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Dozens of black cab drivers in city centre protest amid claims private hire rivals are illegally taking their work

They staged a go-slow protest as they headed in convoy from Manchester airport to Albert Square ahead of a council licensing committee meeting this morning

Taxi drivers packed out Albert Square on Monday morning Taxi drivers packed out Albert Square on Monday morning

Dozens of taxi drivers have staged a rush-hour protest in Manchester city centre amid claims private hire rivals are illegally taking their work.

They staged a go-slow protest as they headed in convoy from Manchester airport to Albert Square ahead of a council licensing committee meeting this morning.

The drivers claim members of the private hire trade have been illegally picking up passengers on the city's streets without bookings being made in advance.

Gholam Mustapha, the drivers' spokesman, called on Manchester council to take action.

He said: "Private hire cars can only accept fares that are pre-booked through their office. When they pick up passengers off the street, they commit offences formally known as illegal plying for hire and touting and it means that the driver's insurance is invalid.

"We want the council officers to do regular undercover 'test purchase' operations to check if private hire drivers are illegally plying for hire. Such operations are regularly undertaken in Birmingham, Liverpool and Stockport."

source: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... rt-1755629

Author:	captain cab [ Mon Mar 18, 2013 2:46 pm ]
Post subject:	Manchester Taxi Protest
Dozens of black cab drivers in city centre protest amid claims private hire rivals are illegally taking their work They staged a go-slow protest as they headed in convoy from Manchester airport to Albert Square ahead of a council licensing committee meeting this morning Taxi drivers packed out Albert Square on Monday morning Taxi drivers packed out Albert Square on Monday morning Dozens of taxi drivers have staged a rush-hour protest in Manchester city centre amid claims private hire rivals are illegally taking their work. They staged a go-slow protest as they headed in convoy from Manchester airport to Albert Square ahead of a council licensing committee meeting this morning. The drivers claim members of the private hire trade have been illegally picking up passengers on the city's streets without bookings being made in advance. Gholam Mustapha, the drivers' spokesman, called on Manchester council to take action. He said: "Private hire cars can only accept fares that are pre-booked through their office. When they pick up passengers off the street, they commit offences formally known as illegal plying for hire and touting and it means that the driver's insurance is invalid. "We want the council officers to do regular undercover 'test purchase' operations to check if private hire drivers are illegally plying for hire. Such operations are regularly undertaken in Birmingham, Liverpool and Stockport." source: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... rt-1755629

Author:	captain cab [ Mon Mar 18, 2013 2:48 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Manchester Taxi Protest
Gholam Mustapha's words to Manchester City Council Madam Chairman, Councillors, ladies and gentlemen, and colleagues. My name is Gholam Mustapha, I have been a taxi driver for 35 years, I am the secretary of the Airport Taxi Association but today also have the full support of the trade unions, and taxi associations. Due to time considerations I have condensed my speech but have compiled folders to read at your leisure. I respectfully request that you do as they contain the full speech and other materials which support my case. I will speak on two issues, both of great concern to all taxi drivers in Manchester – as demonstrated by the numbers here today, they are the high level of illegal plying for hire or pirating, and allowing Private Hire to falsely advertise themselves as taxis. These issues have contributed to a significant reduced income for all taxi drivers. Why should you be concerned with taxi drivers’ earnings? Academic papers on the subject quote many reasons, I will pick one, less takings lead to longer working hours causing driver fatigue, this is a real risk as tragically demonstrated in the Selby rail crash which caused 10 deaths. On the first issue, the enforcement of plying for hire is woefully inadequate 17 years ago Rachel Thacker was brutally raped and murdered by a bogus private hire driver, the then Manchester City Council spokesman said that they valued public safety very highly and would leave no stone unturned to ensure that this would never happen again. Well since the murder of Rachel Thacker, the amount of pirating that goes on has increased considerably it would seem that to simply warning people of the dangers involved in getting into unbooked vehicles and enforcement officers observing in the hope of catching an offender do not discourage this and are time and cost consuming and lead to appeals in Court. We are told by licensing that PH drivers waiting outside clubs are not necessarily committing an offence; it is their intentions that matter. Why not test those intentions? A private hire car or an unlicensed car that is sat outside a club and when approached tells the customer that she has to phone “his company on this number first” to book, then immediately says “right I can take you now” is no safer than no booking at all. Who is to say that the driver works for that particular company at all? He could be a criminal intent on rape or robbery. Like Amine Kacem who disguised his car as a private hire car with yellow stickers, parked outside a club on Sackville Street and brutally assaulted and twice raped the woman who got into the car. There has not been a test purchase operation since the murder of Rachel Thacker, yet a FOI request showed that GMP recorded 109 sexual assaults with a "taxi" connection, Merseyside police recorded only 22. Of the core cities Liverpool has the highest number of prosecutions for plying for hire, due to a monthly test purchase operation, the figures suggest a correlation between an effective enforcement deterrent and the number of sexual crimes reported. It is common knowledge that when sexual assaults do happen, it is when a woman has got into a car without a booking, most of these attacks are by licensed drivers. When challenged on pirating by taxi drivers, private hire drivers can resort to violence. Recently a taxi driver was hit with a hammer by a PH driver, he was very lucky not to have been killed A licensing officer said that when they had been out checking on cars waiting outside city centre bars, all appeared to have a booking on the data head. It didn’t seem to occur that the bookings might be bogus. When I was on private hire, 32 years ago, the radio operator would often tell the drivers to go and park outside clubs and he would put bogus bookings down for them. How can I be 100% sure that illegal plying for hire is so rife? Well we have all even done 2 cab jobs with unbooked PH cars. An individual who is prepared to commit the criminal offence of plying for hire is not a law-abiding citizen and may well be prepared to commit serious crimes if opportunities arise. He is fully aware that there is no record of a booking and is unlikely to be traced especially if the passenger is under the influence of drink or drugs We request test purchase operations by the licensing unit, these are cost effective use of resources as used by many Councils, Birmingham a comparable city recorded 14 times as many convictions as Manchester, many of these were achieved using the Nottingham vs. Woodings approach meaning that officers did not even have to undertake a journey, they asked only two questions of the driver “are you free?” and how much to..?” My second point is about the Terms and Conditions for Private Hire Operators Section 19B states Advertising other than on private hire vehicles - no notice, sign or advertisement seeking to advertise or promote the business of a private hire operator wherever it is displayed shall consist of or include the words taxi or cab, whether in the singular or plural, or any words or devices which give any indication that the service to which the notice, sign or advertisement relates is that which can only be provided by a licensed hackney carriage……….. Unless the words private hire are also displayed with equal prominence. The last line seem to have been added to the sentence and changes the whole meaning to suggest that a private hire operator may falsely imply that he is offering the services of a hackney carriage as long as he has the words private hire displayed in equal prominence. It also means that private hire vehicles are not allowed to call themselves taxi’s but, the operators can say that they provide a “taxi” service. Where is the sense in that? This is a particular problem at Manchester airport where the operator’s office is strategically placed adjacent to the taxi rank and is emblazoned with the words “TAXI PRIVATE HIRE PAY HERE” in a deliberate ploy to mislead customers, many of them foreign visitors, to believe that they have to pay at this office for the British iconic black cabs they can see and want to hire, the operator of course does not inform them of the true situation in fact he offers no refunds without the customer writing to head office. Passengers have actually paid Arrow cars and then got into a black cab only to produce the receipt at the end of the journey; this shows that the passengers are confused by the signage. If it is the intention to offer a private hire alternative to a taxi, the definition of which I am about to come to, then why not make that difference absolutely clear . What is a taxi? I have a letter from The Department for Transport . Paragraph 4 reads “your subsequent e-mail asked for the legal definition of a “taxi”……“A taxi is a vehicle licensed under Section 37 Of The Town Police Clauses Act 1847….” This is a hackney carriage Act, so “a taxi is a hackney carriage”. The Miscellaneous Provisions Act defines a private hire vehicle as “a motor vehicle constructed or adapted to seat fewer than nine passengers, other than a hackney carriage” Substituting the word taxi for hackney carriage it becomes clear that a private hire vehicle is; “A motor vehicle constructed or adapted to seat fewer than nine passengers, other than a taxi” Therefore there cannot be a “private hire taxi” or a “taxi private hire”. Mr. James Button licensing solicitor agrees in this book that taxi is not a generic word as this legal definition of taxi has been consistently used in every Act since the 1980 Road Transport Act. It is clearly the wish of parliament (and of Manchester City Council) that there be a distinction between hackney carriages and private hire vehicles and it has become customary in statutes, among government departments, and on the council’s own website, to refer to hackney carriages as taxis; this corresponds to the international usage of the word “taxi” to refer to a vehicle that is available for public hire. In summary the trade requests just two things today; that the licensing unit carry out regular test purchase plying for hire operations and that the words “unless the words private hire are also displayed with equal prominence.” are removed from Section 19b we respectfully ask that you consider these two points as a matter of urgency. I invite all of you to come with me on a tour to see for yourselves what is actually going on and how the taxi drivers of Manchester are willing to work with the city council to achieve a safer city and I would be happy to report back any changes after 6 months or so. I thank you for your time.

Author:	trotskys twin [ Mon Mar 18, 2013 3:29 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Manchester Taxi Protest
captain cab wrote: Dozens of black cab drivers in city centre protest amid claims private hire rivals are illegally taking their work They staged a go-slow protest as they headed in convoy from Manchester airport to Albert Square ahead of a council licensing committee meeting this morning Taxi drivers packed out Albert Square on Monday morning Taxi drivers packed out Albert Square on Monday morning Dozens of taxi drivers have staged a rush-hour protest in Manchester city centre amid claims private hire rivals are illegally taking their work. They staged a go-slow protest as they headed in convoy from Manchester airport to Albert Square ahead of a council licensing committee meeting this morning. The drivers claim members of the private hire trade have been illegally picking up passengers on the city's streets without bookings being made in advance. Gholam Mustapha, the drivers' spokesman, called on Manchester council to take action. He said: "Private hire cars can only accept fares that are pre-booked through their office. When they pick up passengers off the street, they commit offences formally known as illegal plying for hire and touting and it means that the driver's insurance is invalid. "We want the council officers to do regular undercover 'test purchase' operations to check if private hire drivers are illegally plying for hire. Such operations are regularly undertaken in Birmingham, Liverpool and Stockport." source: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... rt-1755629

Author:	rayggb [ Mon Mar 18, 2013 8:30 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Manchester Taxi Protest
Oh brings back memories, Manchester is just like we use to be.The trouble is most of the goosers are relatives and friends,so the game is lost already.Since dergulation all the relatives and freinds got free plates now there's very little goosing apart from sat night but, then there is very little work either.

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