Taxi Driver Online

The Casey Column

By

Wayne Casey (LL SC)

The views expressed in this column are not those of the National Taxi Association

It’s Groundhog Day so bury me in platitudes

On 29th February the House of Commons debated Taxi & Private Hire safety, a full transcript of the debate is available on the National Taxi Association website, I guess to some it would make interesting reading, presuming you’re interested.

I seem to write at least once per year about taxi and private hire drivers being beaten and murdered whilst doing their jobs. The latest in an all too long line of licensed drivers to be murdered is Mehar Dhariwal, 61, who died following an attack in January. I wish to offer my condolences to his family during this terrible time, I sincerely hope the perpetrators are brought to justice.

The abuse the majority of us face on a daily basis simply wouldn’t be accepted in any other occupation. This abuse goes from verbal insults, to threats, to physical violence and vehicles getting kicked. We all experience it, and following on from my article last month (in respect of bilkers etc) it goes largely unreported. It is reasonable to also say, there has recently been a disturbing increase in reports of bus drivers being subject to similar attacks, although not on the same scale.

So the great and good met to discuss our plight, like they did a few short months ago, and like the time before. They huffed and they puffed and they showered us in platitudes. The law commission were even mentioned, so presumably they’ll bring in a law making it illegal to beat up, maim and murder cab drivers?

Any cab driver who has any concern for our welfare, justice being done and integrity should be overjoyed by the House of Commons taking an interest in our plight, and should be awaiting a tacit government response to the debate.

The indictment of the increasing violence aimed at us should however include not only the murder and beatings of licensed drivers but also, rather crucially, the neglect of local authorities who might have taken more than a negligible passing interest in years previous.
Many times, certain councillors (ergo local authorities) view (that) whatever the sins of the perpetrators’, their often drunken state was a more believable story than the one of the cab driver.

During February, Councillor Jan Brown, chairman of licensing at Watford Borough Council, stated: “The council’s specific role is to license taxis. We don’t provide CCTV cameras to private businesses like taxis, in the same way that we don’t pay for CCTV cameras in shops, offices or homes, for example.”

With the usual display of moral integrity, Brown’s statement overlooked the broken bones and bruises of drivers in her area; it did however echo similar thoughts of councillors we have mentioned in the past.

Such statements reflect a deeply rooted culture of ignorance in officialdom – I’ll even give it a name - the doctrine of ignorance, this doctrine is invoked by various councillors each time there is a public outcry about drivers being beaten to a pulp, although the doctrine isn’t just there for councillors alone. The content of the doctrine is: "Yes, we know crimes are being committed, but there isn’t going to be any public money available to prevent it. But now that's all over, why don’t you give me a photo opportunity on things the public are really concerned about – like picking up dog sh*t."

The doctrine is dishonest and cowardly, but it does have advantages: It saves them from addressing the true social (and sometimes economic) reasons why these incidents actually do happen and how they need to address the serious issues.

For example, one regular reasons for delimiting taxi numbers is to prevent social disorder in town and city centres, more cabs will diffuse the situation and empty the centres quicker, it doesn’t actually address the fact that people in deregulated areas are equally as drunk – and prone to equal amounts of disorder as those in restricted areas – nor does it address the fact that the situation is merely moved to another area. There has been precious little research, but that’s not important.

Nobody believes that now, not even those that pushed for those polices in the first place.

The new reason is that we need more cabs to drive down prices, in fact, the OFT are so red-faced about a situation they went to extraordinary lengths to create, they now want pressure exerted on local authorities to lower cab fares.

Sometimes, the repetition of these postures reaches the level of rapturous acclaim.

Last month, for example, Richard Fuller, the MP for Bedford, described “a cursory review of local newspapers will readily identify cases of assault—frequently sexual assault—of passengers by taxi drivers”. This was after a decent start to his debate - pointing out that licensed drivers regularly suffer at the hands of passengers.

Fuller was particularly impressed with “Am I safe?”, a legally dubious iphone application that obtains information via local authority licensing registers giving information to a third party, he described access to this information so "that it makes sense to make this regulated information more accessible and more accurate".

Maybe that helps explain Fuller’s new role – he recently became Non Executive Director of OpSec Security Group plc, “Governments use OpSec’s technologies to guard against counterfeiting of currency, tax stamps, passports, drivers' licenses, ID cards, and other government documents.”
You would believe if sufficient research had been carried out the MP in question would actually know the difference between hackney carriages and private hire, instead he used the ubiquitous expression ‘taxi’ to describe both trades, an avenue which will not exactly endear the poor chap to many of you.

All this is irrelevant because of the convenient doctrine of ignorance.

So, yes, Fuller's heart bleeds for licensed drivers being beaten - but the record now shows ignorance, it's just that boring old stuff that they always get confused about.

Of course, if you want to know why the MP is confused you need look no further than where he obtained the evidence he presented. One might recall a work of fiction that went “You cannot compare the illegal cabs to the legitimate, pre-booked industry. He also talked about the assaults that take place in private hire vehicles. They don't take place in private hire vehicles at all; they take place in illegal cabs. They don't take place in private hire vehicles.” I am of course quoting from oral evidence given before the transport select committee last year by the Licensed Private Hire Car Association.

Perhaps Masood Ahmed who worked for a firm in London and was jailed for 11 years for raping and threatening to kill an 18-year-old woman in Surrey was a one off – although technically the assault and rape didn’t take place in a private hire car – the unfortunate victim ran off to try to escape her attacker, Ahmed pursued and raped her in some nearby woods. – so perhaps the statement made by the LPHCA stands true on a technicality.

The LPHCA similarly denounced the “Unions” in an outburst about private-hire cars ranking; “There is no ranking in London. It is a common thing for the trade unions to say ranking is taking place in London. No prosecutions against private hire ranking in London have ever taken place. It's a myth. They deem cars parked up in a row to be a rank, which is not the case.”

After reviewing video footage provided by ‘the Anderson shelter’ taxi blog, I think it is fair to suggest the above statement is a gross misrepresentation of the facts – although my growing fan base in London would no doubt choose rather more colourful words. In actual fact, case law does suggest private-hire cars form ranks when parked in a row.

What's revealing and important to the future of the taxi trade is the House of Common's apparent display of contempt for driver safety with calls for safety to be addressed by the Law Commission.

To be able to carry that off is an impressive achievement, hard to imitate even MP’s used to such duplicity.

I guess I’m growing tired or cynical in my old age.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin