Taxi Driver Online

Very interesting piece in PHTM

Only saving grace is that she's not a licensing councillor...


TAXI AND PH TRADE LEADERS SLAM GLASGOW COUNCILLOR'S CLAIMS AS FALSE AND DANGEROUS

https://www.phtm.co.uk/news/8525/phtm-n ... -dangerous

A coalition of Scotland’s leading taxi and private hire representatives has issued a scathing joint rebuke of comments made by a Glasgow City Council councillor, warning that her claims are "deeply insulting," inaccurate and risk inciting public fear.

The backlash follows a TikTok video posted by Springburn and Robroyston Councillor Audrey Dempsey, in which she claimed that while drivers licensed in Glasgow undergo vetting and training, those licensed by other councils do not.

In the video, the councillor suggested that drivers outside of Glasgow can “just apply and get a licence” without checks and that their vehicles may be “unfit” for service due to a lack of enforcement.

The Scottish Private Hire Association (SPHA), The East Renfrewshire Hire Car Forum, The North Lanarkshire Private Hire Drivers Trade Group, and Edinburgh Private Hire Drivers United have all joined forces to challenge these claims, describing them as a smear on thousands of professional drivers.

A ‘Fundamental Misunderstanding" of the Law:

John Paul Duffy, Chairman of the East Renfrewshire Hire Car Forum, described the councillor’s remarks as "completely untrue."

“All taxi and private hire drivers in Scotland are vetted,” Mr. Duffy stated. “Every single driver must undergo a criminal records check before a licence is granted. That applies regardless of which local authority issues the licence.”

Eddie Grice, General Secretary of the SPHA, went further, labeling the comments as a dereliction of duty regarding fact-checking.

“To claim that drivers outside of Glasgow are not vetted is so unbelievable that I am surprised a public official would speak without checking the facts first,” said Mr. Grice. “Every single licensed driver in Scotland is vetted as a mandatory part of their application, a process demanded by the Civic Government (Scotland) Act. These comments are deeply insulting to the tens of thousands of hard-working drivers licensed outside the Glasgow boundary.”

The sentiments were shared by David Graham of The North Lanarkshire Private Hire Trade Group and by Stewart Livingston of Edinburgh Private Hire Drivers United.

Mr Graham said: “To suggest that private hire drivers operate without background checks in North Lanarkshire misrepresents the licensing system and undermines public confidence in a regulated service that is subject to rigorous oversight”.

Mr Livingston added: “I’m not sure how far beyond Glasgow the councillors’ comments were intended to apply, but it’s simply untrue to say that any licensed driver in Scotland hasn't been vetted”.

Vehicle safety and enforcement myths:

The councillor also alleged that vehicles from other areas could be operating with bald tyres or mechanical defects, suggesting that Glasgow’s enforcement unit is powerless to stop them. She even claimed that in the event of an accident, insurance for these vehicles would be void.

Mr. Duffy dismissed this as misleading fear-mongering, noting that passengers are protected by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) as a statutory safety net. Mr. Grice added that vehicle standards are not "optional" as the councillor implied.

“In regards to vehicle standards, every licensed vehicle in Scotland is required to undergo a strict inspection procedure,” Mr. Grice noted. “Again, this is mandated by the same primary legislation that governs Glasgow. To suggest that neighbouring councils are simply letting ‘unfit’ cars onto the road is a fantasy.”

Misplaced blame and "dangerous" rhetoric:

The trade leaders highlighted a glaring contradiction in the councillor’s video where she attempted to link her warnings to a recent high-profile criminal case. Cllr Dempsey appeared to reference Uber driver Dawitt Tessema, who was recently jailed for sexual assault. However, as the trade leaders pointed out, Tessema was licensed by Glasgow City Council itself.

“I struggle to understand why an incident involving a Glasgow-licensed driver has been used to justify criticism of drivers licensed by other councils,” Mr. Duffy said.

The SPHA and the Forum both warned that telling the public to avoid vehicles with different colored licence plates while claiming they "could be anyone" is a dangerous stance. Licence plate colours vary by authority for administrative reasons and have no bearing on the vetting status of the driver.

A call for real reform over rhetoric:

While the trade reps acknowledge that the licensing system requires modernisation, they argue that spreading "myths" hinders actual progress.

“There is certainly scope to improve the regime,” Mr. Grice admitted. “The SPHA was recently part of a Scottish Government Task Force reviewing the primary legislation. We have put forward proposals for enhanced enforcement powers, national uniformity of vehicle standards and a radical overhaul of licensing zones. There are real problems that need real solutions.”

“However,” Grice continued, “it is entirely unhelpful to that process for an elected councillor to undermine public trust by spreading falsehoods. It is a very dangerous claim to make because it is untrue and could spark unnecessary public safety fears while damaging the reputations of law-abiding drivers.”

The trade bodies have now issued a formal invitation to Cllr Dempsey and her colleagues to move away from social media rhetoric and toward constructive dialogue.

“Public safety is not improved by spreading misinformation,” the leaders concluded. “We invite Cllr Dempsey, or any elected official seeking genuine reform, to meet with us. Let’s discuss the facts and work together on solutions that actually protect the public and the trade, rather than attacking the livelihoods of professional drivers based on fiction.”

Didn't realise it was this same councillor, who was quite controversial in terms of wider politics already - she was Labour, but ended up in Reform after making controversial comments about racial stuff a couple of years ago


Councillor who made 'white racism' claim joins Reform

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly350nq3dgo

A Glasgow councillor who quit Labour after making an unsubstantiated claim about a rise in "racist attacks on white children and teachers" has joined Reform.

Tried to find the TikTok video to find out exactly what she said, but that's another half hour of my life I won't get back

Don't know if she's maybe deleted it, but her account is full of an endless stream of quite lengthy videos, and in TikTok land they don't even have proper titles or anything like that that might provide a clue where to look

But there's quite a bit of stuff about the trade, and she's obviously taken some of the kickback on board, but there's an element of gaslighting those who've taken her to task, as opposed to just a straightforward admission she got it wrong.

But she's definitely got quite a few people - particularly women, for obvious reasons - riled up, and she makes quite a few reasonable points, but nothing particularly new in the grand scheme, and she's obviously on a steep learning curve - uses the word 'badge' when she obviously means 'plate', for example, and the old one of stating 'licensing board' when it's actually the 'committee' - the board is usually the liquor licensing one (it certainly is in Glasgow).

And she's complaining that councillors are giving badges to people who Police Scotland have objected to. Which again is a fair enough point, but she was obviously unaware of that previously, while regulars on here will know what's been going on in that regard for years, and particularly since that sort of stuff from Glasgow has been reported on regularly in the press for ages.

Anyway, if anyone fancies spending an hour or two looking for the video, then this is her account here - maybe I just missed it, and it's fairly easy to find:

(Edit - there was actually a link to her TikTok video on the PHTM Facebook post, but the link is broken, so I'd guess she took the video down.)

https://www.tiktok.com/@cllrdempsey

But I did notice this bit on one of the videos - it's not just the usual stuff about photographing plates etc - she says passengers should get on the phone in the cab and discuss details about the driver - his age, where he's from, what he's like etc etc, just so the driver knows someone at the end of the phone knows all about him (and, of course, it's always a him). Just no

No surprises, either, that she seems to have just been involved in organising a march against digital ID

(Or at least she'd been heavily involved in promoting the march.)

No doubt she'll soon be banging the drum for mandatory CCTV...

Anyway, it's from about 3.50 on this video:

https://www.tiktok.com/@cllrdempsey/vid ... 4404244758

This is a link below the councillor's latest, er, clarification video

To be fair, she has apologised several times. But there's an element of her playing the victim and gaslighting people in the trade, particularly in the previous video, where she's superimposed on top of one of her critics in the trade, who looks like he's made a video in response to hers. But according to the good councillor he's 'taken it to heart', which she says several times, and thus makes it sound like he's overreacted.

But in the latest video it sounds like she's been told about foreign nationals and these letters of good conduct from their embassies, or whatever, and apparently this means they're not vetted.

So she's taken that to mean that drivers in Scotland outside Glasgow aren't vetted

Which would include people like me

Would be interesting to hear precisely what she said about plated vehicles from outside Glasgow having bald tyres etc.

Don't know what that's all about, precisely, without seeing the original video, which seems to have been deleted.

But - and of course I'm biased - my immediate thought was about the likes of the endless Fife stuff in the press about making workaday vehicle faults like missing fire extinguishers, rooflights not illuminating and the odd dodgy tyre made to sound as if the likes of the St Andrews trade occupies some sort of dystopian and anarchic hellhole.

As opposed to the reality that Glasgow is probably broadly similar, but it's just that councillors there don't jump up and down about a couple of thousand inspection fails there per year, while councillors in Fife make it sound like a few dozen inspection failures are placing the public in mortal danger.

And, of course, the kind of stuff reported a couple of times a year in Fife simply isn't reported in Glasgow at all, because no one there really notices.

So maybe it's stuff like that that makes people like the councillor think Glasgow taxis are whiter-than-white, while the rest of us in Scotland are beyond the pale.

And if my explanation there sounds a bit far-fetched, maybe it's slightly more credible than how she came to the conclusion that Scotland's drivers outside Glasgow are unvetted.

(And part of her explanation is that taxis and PH are very different beasts as regards all of this, but then she states that taxis are black cabs, so that's fine for Glasgow and Edinburgh, but effectively categorises the likes of me (a saloon HC driver) as PH )

Anyway, this is her latest video here, if anyone has ten minutes of their life they don't want back:

https://www.tiktok.com/@cllrdempsey/vid ... 4205903106

In fact the video she's responded to from the East Renfrewshire driver (who's responded to her original video ) does in fact contain the bit where she says drivers outside Glasgow are unvetted. Unfortunately he doesn't include the bit from her video about the bald tyres etc, although he does mention that point.

Or something like that

But his own comments could do with a bit more nuance - he says that vetting is the same throughout Scotland, blah, blah, Police Scotland, etc, etc.

But, of course, as we all know from the Glasgow licensing stuff itself, and cases from elsewhere in Scotland, it's ultimately down to councillors, who can take very different approaches to vetting and 'fit and proper' issues.

Equally - and what's less obvious from reported cases - no doubt there are inconsistencies regarding what stuff means Police Scotland object to licence applications.

And because that's also done on a regional or local basis, no doubt different parts of Police Scotland take different approaches to it all.

Anyway, here's the East Renfrewshire driver's video:

https://www.tiktok.com/@eastrencabbie/v ... 7210672406

And maybe it's just me, but rather than use the direct link to the video, it's maybe better to go to the person's homepage, and view the video from there. At present, it's the fourth video here, thus the first one after the three pinned videos

https://www.tiktok.com/@eastrencabbie

(What I'm finding (on my Windows laptop at least) is that you can't stop and go back if you go to a TikTok video directly via the link to the specific video. While you can do that if you first go to the homepage and then access the video from there. But it looks like you can pause the video if you access it directly, but you can't pause it if you go via the homepage. But you can go back and forward throughout the video using the timebar at the bottom of the video )

Let's face it, the vast majority of councillors have no idea about our trade, and that includes many licensing councillors.

I wonder if that will get better when the English trade is controlled by a mere 70 different elected Mayors.

That said the lady has apologlised, and that in itself is a rare thing indeed.

_________________
IDFIMH