moo_kt wrote: Hi there,
I'm producing a radio feature on the recent crack-down on unlicensed taxi drivers that often operate outside of clubs and pubs and am interested in the opinions of licensed taxi drivers on the matter.
I am creating the feature from the persepctive of a young female... the dangers and fears involved. I'd appreciate any views, comments or advice that taxi drivers and customers out there have on the matter. Stories and real-life experiences would be great.
I assume you're talking from a London perspective then Katie?
I think the root of the problem is public confusion on the issue, and I think this stems from the mish mash of practices throughout the country.
- In London you have the licensed black cabs, expensive and difficult to get at peak times, and impossilbe in some suburban areas.
- To fill the gap left by the black cabs (because it's difficult to become a black cab driver) you have minicabs. These have historically been completetly unlicensed, therefore a convictd rapist or murderer could drive one. That's not to say that they were illegal; as long as they only did pre-booked work, and had proper insurance etc, then they were OK. But some did pick up illegally without being booked, and then there were the touts who were totally illegitimate and basically the source of the worst problems.
But over the years, the authorities basically turned a blind eye to the problem, and the black cab trade didn't want proper licensing for the minicabs, because it would legitimise them, and thus to that extent the whole thing was difficult to control.
And as happens so often with government, by the time they actually got round to doing something about the problem, it was so far out of control as to be very difficult, if not impossible, to get a grip of.
So now the mainstream minicab sector is being licensed. But this does not affect the illegal touts, unless there is strict enforcement, but it seems that the problem is too out of control to fix that, in the short term at least.
Hence the current crackdown you mention?
Of course, it seems that there are both licensed minicabs and unlicensed touts that wait outside pubs and clubs, but neither can pick up without being pre-booked, so it's not clear if the crackdown is targetting one or the other or both.
And there may be some kind of booking system operated by clubs (for example) which may render the arrangement legal, but that's a grey area legally.
But the problem is that the whole practice is so ingrained, and enforcement has been so lax, that many people just accept it, and the public don't know the law, what's legal and what's not, and the police are reluctant to act.
And as is typical of modern policing, they tend not to bother about less serious crime, and worry more about keeping the peace and clearing people from the streets. So they allow illegal plying for hire, but of course when something happens as a consequence they're suddenly all holier than thou, and tell us how bad these touts are, and that they're doing us a favour by having a crackdown or whatever.
And of course, that's just from the trade perspective; as I said above, the customers don't know the score, which stems from the neglect of the authorities, and also, as befits many people these days, they just don't seem to bother about their own safety, with getting drunk/high being the priority.
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