Taxi Driver Online

the clubs in London? Does the club have to be registered as a mini cab office for this to be legal?

The clipboard men are registered to work only inside the venue, as a satellite office or Licensed PHV provider and are supposed to take bookings for cars, from customers, inside the premises. The Passenger is supposed to wait with the clipboard man, until the PHV arrives. The clipboard man then escorts the passenger to the car.
Unfortunately, these clipboard men now illegally organise a waiting rank of cars and also tout passing trade. They pin their TFL license to their clip board and everyone, Police, Traffic Wardens and Public alike all believe this is legal. Which it is definitely not.

Tonight was the start of the new Laws regarding touting ( one hit and your out) and the Police moved on all the PHV's that were illegally ranking in Regent Street, dead on Midnight. The PHV drivers were arguing with the police that they were all booked by the clipboard man but were eventually moved on. Two minuets after the Police left the scene the cars were back in force.

PHV providers in the west end are now using Rickshaw bikers to tout for jobs and bring the passengers to waiting PHV's.

Anyone offering their services to the public for hire or reward in a public place is breaking the law, regardless of whether or not they have a clipboard and that also goes for hackney carriage drivers.

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

Are you saying that Licensed Hackney carriage drivers are breaking the Law by plying for hire in a public street or from a public rank? because that is precisely what we do.

Or are you saying that HC drivers approaching customers to initiate a hiring or paying a hotel porter for jobs, or sorting out the best rides from a station with a long queue, are breaking the Law because that is a different scenario and I would agree, that is touting.

I don't think I mentioned plying for hire, in fact I know I didn't. Therefore if I didn't mention it, then obviously I wasn't referring to it.



I'm saying anyone soliciting custom from the public is breaking the law, regardless of whether they have a clipboard in their hand and that goes for hackney carriage drivers as well as private hire drivers and also regardless of what the PCO or anyone else says.

The fact is, you can't escape the law no matter who you are.

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

If you London chappies have persons at public venues soliciting custom for the purpose of private hire then the remedy to stop this is in your own hands.

Take the blighters to court.

Regards

JD

_________________
Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

So is this what the whole country will get if we follow the path recommended by someone that the 1997 act should replace the 1976 act?

That said, the clipboard mushes are touting, and that's illegal.

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IDFIMH

Right just wanted to get the wording clear "soliciting custom ", I wasn't trying to be pedantic.

Marshals from TFL, Com Cab and Dial-a-cab are often seen in London at large advents in Battersea park and Billingsgate. Cranbourne Street and Liverpool Street. PHV drivers are unhappy about this as they are moved on if they do not have a lawful booking and are unable to tout and cherry pick the jobs.

The Marshals from the Radio companies are deployed after requests from their clients to provide Licensed cash cabs for their customers and friends at large events such as dinner and dances.

TFL supply Marshals at Liverpool street and Cranbourne street in a bid to help the public find a licensed Taxi and not have to battle their way through unlicensed and licensed PHV drivers touting on mass.

TFL have said that they intend to extend the Marshaling system into the West End to combat the amount of touting by PHV and unlicensed drivers.

That said, is the opinion on this site that this is infact unlawful?

Now this is interesting to compare London to Birmingham.

In Birmingham a couple of weeks ago, the Birmingham Association's own rank marshals were asked by enforcement officers from the LA to stop their activities outside certain night venues, because the Association's marshals were not accredited by the Security Industry Authority as all Taxi Rank marshals in Birmingham should be.

They allowed other 'Clipboard Johnies' (also not SIA accredited) to continue their activities outside nightclubs at which they have direct lines, but picked on cab trade marshals instead.

Do the same SIA accreditation rules apply in London for taxi marshals?

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

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I have never heard of our LA officers (PCO's) in London turning up outside a club or venue. They are seen now and again at major termini but only ever inspect Licensed Taxi's.
We have a 34 man unit Called the TOCU squad made up from the Met Police, the PCO and some government agencies such as immigration and Social security. They have road blocks and stop both Taxi's and PHV's but are Highly visible and quite ineffective ( in my opinion).

The way I am reading the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998, it allows for a licensed PHV operators to have many operating centres.

Section 1. (5) states;

(5) In this Act "operating centre" means premises at which private hire
bookings are accepted by an operator.

Then in Section 3. (1) & (2) it states;

(1) Any person may apply to the Secretary of State for a London
PHV operator's licence.

(2) An application under this section shall state the address of any
premises in London which the applicant proposes to use as an
operating centre.

The words 'any premises' would give the impression that more than one address is acceptable.

So, if a licensed PHV operator has registered a number of addresses as operating centres, including addresses that are nightclubs etc, & the operator has not been challenged by the Secretary of State with regard to these spurious addresses, then they may well be acting legally inside these 'operating centres'.

IMO, the answer is to verify which addresses have been registered as operating centres by which PHV operators & take it from there.

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

Yes your research is correct and the Licensed Taxi trade, although we were never consulted, have no objection to satellite offices, as long as they stick to the law and operated inside the venue.
But they don't they set up on the Pavement outside.
Many complaints have been made by drivers through my blog and also on there own behalf. But we need the weight of our associations to complain about the situation, but for reasons never explained to their members they just never complain about this particular situation.
A few months ago I got a London Assembly Member, Peter Hulme Cross, To ask the Commissioner of TFL, Peter Hendy, "why nothing is being done about the touting in the West End"
His reply was that the trades problems were imaginary and that we should " Get out more often" . This remark was capture on a web cast and is available on my site
http://surveillancevideos.blogspot.com/ ... st_27.html
If this is what the man incharge of the Taxi trade in London thinks of us, then you can see, we have an uphill struggle to get an even playing field.

I have written to the PCO on many occasions about the open touting outside London venues and I get a standard reply saying that the Club is a Licensed supply of Private Hire Vehicles from this address. They go on to suggest I contact the Local council to complain about the vehicles parked unlawfully outside the address. they never mention the word touting in their reply and will not accept it happens.
The Police point you in the direction of the local council and they in turn point you at the car parks manager who just ignores any complaint.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending how different people see it, all of what you have written above again IMO points to the only solution being a one teir system.

The fact that PH nationally can only obtain work legally by pre-booking, encourages PH operators to stretch that law (of pre-booking) as far as they possibly can & this situation will continue ad infinitum until a one teir system becomes reality.

We are being told that the PHV (L) Act 1998 is the saviour for all places outside the capital, yet it plainly allows for almost unlimited satellite offices for PH operators as long as they are registered.

What a mess!!

One teir system yesterday please!!

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

And of course, knowing how devious politician can be, who is to say that they did not enact the PHV (L) Act 1998, so that with time they would eventually say that the only way forward is a one tier system, because a licensed two tier system does not work, as time will show in London, so one tier here we come.

Surely, politician could see that the LG (MP) Act 1976 throughout the rest of the country was not working before they enacted the PHV (L) Act 1998.

There is a method in their madness, me thinks!!

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.