Taxi Driver Online

More cross-border pish

Big difference this time is that it's from elements of the London trade. This guy Grant Davis has been around since about the year dot, and seemed quite astute when ever I've heard him speak or read about him.

The piece claims the cars are unlicensed, but then says they're licensed by the likes of Southend and Wolverhampton councils

So it's just the usual cross-border stuff by the looks of it, in the main at least. Which in fact TfL have been complaining about for years - lots of TfL cars working in the likes of Southend, innit?

So this is just the obverse of that.

Funny thing, though, is that surely TfL could explain what's going on, but their statement as published just looks like diversion.

Or maybe they were just asked a misleading question


London cabbies claim 'unlicensed' vehicles are creating a 'wild west' and 'killing the trade'

https://www.mylondon.news/news/transpor ... s-34531960

Black cab drivers are claiming that unlicensed private hire vehicles are putting the final nail in the coffin for their custom

https://i2-prod.mylondon.news/article34 ... G_2244.jpg

Outside some of London’s biggest hotels, rows of black-tinted private hire vehicles are becoming an increasingly familiar sight. But according to the London Cab Drivers Club, some of these anonymous vehicles appear to be operating without the licences required by Transport for London (TfL) - and cab drivers say the regulator is standing by while they take away their custom.

The London Cab Drivers Club, a society of cab drivers across the capital, has started noticing more and more of these allegedly unlicensed vehicles, with members questioning who is behind the wheel and whether the vehicles are properly regulated. TfL is the licensing authority in the capital, meaning these vehicles need to have a private hire licence issued to them.

"It's one rule for us and another for them. We are being swarmed, and it's killing the trade," said Grant Davies, Chairman of the London Cab Drivers Club for the past 18 years and a black cab driver of 38 years, who has been campaigning for stricter enforcement.

"Every time you get outside a big hotel, you see four or five of these drivers, unlicensed," Grant continued. "We investigated minicab companies offering a London taxi service that have a central London address but whose licenses were issued by Southend, so no one knows who is driving the public around in London."

While competitors such as Uber and Bolt have long challenged black cab drivers, the members of the club see this as fair competition. Yet in recent years, they have spotted dozens of vehicles that appear to be unlicensed by TfL.

Private hire vehicles in London must be pre-booked through a TfL-licensed private hire operator, where the driver is DBS checked. This also means the customer receives a booking confirmation which includes the registration of the vehicle, the driver's first name and their private hire licence number.

However, according to the club, the private hire vehicles do not meet these conditions when checked on the TfL licence checker. For the London Cab Drivers Club, the apparent influx of these allegedly unlicensed firms raises concerns over public safety and perceived injustice over the fact that they require regulation.

One firm that has been offering complimentary rides to its customers is allegedly the Saudi Investment Bank. The club have spotted a large number of vehicles in 2026, leading them to check whether the service is licensed to operate as a private hire firm in London.

However, when the club has queried this operation, they have been threatened with the loss of their own taxi licence.

Mr Davies said: "You have to ask yourself, who are the drivers? Do they have insurance? What I've found is that this year, central London has been hit by a swarm of blacked-out Mercedes Vianos parked outside hotels, without operating licenses. We report this to TfL time and time again, but nothing is done.

"Who have licensed these drivers? It's not the cab trade saying this is unfair, oh no we have competition, it's that we are the most regulated cab trade in the world and these new private hire vehicles are operating unlicensed.

"Public safety is paramount, that is why every cab driver has to have two MOTs on the vehicle each year, a DBS check, and two checks on the vehicle, all those checks are there to make sure that if you get into my cab, I'm safe, you're safe and there is a regulated cab fare, but is a wild west out there in London. TfL are doing absolutely nothing to help with the cab trade."

Since noticing these vehicles more and more around the capital, Grant and his team have been investigating whether these firms and drivers are licensed, yet they find that either they have operating licenses for councils such as Wolverhampton or they aren't licensed at all.

Grant continued: "The situation has been left to fester too much, it's too big to handle. One of our committee members has been contacting TfL, but they have refused to provide us with answers.

"Now, we have reached a point where they wrote to him saying that they will take his taxi licence away because he's asking too many questions.

"They are letting us wither on the vine; it seems to me that TfL are quite happy watching the slow demise of the cab trade."

Year by year, black cab numbers are dropping, with only around 16,000 left on London's roads, and Grant argues that without enforcement to crack down on these unregulated vehicles, this could mark the end of the trade altogether.

In response to the claims put forward by the club that TfL is failing to regulate licensing in the city, a TfL spokesperson said: “The private hire industry in London is subject to a comprehensive licensing and regulatory framework.

"We license operators, drivers and vehicles, set regulatory requirements and undertake compliance and enforcement activity to ensure those standards are met. Where evidence of non-compliance is identified, we will consider appropriate regulatory action.”

“We take reports of potential unlicensed private hire operator activity seriously. We regularly assess intelligence and information received from a range of sources and will investigate where there are grounds to suggest that licensing requirements may not be being met.”

The Saudi Investment Bank was contacted for comment but did not receive a reply at the time of publication.