It seems the Minicab touts don't like it when the licensed Taxi trade takes back their illegaly gained work.
Never mind.
From The Anderson Shelter / NPHA Magazine
TAXI TROUBLE
The credit-crunch appears to be hitting the London hackney trade hard. Private Hire & Courier has been contacted by operators and drivers who allege that taxi drivers are using increasingly desperate tactics to steal their customers.
Rajid is the boss of a licensed private hire firm with an office in Smithfield, Clerkenwell and has accused black cab drivers of intimidating his drivers: "They are blocking private hire drivers in and double ranking all the way along Charterhouse Street. They are there every night. They block us in outside the Smith in Smithfieldʼs restaurant and only move when they get a customer." Rajid says that one of his drivers approached a hackney cabbie and asked him why the taxi trade was acting so aggressively and he was met with a barrage of ʻfʼ words and abusive, racist language.
The private hire boss says the sudden influx of hackney drivers may have something to do with a rumour that Dial-a- Cab has lost a major contract at the nearby ITN headquarters and that he "will be out of business soon" if the cabwar carries on.
HACKNEY HASSLE
PH&C thought the problems in Smithfield might be just an isolated incident but the accusations from Rajid were just one of several calls the magazine received complaining about the ʻbully-boyʼ manner of taxi drivers. Licensed driver Clement says he has also suffered problems with aggressive hackney cabbies while picking up customers outside the Bedouin Bar (also in Smithfield).
And operator Bob Kamel alleges that the London taxi trade is continually, "breaking the law, left, right and centre. He accuses black cab drivers of, "Ranking on double yellow lines, plying for hire (while parked up outside of established ranks) and double parking in many streets of London". Bob says he has videos of taxis ranked up for hire on single yellow lines, sometimes 30 at a time.
And he claims that his drivers often have problems picking up customers at celebrity-restaurant Nobu on Berkerly Street, Westminster: "They can't even get to the door because the black cabs have blocked them in. They just hem drivers in so that they can't do their job.
They just loiter and block the public highway. "The council doesn't seem to be interested but then they go back to the clubs and say there is too much noise in the streets. But it is the taxis which are causing the noise and blocking the way and not allowing anyone to get past. "It's a joke. There are often numerous black cabs ranking up on Berkeley Street. All the traffic is held up. The buses canʼt get through, the ambulances can't get through, no one can go through." (Bullchit, and I can witness that is NOT the case)
TRENCH WARFARE
It is obvious that the London taxi trade is deliberately behaving in an aggressive manner towards the capital’s private hire industry.
On-street hails for black cabs are down because of the recession and they are (quite understandably) going to where potential customers can be found, ie; restaurants and clubs. A lot of London entertainment venues have private hire companies with PCO licences within their premises (Clipboard Johnnies stood touting on the pavement) but taxi drivers don’t like the fact that revellers are booking jobs with licensed PH firms before they even step out onto the street. Tough.
Steve McNamara and his buddies at the LTDA are right to highlight the abuses of so-called ʻclipboard Johnniesʼ who tout for custom on the pavement outside pubs and clubs but that does not excuse the bullying of legitimate private hire drivers picking uppre-booked jobs.
Taxi drivers must not be allowed to get away with the intimidation of legally, licensed private hire operators and drivers and PH&C will expose anyone within the London hackney trade that believes it does not have to obey the law.
Love it.
