Taxi Driver Online

COURT THROWS OUT TAXI FIRM'S CASE


A private prosecution brought to court by one Plymouth taxi boss against another has been thrown out by magistrates after they found there was no case to answer. Silverline director Lawrence Brown had pleaded not guilty to knowingly operating a vehicle without a private hire licence on May 23 this year in a case brought by Taxifast boss John Preece.

Magistrates heard from Mr Brown's barrister, David Fletcher, that it had been a malicious 'trade war' prosecution brought by Mr Preece and had been 'doomed to failure' from the start.

But after the case was formaly dismissed Mr Preece said he would now take it forward to the high court for a judicial review.

Earlier his barrister, Shaun Braunton, had told magistrates that Mr Brown had operated without a private hire licence for more than two years.

He said that Mr Brown's last licence expired in March 2001 and when his application for a renewal was eventually held in April this year it was refused by the city council's licensing committee who deemed Mr Brown as 'not a fit and proper person' to hold such a licence.

Mr Preece objected to the renewal of Mr Brown's licence on a number of allegations, including that he was just a 'front man' for former Silverline owner Les Palmer - who was stripped of his private hire licence some years earlier as being 'not a fit and proper person'.

Mr Braunton said the licensing committee in April this year agreed the set-up at Silverline was a 'sham' and that Mr Palmer was still involved with the operation of the business.

He said that against that background Mr Brown had knowingly been operating without a private hire licence since March 2001 and up to May 23 this year, the date when a private detective hired by Mr Preece could prove he used a Silverline taxi.

But Mr Fletcher said Mr Brown had appealed against the city council's decision not to renew the licence and had a letter, from the council on April 4, saying that if an appeal was lodged then 'the existing licence will continue'.

He said this meant that Mr Brown has an existing licence and is allowed to continue operating until the decision by magistrates at the appeal hearing - scheduled to take place next month.

Mr Braunton said the licence had not been renewed and that the council's view regarding a 'hold over provision' during appeal didn't stop anyone else, like Mr Preece, taking legal action on the basis that Mr Brown was still operating without a licence.

After the case was dismissed Mr Brown said the whole thing had been stressful but he was relieved at the court's decision.

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I don't think they like each other.

Now where is Stevo when you need him?

hello!
someone say my name?!!

things are starting to become a joke with this at the moment. the only thing its causing is bad feeling from sliverline drivers towards taxifast drivers, shame really cos its nothing to do with the drivers.

you may think its silly but a few years ago our boss (mr. preece) and sliverline (better say ex-boss) mr palmer where buddies. they fell out over a few hundred quids worth of roof signs.

mr palmer says he's nothing to do with sliverline any more, but if you drive past his house on one of plymouths main roads there is a big trailer advertising sliverline parked right outside with sliverline cars parked there on a regular basis. not quite the sort of thing you would be doing if you no longer had any ties to the company.

i can see this dragging on and on and probably ending up with nothing happening.

steveo

Sounds like a few people in my manor Steveo, and no doubt there are loads similar elsewhere.

I doubt if things normally go to the lengths in your manor though!

Dusty

Silverline Famous for thier cars,
where you buy cigs instead of in bars,
drivers reported all the vibes,
so they run a TV programme about thier bribes.

The council met to give the sack,
so they got barristers to bring them back,
so the whole saga on it drags.
do plymouth people still book them to bring fags?

outside Palmers there is a big trailer,
to remind his drivers of his failure,
is Palmer still thier Boss,?
to get rid surely no loss?

The situation is always in the news,
whilst the drivers kneel to pray in thier pews,
the councils enforcement they must send,
to bring all this situation to its end.

Paddington Bill

I just can't work out, what this is all for.

The bloke hasn't got a PH ops license, but until the case is decided he can still operate. So why for goodness sake does the other chap keep the process going.

Or have I missed something?

Rumour has it that Mr Preece and Mr Palmer actually fell out because Silverline employed a driver who had been sacked by Mr Preece for touting. And he would not be happy steveo if he knew you just picked up anyone from the Warleigh Manor party. Don't get me wrong, I used to be PH myself and the no fare situation is a major problem. Personally i think there is enough work here for us all PH and HC but there are some greedy b******* who hate to see anyone else earning a living. By the way, when Mr Preece boasts of 27,528(Taxifast newsletter 3/11/03) jobs a week, if you average 250 drivers, 5 days a week 10 hours a day it works out to 2.2 jobs an hour. It is probably less that that as I think he now has over 300 drivers. You all pay extra "office rent" at Xmas but did you know last year the office staff were instructed to refuse any "out of town" jobs unless they had the return journey and only previous customers could be accepted? I know one driver who worked 4 hours Xmas day and had £15.90 in P7 dockets. You can work out how much he actually got paid for them

The HC and PH trade to a tee !!!

Your arguments don't add up Dave.

If things were so bad then why would Mr Preece have 250 drivers?

Our company also only accept 'return bookings' during peak times at Christmas. We also don't accept jobs from other areas, we want to provide a service for those who use us all year round.

Otherwise you get the clever tight gits booking returns only so that when others want to book both ways you can't do them back and lose both jobs. You then spend all evening sat still until you go ballistic at midnight.

So really those rules are benfiting the driver.

Hi Dave, nice to see a local on here!

Thats another rumour i heard about Palmer and Preece falling out, the roof sign story was told to me by office staff.
you say you used to be PH, so i take it your HC now?? i'd like to hear what some of the local HC lads think of the OFT ruling and the disabled access stuff. PM me if you like.

[[And he would not be happy steveo if he knew you just picked up anyone from the Warleigh Manor party]] if you dont tell him, i wont tell the council about the HC lads ranking up on private land!

i would be surprised if 1/2 the drivers with us at the moment do a 50 hour week. so i dont think the work get as diluted as that.
over the last month or so i've only done 35-40 hours a week and still make a decent wedge from it. most drivers go out with an aim to make X amount of £££ and are happy to go home once they've done it. but as you say theres always the greedy ones who seem to do 12 hour shifts 7 days a week!
i must admit over the last few months taxifast has gone from 240 drivers to nearly 300 and i do sit around a liitle more than i used to during the week on back shift. it used to be one fare after another but now i sometimes have to wait 10-15 minutes between jobs, still better than some companies though.
like yesterday (monday 17th) i worked from 7pm till 12.30am and only did £75 a few months ago it would have been an easy £100. but the way i look at it is, it's still more than i would earn for the same hours in other jobs.

i've not worked for them over a Xmas yet so i dont know the score there, but if your mate dont like the hospital account work then stay away from the hospital!!
personally i think account work is better than nothing, if you take a fare from town out to near the hospital (which is about 5 miles or so from the city centre for those reading this from outside plymouth) i'd rather have a 30% discounted account fare to take me back in to town rather than going back empty.
i can never understand the drivers who moan about getting hospital account work and then go and sit at the hospital waiting for work!!

This time only the PH trade to a tee !!!!!

You don't have to be sitting at the hospital to get P7's. These are actual journeys last Xmas day:- Mutley Plain to hospital to pick up and drop at Tamerton Foliot. Milehouse to Efford to pick up and drop at hospital. Also from city centre to Bush Park medical records to hospital. I agree any fare is better than nothing but some drivers seem to be able to pick and choose which jobs they take. Anyway, glad you're doing all right mate, like I said, plenty work here if everyone is sensible about it.

As for the OFT, I haven't yet spoken to an HC driver who is in favour of the proposals. The ones who own their cabs are worried because obviously their cabs will be worth a lot less than they are now. People seem to forget that taxi drivers don't just work weekends they have to earn a living all through the week, and there are bound to be delays at peak periods. (That's where you PH boys come in, they can always ring and book you! ) The council don't really want more HC on the road, they will have to provide more ranks, and no prize for guessing what will happen then, the licence fees will go up - both PH and HC. You don't get the OFT telling the council they should put more buses on the road because people who want to use a bus shouldn't have to wait for one.

Really !!!!!!

Article from Plymouth Evening Herald 5/11/03




CAB FIRM BOSS IS ONE MAN WITH A MISSION

LIZ PARKS

12:00 - 05 November 2003



Taxi boss John Preece is already a major player on Plymouth's roads - and now he is looking out to sea for more business opportunities.

The Plymouth-born managing director of Taxifast has bought a 45ft Princess yacht which will be available for charter from next Spring.

And by 2005 he would like to set up a water taxi business, possibly encompassing all of Plymouth's waterfront and using European grants.

All this is in addition to his main business, Taxifast, which grew by 50 per cent last year, is worth £8 million and is now the fifth largest private hire taxi firm in the UK.

Not bad for someone who left school with no qualifications and began his working life as an electrical fitter in Devonport Dockyard.

Mr Preece got into the transport sector in 1984 when he bought Plympton Coachlines, which ran as a private bus company.

Western National began running bus services on the same routes, but three minutes earlier, in a bid to compete with the private company.

So when Margaret Thatcher's privatisation drive meant he was able to buy a 40 per cent stake in Western National, Mr Preece swiftly got out his wallet.

In 1988, fellow-shareholders in the First group bought him out and a move into the taxi business soon followed.

Mr Preece set up Key Cabs Ltd, which had nine drivers and rapidly started expanding across the city.

Mr Preece introduced uniforms for his drivers, banned smoking in all his taxis and started up the UK's first taxi driver training school.

His firm became the first taxi company in the UK to achieve Investor in People status in 1996.

He said: "I decided to get into taxis having looked at the industry.

"It was very fragmented: there was no power within the industry and no dominant factor.

"We took a look around the trade and recognised the culture that was there.

"We felt the best way to bring the drivers online was to bring in fresh blood from outside, and that has paid off.

"They go through quite an intensive training programme," Mr Preece said.

Mr Preece has bought out a number of rival firms, including Plympton and Plymstock Taxis, St Budeaux-based Olympic Cabs and, more recently, Union Cars, to give Taxifast a strong presence across Plymouth.

The acquisition of the 28-strong Union Cars fleet means that Taxifast now has more than 300 vehicles.

It also has more than 340 employees in Plymouth - the fifth largest number in the UK.

Mr Preece, aged 61, says he is already in talks to buy out another taxi company and predicts that the business will grow even further.

"There's nothing to stop us becoming the largest in the UK, and we expect to do it in 24 months," he said.

The past few years have also brought controversy, as Taxifast successfully took Plymouth City Council to court for the right to install illuminated roof signs on its cars.

More recently, there has been a war of words with rival operator Silverline which ended up in court when Mr Preece tried - and failed - to bring a private prosecution against rival Lawrence Brown.

But Mr Preece said the publicity had benefited Taxifast, with its growth rate exceeding the expected 12 per cent and hitting 50 per cent last year.

All drivers are given a weekly Taxifast newsletter, keeping them up to date with the number of journeys the firm has done in the past week - most recently 27,528 - and Mr Preece is keen to point out that Saturday night was a record with 5,821 journeys.

Another 821 had to be turned down because drivers were so busy.

Mr Preece puts this level of activity down to the company's highly visible presence in Plymouth and a marketing push for the company's distinctive 222222 telephone number.

The number was originally used by a garage in Lipson, but 10 years ago Mr Preece spotted it on a sign and offered the owner £10,000 for it.

Despite the company's rapid growth, Mr Preece is always looking for more ways to expand.

This includes rolling Taxifast out to Exeter, Paignton and Torquay.

He has also applied for 30 hackney carriage plates from the council to start up a 'taxibus' service.

Mr Preece has also put together an outline plan for a water taxi business which he believes could be started up with European funding, to capitalise on Plymouth's stunning waterfront.

He said: "I think we can do it. We need to locate the right types of vessels, ones which are suitable for carrying passengers in this climate to all areas of the waterfront."

And in the short term, Mr Preece has just invested £300,000 in upgrading Taxifast's Faraday Mill base.

This includes a new control room to raise the number of operators from 11 to 24, installing a GPS system to automatically monitor the whereabouts of cars, and a 'text-back' service which will let people know when their taxis are about to arrive.

Each step of the business' development has been carefully prepared with all kinds of charts and graphs showing predicted growth, which has already been exceeded.

And as he eagerly works out Taxifast's next move, gears up to tackle the council for hackney plates and looks towards the Sound for water taxis, John Preece really is a man with a plan.

Very interesting, but what do his drivers think of him?

One would assume that they must think he is ok, or they wouldn't be on his circuit. Or perhaps they may not like him, but like the money they earn on his circuit.

However it would seem that he has got his head screwed on, cos that is a bloody good number.

BID TO PUT BRAKE ON NEW TAXIBUS

STUART ABEL

12:35 - 09 August 2003

A row has broken out between a major city taxi operator and the city council over a new bus service.

Taxifast managing director John Preece said the authority's Taxibus service to and from the Langage estate in Plympton was illegal, because it was not covered by the right licence.

The council said the service, using an eight-seater vehicle, was legitimate.

The Taxibus Mercedes, which runs from areas such as Barne Barton and Keyham, was briefly replaced by a larger vehicle while council officials checked out the situation.

The 53 service is a subsidised bus route intended to provide a chance for people living in the west of the city to seek work at Langage, an area which may have proved difficult to reach using public transport in the past.

But Mr Preece said the vehicle used for the service was taxed only for private and light goods, and as it had eight seats could not be licensed as a Public Service Vehicle.

He added: "It cannot be licensed as a private hire, because it collects individual fares.

"In its present form as a taxibus limited to eight seats it could only be licensed as a hackney carriage vehicle, and subsequently driven by a licensed hackney driver."

Mr Preece called on the service to stop or change its licence.

He accused the council of not putting the service out to tender to his company, the biggest private hire firm in Plymouth.

A city council spokeswoman said the taxibus service had been running on a free trial basis and as such did not need a special licence at the moment.

"We have received confirmation from the Traffic Commissioner today that the eight-seater vehicle operating this route can be classed as a Public Service Vehicle.

"As such, it can be used in this capacity, provided that when the free trial period finishes the vehicle is registered as a PSV and fares are charged on an individual basis."

The council is writing to Mr Preece to explain the situation



Nice to see he's not always right