Taxi Driver Online

I know that feeling well at this moment in time.

LA

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

I asked the question to Licensing and apparently there are a number of different managers; The one that comes up more often than not is "Dave Holland", he is also the guy that was mentioned in the newspaper report re our issue.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Our lot have to return £1.1 mill accrued over a 5 year period (all very hush, hush, with very little actual news coming out). My own claim comes to £466 which is broken into two parts - "Driver Renewal (I assume my Badge) £77 and "H.C Proprietor Renewal" £389. Any further details I will post.

P.S. It makes one smile - Not........They (the L.A) have the details of ALL the drivers, but to get the money WE have to make the claim

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

I think that's unreasonable.

They know who paid and how much, just give back to drivers and owners the overcharge.

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IDFIMH

Perhaps I am being cynical; It has left me wondering why they have sent letters out to the drivers asking them to mark out their claim! To verify/deny the claim, then they obviously have to have records! Of which makes me then think, if you have the records - then why go through all the postage + labour cost etc when they know exactly what is owed.

Soooo.......... would it mean that drivers who have gone back home permanently (like abroad) during that time, and others that have moved addresses/died etc, that the ex drivers who do not get to claim what is owed, then licensing get to keep a surplus they are not entitled to

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

I had a similar situation albeit the other way around. When we went VAT registered with our limos we obviously charged VAT on all hires. However it turned out that at the time because of the nature of the vehicles we were using they should have been zero rated so the customer should not have been charged the VAT. Now the rules at the time were that the customer could not claim back this over payment in VAT but I could reclaim it on their behalf provided that I let them know that they had paid VAT that the didn't need to pay. Are you with me so far.
So what I had to do was write a letter to EVERY customer that had paid this VAT, there were around 800 of them, explaining the situation and offer them a repayment. This letter had to be approved by the VAT office before I sent it out. Once this was done the VAT was repaid to me and any customer who contacted me got the money back.
So in essence, yes the Council are probably doing it right provided they are writing to each person, at their last known address, advising them of how much they (the Council) think that they owe them and telling them to make the claim.
It is the same with excessive bank charges, PPI etc. You have to make the claim.

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Grandad,

I understand exactly what you say/have done. Having said that there is a moral duty to make sure that the people concerned or relatives for that matter (in the event of death) get the money that is owed - plain and simply they should not be allowed to keep money that is not theirs. We also have the situation that many councils are having to save massive amounts of money due to budget shortages! Re-read my initial post and then multiply my own claim by probably 2500 other hack/ph drivers add in time/labour cost, envelopes, postage etc to then tell you what is owed (information they already have/know)

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Or drivers that don't apply.

The council is relying on many drivers/owners doing nothing.

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IDFIMH

You are right on the money so to speak. I raised the issues that I had already mentioned in my previous post with another of our drivers - He said that he had already been approached by Ethnics who did not understand the letter/form. Those who do not understand or read very well = will not bother.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

I have had it confirmed that they the L.A. owe me £466.00p, as such not a problem and exactly what I had claimed, well not really as I was hoping for a bit of honesty/transparency making mine a compounded @4% interest, £528.....I think.

I e-mailed our licensing officer and asked did it include interest payment accrued over the years that will also have been compounded - as of yet......no reply!

I also texted our self appointed Hackney representative who in fairness was probably the one who instigated the enquiry, to point out that there has been no mention of "Monetary Interest" of which collectively could be quite substantial, again no reply.

The point being is that the L.A are sending out letters asking drivers to sign to say that there will be no further claim. As already posted my fear is that 1) the L.A will benefit by not paying out monies due to drivers who have passed on/left etc, plus the fact that I as an individual managed to get a (ok not wonderful) 5% interest return,a 4.25% and also a 4.20% return all during that period, as opposed to one or two saying the rate was down to around half of one percent - at the time of this happening 4% would easily have been achieved (a figure that I am using as guide).

My feelings are that the £1.1 million over those years could have possible generated in excess of £35k in compounded interest.

I await with "Interest" in more ways than one, and will not sign for mine until I know that all has been emptied from their coffers.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

CONGRATULATIONS

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All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE

Oh dear! I have had it confirmed that NO "Interest" has been included the fun begins

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

A result as of today.

I sent off numerous emails + two letters to the L.A officer who basically took her time answering, in fact only answering when pushed/reminded. The last letter I sent her along with a telephone call requesting an answer, went unanswered. On the basis of her rudeness/lack of curtesy, I went over her head, and spoke to her boss. In fairness to him he was up to speed re my claim and said he would get the Council solicitors to respond to me as that is what they get paid for.

I eventually received a letter from the solicitors telling me that all correspondence on this matter was now considered closed.

This kind of dismissive rude arrogant behaviour wound me up a tiny bit, in fact more than a tiny bit! I sent a letter off now informing them that correspondence had not ceased and that they would have to revisit the issue, I also mentioned that the interest claimed was @5% as it was an achievable figure that I had missed out on. I also informed them as they had closed the correspondence on this matter that I respected their decision, unfortunately leaving me with no option than to take legal action.

I took out a "Small Claims Court Action" for £25 for the additional sum of £63.87p lost interest. To cut a longer story shorter they basically flaffed around purporting that they were going to defend the action (as to what defense they could or would put up absolutely lost me), as I could not see one.

Today some 5 days before they actually had to file their defense, I received a letter from the Sol stating the Council had decided to pay, enclosing a cheque for all monies - broken down as, the claims money of £25.00 + £63.87p interest+ £466.00 over paid license fees = total £554.87p.

The small amount that I claimed (£63.87p) is not really the issue! What really grabs me is that £30/£35K will now have to be paid on top to the other drivers.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Well done John just shows you can do it when you try ..........................

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All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE