Taxi Driver Online

The prevailing wisdom is that cabbies are not backward in coming forward and that some drivers are fairly "gobby".

Val Shawcross, Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, says that it is "payback time" and points out that nearly 40% of cars fail the midyear tests that Boris Johnson wants to scrap and asks whether he might be gambling with Londoners' safety for the sake of political advantage?

Having just watched the show on the BBC website i would like to make a few comments on what i've seen.

Firstly, to suggest we are "gobby" is in my view rather insulting; of course we have an opinion, who doesn't ? I personally don't voice my opinion in my taxi unless asked ? In the video your reporter was asking the driver what he thought about certain subjects and naturally the driver responded, would you have preferred for him to remain mute ? One would assume that if indeed he hadn't replied then we would have been portrayed as ignorant, uneducated fools!


You then suggest that we were unofficial canvassers for Boris Johnson, if your industry had been persecuted as much as the taxi industry was under the previous incumbent of City hall then i'm sure you too would have welcomed a fresh ear to your plight as readily as we did! Often we did no more than hand out the receipts we were given, you almost suggest that the general populace of London were too stupid to make up their own minds about who they wanted to run London; do you not think that they too perhaps saw the incredible waste of public money that the previous mayor was resonsible for ?

Finally it is suggested that my scrapping the 6 monthly inspection, London will once again be faced with an enviromental time bomb!! I would like your guest from the London Assembly to actually explain how this will be so ? Every London taxi is to the very least euro 3 compliant and increasingly euro 4, the vehicles are serviced on a regular basis to ensure that they are fit to work in; after all, a vehicle that is off the road due to bad servicing is not beneficial to the owner driver! If you were to dig a little deeper you would actually see that the great number of taxis failing the 6 monthly are down to incorrect paper work such as taxi meter certificate not present, wrong insurance certificate on display; any that do fail because of emissions are generally down to the test being done when the vehicle isn't at the optimal testing temperature!

out of interest how many private hire vehicles are also failing their 6 monthtly inspections ? Why hasn't this been mentioned ? Is it just possible that once again the London taxi trade are the perfect scapegoat for the enviromentalist campaigners? Lets look at the private motorists or perhaps the increasing number of buses on Londons streets, do you not think that they perhaps kick out a fair proportion of Londons emissions ? Why is it that the London taxi indsutry is always at the forefront when it comes to political point scoring ? Perhaps the likes of the BBC and the enviromental groups would actually like to see the taxi industry in London abolished ? is that really what all this is about ? Try and create such animosity towards us that eventually the cost of running a taxi on London becomes just too prohibitive to make it worthwhile!

All i would ask is that the subject is properly researched and to stop portraying us in such a stereotypical way! I don't speak with a mock cockney accent; i DO go south of the river, I'm always polite and never speak unless i'm spoken too, i make sure ladies are in their homes before i drive off, i avoid all conversation of a political or relgious nature, i indicate all times and always ensure the driver behind me is well aware of my intention to stop or U turn yet all this is perfect stereotypifying fodder to reporters when they discuss the London Taxi trade.

Why not do a positive story on the trade ? why not tell people how we take the war disabled on trips, or the children with terminal illnesses away for weekends to Euro disney ? I guess stories like that don't sell copy ? London needs a bad guy and i guess once again it's down to us ? Lets just all ignore the blatent touting that goes on by so called licensed private hire drivers or the still all too high figures of women being assaulted or raped by these same drivers, no, lets instead go for the guys who try their best to provide a first class service by firstly spending 3 plus years getting their licence, then work to the strictest of licencing regimes in the Country!

Sadly the BBC seem to playing right into the hands of those with perhaps vested interests who would glady see the back of the Taxi trade in London, it's a sorry thing to witness, i for one have always felt the BBC was neutral but going by your report on the politics show today it seems that i have that wrong!

good day to you.

Green party says we need to keep the test as taxis are the most polluting vehicles in london?

I don't speak with a mock cockney accent

This will be the Labour dyke from the Fire Brigade Authority, that wasted £40 million on a training facility that after 5 years that my mate tells me is still out of use as it is beyond repair?

This will be the Labour councillor who finds an ever increasing amount of her John Lennon glasses wearing friends being voted out by the London electorate.

Stupid bint.

And keeping the 6 monthly inspections would resolve the pollution issue how exactly ?

Regular servicing would take care of that as indeed having had the emission system fitted to make all cabs at least Euro 3 compliant.

So would removing the turning circle so you can go euro 5 compliant