “This isn’t just about child sexual exploitation. It will reduce all crime and will protect both the driver and the passenger,” said Jessica, a survivor who is spearheading the campaign.
In February Jessica’s abuser Arshid Hussan, two of his brothers and two other associates were found guilty of 55 serious offences, some of which dated back almost 20 years.
Some of the abuse took place in taxis, and cars were also used to traffic girls to various locations around the town.
The steering group wants other measures to be introduced, including installation of shield glass separating the driver from passengers in minicabs, a ban on under-16s sitting in the front seat, and enhanced disclosure and barring (DBS) checks on drivers.
Taxi drivers in other parts of the country say it could prove a costly and lengthy battle to get CCTV accepted, with cameras costing more than £500 to install and data protection a potential legal obstacle.
Dennis Conyan, a director of the National Taxi Association, said anything that enhanced safety was good, but the arguments for CCTV had been rehearsed before.
“All local authorities have their own policies. And there are arguments about data protection – who would be given access to the footage? We would need to ensure it was only police and licensing enforcement officers,” he said.
Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, which represents around half of the 11,000 black cabs in London, said that if Transport for London decided CCTV was necessary and was “willing to provide drivers a cost-neutral way of installing”, it would be “100% behind” the initiative.
Black cabs already have glass separators and no front seat. McNamara said he wanted to see minicab firms “up their game in guaranteeing passenger safety”.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/03/rotherham-abuse-survivors-stricter-taxi-safety-measures
---------------------------------------
DONCASTER
A taxi driver who sped off from a taxi rank with his cab door still open - causing a passenger to fall out - has been banned from driving for two years.
Asif Ahmed, aged 24, picked up a group of six people from outside Doncaster railway station in July last year.
When the group started singing as Ahmed started the cab, he demanded they stop. When the passengers started to sing for a second time, Ahmed lost his temper, reversed at speed back into the taxi rank and ordered them to leave his cab, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
But as the group attempted to get out, Ahmed pulled away at speed with the door open, causing one of the passengers to fall out.
The court heard that while the others screamed at the taxi driver to stop he drove erratically around the station car park until he collided a stationary car - ripping off his cab door.
He then drove into the nearby bus station, where the cab’s wheelchair ramp, which had come loose and was hanging out of the vehicle, hit a metal pole.
Ahmed, of Elmfield Road, Hyde Park, Doncaster, then drove his passengers to a police station.
A British Transport Police spokesman said: “The court heard how the four passengers repeatedly screamed at Ahmed to stop the car as they were thrown around in the back of the vehicle, desperately attempting not to fall out of the side of the car.
“On leaving the bus station, Ahmed continued to drive his passengers in a dangerous manner to a police station, calling his father on the way to tell him he feared he would be attacked by his passengers.
“In police interview, Ahmed claimed he had done nothing wrong and only drove in such a reckless manner because he was in fear of his life as he believed one of the group would beat him up.”
But a dashboard camera recorded audio and visual evidence of the terrifying incident and was presented in court, where Ahmed pleaded guilty to dangerous driving.
He was banned from driving for two years, given a 12 month community order and ordered to pay £2,800 in prosecution costs.
He must carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
DC Ian Grice, of British Transport Police, said: “Ahmed’s actions that evening were incredibly dangerous as reflected in the driving ban and substantial fine he has been ordered to pay.
“The incident could have been far worse but all six of his passengers were left bruised, battered, badly shaken and shocked by what happened and were lucky not to have been seriously injured.”
http://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/taxi-driver-banned-after-passenger-fell-out-of-cab-in-terrifying-ordeal-in-doncaster-1-7889873
---------------------------------------
Monday, 2 May 2016
Holidaymakers abandoned cars and taxis in the middle of the motorway, scaled fences and dragged their suitcases to Manchester Airport after getting stuck in traffic.
Motorists desperate to catch their flights in time left vehicles on the M56 following an incident over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Police shut part of the motorway on Sunday evening as officers tried to talk a man safely down from a bridge at around 6.30pm.
Families fearing they may be in danger of missing their flights decided to collect their belongings and make a dash for it.
Some were even seen wheeling their suitcases along the hard shoulder, despite appeals from the police to stay inside their vehicles.
Some people were seen with their suitcases on the grass verge beside the M56
Holidaymakers abandoned cars and taxis in the middle of the motorway, scaled fences and dragged their suitcases to Manchester Airport after getting stuck in traffic.
Motorists desperate to catch their flights in time left vehicles on the M56 following an incident over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Police shut part of the motorway on Sunday evening as officers tried to talk a man safely down from a bridge at around 6.30pm.
Families fearing they may be in danger of missing their flights decided to collect their belongings and make a dash for it.
Some were even seen wheeling their suitcases along the hard shoulder, despite appeals from the police to stay inside their vehicles.
Others scrambled up the motorway embankment and climbed over fences, before trekking across fields to Manchester Airport.
All lanes of the motorway were closed after a man was spotted dangling his legs over a bridge high above a stretch close to junction four of the motorway, near Wythenshawe, on Sunday. Huge queues of traffic built-up within minutes.
Heavy congestion was reported back to junction two for Wythenshawe and towards junction five for Manchester Airport.
Many drivers were spotted getting out of their cars and were seen pacing up and down the tarmac.
Read more: Man spotted on wrong side of railings on M56 bridge taken to hospital for care and support
Traffic on surrounding routes also ground to a halt and police warned drivers to avoid the area.
The North West Motorway Police took to Twitter to issue a warning writing: “Closures will remain but if are trapped in the tail back. RETURN TO YOUR VEHICLE IMMEDIATELY we will be getting you moving in next few mins.”
http://goo.gl/9kBMps
--------------------------------------------------------------------
ALABAMA USA
Last month Athens, Georgia area Uber driver John H. Kamens was arrested for allegedly returning to a female passenger’s after dropping her off to rob her home and rape her.
“The suspect is an Uber driver and made contact with the victim while providing her transportation the night of the incident,” police Capt. Mike Hunsinger told Online Athens. “Evidence indicates the burglary was with the intent to commit the felonious assault.”
According to police, the assault took place between 11:30 pm and 1:00 am on December 15 to December 16. Although the victim reported the attack immediately after it happened, Kamens wasn’t arrested until Wednesday. He’s being charged with aggravated sodomy with force and first-degree burglary. Kamens was booked into Clarke County Jail and is being held without bail. Jezebel pointed out that Kamens is not listed as a sex offender and doesn’t appear to have any other pending criminal charges.
Uber drivers assaulting female passengers, sexually or otherwise, is nothing new. It’s happened in California, Boston, and New Jersey, among other cities. In October, two female passengers filed a lawsuit accusing the ride-sharing company of negligence and fraud after the two made sexual assault allegations against Uber drivers. Unsurprisingly, Uber’s process for performing background checks on prospective drivers has drawn criticism for being lax and outright ineffectual.
http://goo.gl/5Bh8he
-----------------------------------
ROTHERHAM
Victims of child sexual exploitation from Rotherham want councils across the country to use their experiences to prevent other young people being abused.
The Rotherham abuse steering group is built of survivors and family members created in the wake of the Rotherham abuse scandal.
They've put together a national plan to help prevent and reduce CSE.
Part of the plan covers licensing policies including taxi licensing to make it safer for all passengers and drivers.
It's because, in some cases, drivers have been involved in CSE, with victims being trafficked across the country in taxis.
As a group, they have been advising and working along side Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council to put their licensing suggestions in place with effect from July 2016.
They are also contacting all councils throughout the UK to put their suggestions in place, because they claim it will help reduce all forms of crime, as well as CSE.
Motorists desperate to catch their flights in time left vehicles on the M56 following an incident over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Police shut part of the motorway on Sunday evening as officers tried to talk a man safely down from a bridge at around 6.30pm.
Families fearing they may be in danger of missing their flights decided to collect their belongings and make a dash for it.
Some were even seen wheeling their suitcases along the hard shoulder, despite appeals from the police to stay inside their vehicles.
Some people were seen with their suitcases on the grass verge beside the M56
Holidaymakers abandoned cars and taxis in the middle of the motorway, scaled fences and dragged their suitcases to Manchester Airport after getting stuck in traffic.
Motorists desperate to catch their flights in time left vehicles on the M56 following an incident over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Police shut part of the motorway on Sunday evening as officers tried to talk a man safely down from a bridge at around 6.30pm.
Families fearing they may be in danger of missing their flights decided to collect their belongings and make a dash for it.
Some were even seen wheeling their suitcases along the hard shoulder, despite appeals from the police to stay inside their vehicles.
Others scrambled up the motorway embankment and climbed over fences, before trekking across fields to Manchester Airport.
All lanes of the motorway were closed after a man was spotted dangling his legs over a bridge high above a stretch close to junction four of the motorway, near Wythenshawe, on Sunday. Huge queues of traffic built-up within minutes.
Heavy congestion was reported back to junction two for Wythenshawe and towards junction five for Manchester Airport.
Many drivers were spotted getting out of their cars and were seen pacing up and down the tarmac.
Read more: Man spotted on wrong side of railings on M56 bridge taken to hospital for care and support
Traffic on surrounding routes also ground to a halt and police warned drivers to avoid the area.
The North West Motorway Police took to Twitter to issue a warning writing: “Closures will remain but if are trapped in the tail back. RETURN TO YOUR VEHICLE IMMEDIATELY we will be getting you moving in next few mins.”
http://goo.gl/9kBMps
--------------------------------------------------------------------
ALABAMA USA
Last month Athens, Georgia area Uber driver John H. Kamens was arrested for allegedly returning to a female passenger’s after dropping her off to rob her home and rape her.
“The suspect is an Uber driver and made contact with the victim while providing her transportation the night of the incident,” police Capt. Mike Hunsinger told Online Athens. “Evidence indicates the burglary was with the intent to commit the felonious assault.”
According to police, the assault took place between 11:30 pm and 1:00 am on December 15 to December 16. Although the victim reported the attack immediately after it happened, Kamens wasn’t arrested until Wednesday. He’s being charged with aggravated sodomy with force and first-degree burglary. Kamens was booked into Clarke County Jail and is being held without bail. Jezebel pointed out that Kamens is not listed as a sex offender and doesn’t appear to have any other pending criminal charges.
Uber drivers assaulting female passengers, sexually or otherwise, is nothing new. It’s happened in California, Boston, and New Jersey, among other cities. In October, two female passengers filed a lawsuit accusing the ride-sharing company of negligence and fraud after the two made sexual assault allegations against Uber drivers. Unsurprisingly, Uber’s process for performing background checks on prospective drivers has drawn criticism for being lax and outright ineffectual.
http://goo.gl/5Bh8he
-----------------------------------
ROTHERHAM
Victims of child sexual exploitation from Rotherham want councils across the country to use their experiences to prevent other young people being abused.
The Rotherham abuse steering group is built of survivors and family members created in the wake of the Rotherham abuse scandal.
They've put together a national plan to help prevent and reduce CSE.
Part of the plan covers licensing policies including taxi licensing to make it safer for all passengers and drivers.
It's because, in some cases, drivers have been involved in CSE, with victims being trafficked across the country in taxis.
As a group, they have been advising and working along side Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council to put their licensing suggestions in place with effect from July 2016.
They are also contacting all councils throughout the UK to put their suggestions in place, because they claim it will help reduce all forms of crime, as well as CSE.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)