Taxi Driver Online

Police force minicab drivers caught loitering for customers to leave Gatwick Airport



POLICE are clamping down on unauthorised minicab drivers "loitering" in restaurant car parks and garage forecourts at Gatwick Airport waiting for potential fares.

Officers based at Gatwick have noticed a rise in private hire drivers, the majority using the Uber app, parking within the airport boundaries as they wait for a request from a passenger arriving on a flight.

Uber is a smartphone app where someone inputs where they want to be picked up and dropped off.

The nearest registered driver is then contacted to collect them and this had led to a number of minicab drivers sitting at the airport to receive jobs.

Airport Cars Gatwick has the only licence to pick up passengers arriving at the airport while private hire firms (such as those based in Crawley) can collect someone if they have pre-booked, although they have to wait in car parks and cannot use the airport's taxi ranks.

Gatwick-based police have been carrying out proactive patrols of the airport boundaries since the start of the month and have forced many drivers to move on.

On April 1, ten drivers caught on Gatwick land were told to leave, a further five were moved on during an operation on April 7 and eight were asked to leave last Thursday (April 9).

Sergeant Darren Taylor, from the airport's community safety team, said: "Taxi drivers are loitering and clogging up areas of the airport used by the public. We have found drivers parked up in the car park for the McDonald's drive through and also in petrol station forecourts.

"Many of these drivers come down from London and they wait there for an Uber request to come through on their phone.

"We first became aware of the issue when we were getting calls from BP and Shell garages saying there were drivers who just sat in the forecourts for long periods of time.

"The forecourts are not designed for that purpose.

"We don't want to stop people from earning a living but there are by-laws in place on who can operate at Gatwick Airport.

"We are actively discouraging this practice by giving any drivers we catch words of advice and asking them to leave.

"If we catch the same person frequently breaking by-laws we will be forced to contact the local authority where they are registered to raise a complaint and enforce exclusions."

Sgt Taylor explained that a meeting is being held with Uber on Friday to discuss the best way forward.

A Sussex Police spokesman said: "Police at Gatwick are clamping down on unauthorised taxis picking up fares from the airport.

"A growing practice has been identified where taxi drivers, predominantly from London, drop off customers at the airport and then park up close by to await a return fare generated by a mobile phone app.

"Gatwick by-laws only permit authorised private hire vehicles to ply their trade from the airport and unauthorised drivers found to be using the app and unable to prove that they have a pre-booked fare are being dealt robustly, but fairly. "


Read more: http://www.crawleynews.co.uk/Police-for ... z3XkXNOGWH

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

Quote:

"Gatwick by-laws only permit authorised private hire vehicles to ply their trade from the airport and unauthorised drivers found to be using the app and unable to prove that they have a pre-booked fare are being dealt robustly, but fairly. "

Now what was that little law which went along the lines of byelaws cannot be repugnant?

Halsbury’s Laws identifies four elements which are essential to the validity of a byelaw, as follows:

(1) It must be within the powers of the local authority which makes it;

(2) It must not be repugnant to the law of England;

(3) It must be certain and positive in its terms; and

(4) It must be reasonable.

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

Are you suggesting that the drivers challenge the bylaws in court? Surely the best time to make a challenge would have been when the bylaw was being proposed.

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Grandad,

Maybe some people weren't around in 1996?

https://www.pnld.co.uk/docportal/content/@1322.htm

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

So they have asked a few to leave MacDonalds or the Petrol station.

Every minute of every day there are dozens and dozens of taxi/ph waiting in those areas.

There is a Tesco a little bit further up the road where you can also wait forever.

Methinks the police are p***ing in the wind.

As for the comment about contacting their local licensing team, someone remind me what powers licensing authorities have outside of their areas?

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IDFIMH

They cannot ask vehicles to leave McDonalds merely because they are parked there.

'Bye-laws....permit....PHV's to ply their trade.' Really? How does that fit in with LG(MP)A?

yep my point exactly

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

I don't suppose that they are asking them to move merely because they are parked there. They are probably asking the drivers what they are doing there and the drivers are telling them that they are hanging around in case a job comes through.

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Grandad,

I think it's a non story, there is a bit outside of MacDonalds where a few sit, but I would say MacDonalds car park is 90% full 24/7, and 90% of that 90% are taxis/PH waiting for a phone call to whizz around and pick up.

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IDFIMH

I sit there, with a booking, waiting for the flight to land before I commit to the terminal car park. I also have fun with MET Parking afterwards sometimes!

Presumably they can't ask you to leave Mcdonalds if you're a customer ?
So buy the cheapest thing on the menu and sit there all day, or keep one of their drinks cups and wave that at any official (they're not going to check there's anything in it ! Or fill it with some other liquid)

Don't forget the maximum waiting time.

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Grandad,

They don't, it's all rubbish.

If they asked waiting taxis/PH to move on it would take them all day and MacDonalds wouldn't be pleased.

If the police asked me to move from MacDonalds, I would simply remind them that even taxi/PH drivers need a pi** and a rest sometimes.

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IDFIMH

The sign says 60 minutes, nothing will happen if you go over. A few invoices from a private parking company (MET was suggested earlier) will pop through your letterbox. They will send about 6 or so over the course of a year, each one seemingly more threatening than the next. Those letters will eventually go away.

The issue here is Uber drivers waiting outside their licensed area once dropping off at Gatwick (or specifically driving to Gatwick, if they've dropped nearby), hoping to catch a fare back into town. They are waiting outside their licensed area (London), on private airport property, which is what is giving Gatwick Airport police the hump, which is fair enough.

However, as suggested, there is a Tesco in Hookwood just around the corner, where they can wait. Gatwick Airport police are aware of this, and as the Tesco is nothing to do with them, they can't really do much, so it's down to Crawley's licensing officers to go there and sort the drivers out.

I suspect Uber drivers, can use the McDonalds/BP facilities as would any other customer, but would have to turn their app off, to show that not there waiting for a job, and are legitimately there as a customer.

All that would eventually happen is that Uber will tell their drivers to wait just inside the London border, for incoming jobs at Gatwick. There's a Tesco in Purley, and a cafe with a car park somewhere on the A23 in Coulsdon, where they can legitimately wait for a Gatwick pick up. Uber, will just program their app to inform passengers to request a car about 20 minutes before it's required, giving drivers enough time to drive down the M23 to collect them.

Uber drivers are easy targets since the location of available cars can be seen on the app, and as the police have the app on their phone, they can easily make false requests, where the driver's name, photo, and reg no of vehicle is going to be displayed.