The newspaper of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association TAXIS SAFEST FORM OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT Page 3 SUBURBAN SECTOR UPDATES Pages 16 -17 AL FRESCO ON GETTING BACK IN THE CAB Page 20 www.ltda.co.uk 18th May 2021#492 1 RANK INCOMPETENCE LTDA calls on TFL to act on Uber's proposed ‘pick up points’ in Soho www.ltda.co.uk @TheLTDA 2 www.ltda.co.uk @TheLTDA Contents & News OLA MAKES EV PLEDGE IN BID TO Inside... RECOVER LONDON LICENCE OLA has announced a series of measures to encourage the use of EVs, as it fights to 18:05:21 regain its licence to operate in London. The HAVERING GRANTS FOR TAXI DRIVERS ridesharing firm will now offer incentives for 3 | News its London drivers to switch to electric vehicles, WHO MISSED CUT-OFF including waiving its commission fees until 5 | Steve McNamara The London Borough of Havering is offering August 13 for grants for black cab drivers who missed the cut- those with EVs. 6 | Paul Brennan off date to apply for funding through its previous Ola users in rounds of discretionary grant schemes. The the capital will 8 | Lloyd Baldwin Havering Taxi (Black Cab) Drivers Grant provides also be able to up to £6000 for licensed London taxi drivers opt to travel by 11 | Sam Houston living in Havering, if they meet the eligibility EV by selecting criteria. The deadline to apply is 5pm on 28 the newly added “Ola EV” category, which 12 | Kanize Cozens May 2021 and applications can be made via the only allows drivers with electric vehicles to Council’s website: https://sjvlola8h0s.typeform. 15 | Wim Faber accept rides. Ola is currently appealing TfL’s com/to/Nx1gQ3PY decision not to renew its Private Hire Vehicle Drivers who previously received the Additional 16 | Steve Howard Operator licence in October 2020, over “historic Restrictions Grant will not qualify for further breaches” of licensing regulations, which funding through this new scheme. To be 18 | Steve Kenton allowed unlicensed drivers and vehicles to eligible, applicants must have been trading undertake more than 1000 passenger trips. 20 | Al Fresco on the 17 October 2020, be registered as living at an address within Havering and be able to 22 | Cab You Drive demonstrate ongoing costs associated with finance or rental of a vehicle throughout periods 24 | Chris Ackrill of restrictions. 27 | Puzzler MORE EVS REGISTERED IN 2020 THAN IN 29 | Exclusive: Taxi Charity ALL PREVIOUS YEARS Vehicle licensing statistics published by the 30 | Musher Meg Department for Transport show that more fully Puzzler answers electric cars were registered in 2020 than in all previous years combined. The Annual Vehicle Licensing Statistics for 2020 also revealed the impact of the Coronavirus crisis on new car sales, 3 with over 800,000 fewer vehicles registered in the LTDA LONDONERS CONSIDER TAXIS SAFEST Taxi House 133 Great Suffolk Street, UK in 2020. Unsurprisingly, the most affected SE1 2PP T: 020 7286 1046 | www.ltda.co.uk periods for new registrations were the two FORM OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT @TheLTDA national lockdowns from March to June and the A YouGov poll commissioned by the Evening Editor month of November. July was the only month to Standard has found that taxis are widely Katie Combes E: [email protected] show a year-on-year increase when registrations regarded as the safest form of public transport, Commissioning Editor increased, of 12% compared to 2019 figures. with three in five Londoners (62%) saying Nick Hartop they’d feel comfortable travelling in a cab, E: [email protected] while a third (32%) would not. In contrast, 53 Produced by Century One Publishing Ltd per cent of Londoners say they are worried Alban Row,27-31 Verulam Road about using the tube again, with older people St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL3 4DG. T: 01727 893 894, F: 01727 893 895 particularly concerned about returning to E: [email protected] the daily commute. 60 per cent of over-65s www.centuryone.uk said they were uncomfortable using the tube, Advertising Sales Executive Jack Green T: 01727 739 196 compared to just 34 per cent of the same age E: [email protected] group who had concerns over using taxis. Creative Director Peter Davies Designer & Advert Coordinator Caitlyn Hobbs NEW TRANSPORT RULES FROM 17 MAY Printed by TfL has announced that in line with the easing Manson Group, St Albans of restrictions yesterday, bus capacity has been Published on behalf of the LTDA by doubled, to allow more people to travel. Most seats on buses are now available for use, with the capacity of double-decker buses having increased to around 60. TfL has acknowledged that as capacity increases and more people return to the network, social distancing will Alban Row, 27-31 Verulam Road, not always be possible, but TfL Commissioner, Hertfordshire, AL3 4DG Andy Byford has assured people that services are “cleaner than ever”. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means electronic, mechanical or by photocopy- ing without prior permission of the publishers. The views and opinions expressed in this publication may not necessarily be those of the publishers. Please note that the last day for inclusion of Classified lineage advertisements is five working days prior to publication. No liability is accepted by the publisher should advertisements not appear in the requested issue(s). While the publisher will take every care to ensure accuracy, no liability can be accepted for loss or damage resulting from errors. @TheLTDA www.ltda.co.uk Did you drive a London Black Cab between 2012 and 2018? If so, you could have a legal claim against Uber worth up to £25,000 Register now: www.bulit21.com No Cost - No Commitment RGL Management Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in respect of regulated claims management activity. Reg No: FRN 833132 4 www.ltda.co.uk @TheLTDA General Secretary | Steve McNamara A Rank By Any Other Name… “I explained in no uncertain terms that if they refused to act, we would be forced to take matters into our own hands, gathering evidence to undertake private prosecutions…” this that ranks are a fundamental Steve’s comment part of the licensed taxi trade and The newspaper of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association our exclusive right to ply for hire. So, when Uber began sending out TAXIS SAFEST FORM OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT Page 3 emails, text messages and push notifications to their customers SUBURBAN SECTOR UPDATES ver the last couple of Pages 16 -17 informing them of their plans, weeks, it’s been great www.ltda.co.uk I immediately contacted senior AL FRESCO ON GETTING BACK 18th May 2021#492 to see London coming IN THE CAB Page 20 licensing officials at TfL making back to life, albeit very them aware, raise our concerns Oslowly. Most importantly there and asking that they took are more cabs on the street with immediate enforcement action if passengers in them. Hopefully, Uber went ahead. following Monday’s further Since then, TfL have failed to act easing of restrictions, things will decisively, claiming that it is “not only get better, with hospitality that simple”. They say that they are finally allowed to let people “looking into this issue” and "have inside out of the never-ending 1 deployed officers to monitor specific rain and more venues opening locations to ensure that no vehicles back up. As we finally dare to are causing an obstruction to the start believing things will pick highway." Uber’s actions once up, it has been good to talk about again highlight the problems and things other than Covid for a illegalities of their business model change and turn our attention to which clearly constitutes plying for other issues impacting the trade. hire. It also further demonstrates Unfortunately, there is always their belief that they can do as they some “bad” news that some will want, whenever and wherever 5 choose to focus on. RANK they wanton London’s streets, It’s no secret that social media with no real consequences. Sadly, has been a challenge for our INCOMPETENCE this belief has been reinforced by trade, or more specifically it’s LTDA calls on TFL to act on Uber's repeated failures by the regulator become a challenge thanks to a propose pick up points @TheLTDA and enforcement officers to act small few within our ranks, who www.ltda.co.uk when they fail to play by the rules. on some occasions have turned it into a nightmare. Just recently harder than ever. Failure to act the extreme, frankly disgusting, “With the important Currently, there are around 700 On a call with TfL officials and messages directed at the Deputy caveat that our ‘Gold candidates on appearances, back other trade reps last week, it Mayor for Transport on her in 2018 and before then, it used to became apparent that they have birthday, managed to tick just Standard’ must not average over 2000. There is a plethora no immediate plans to condemn about every box on the abuse list, be watered down, of reasons that numbers are down. Uber’s actions and make it clear reinforcing all the stereotypes our we should consider Again, ironically, one of them is the to the company that the use of enemies label us with. This does negativity surrounding the trade these points will not be tolerated us no favours. every option to keep and our poor image on social media! and will be subject to enforcement It’s not just abuse; in fact, their it relevant and valued Whatever the reasons, we need to action.