Taxi Driver Online

How many members does the M.P.H.O.D.A have?

Regards

JD

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With all due respect MPHODA, it has been two weeks now and you still haven't produced any legislation or case law to support your argument that the illegal activity taking place at the Printworks, is actually perfectly legal? Could it be you have no legislation or case law to call on to support you statement and that your comments were nothing more than pure optimism brought about by virtue of the fact that someone, somewhere, managed to convince Manchester City council to become a willing partner in facilitating an illegal activity?

I thought you would have been chomping at the bit to provide us with the evidence that legislation and case law which has stood the test of time for 160 years, was in effect "wrong" and as such misinterpreted from the very beginning? I'm sure many notable Law Lords will be turning in their graves knowing that their past judgments were completely wrong and irrational and that in hindsight it was always councillors and private hire drivers who were the true custodians of our common law jurisprudence and that "they", are the only legitimate persons empowered to interpret legislation for the purpose of defining its legality?

To be quite honest I don't expect you to provide any supporting legal evidence to underpin your misguided comments regarding the illegal activity taking place at the print works because quite frankly there isn't any. However, perhaps you might wish to enlist the advice of the "National private hire association" and ask them under what legislation a private hire operator can tout for custom in a public place? Or perhpas you can ask them what legislation or case law allows a licensing authority to set up a pseudo cab rank for private hire vehicles and also ask them, which legislation facilitates private hire drivers picking up members of the public off the street?

If you or anyone else finds the legislation or case law that allows such activities then I'm sure we will only be too pleased to digest it in full.

I asked you how many members you had in your association because the Manchester Evening News seems to be a little confused. In 2001 they reported you as representing more than 1000 private hire drivers, yet in 2006 they reported you as representing 3000 private hire drivers but in between those dates they said you represented the City's Cab drivers?

In the interest of accuracy would you mind telling us just how many members actually do subscribe to your organisation? The NTA, the T&G and the NTTG have all taken the Fifth Amendment on disclosing their membership figures so you can either join their club or put the record straight? In my opinion the reason for their shyness is that they probably think they would look extremely illegitimate if their true representative figures were made public knowledge.

Manchester Evening News

June 6, 2001

Paul Meek, who represents more than 1,000 private hire drivers in Manchester

Manchester Evening News

July 24, 2002

Paul Meek, from the Central Private Hire Association, which represents the city's cab drivers,

Manchester Evening News

October 20, 2006

Paul Meek, chairman of the Manchester Private Hire Drivers' Association, which represents 3,000 drivers.

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

Great minds think a like a JD i have been checking you out to cant find a lot out about you know one in London seems to know you.

Could you clarify who asked you to get involved in Manchesters Hackney trades affairs just out of interest.

We are affiliated to L.P.H.C.A. and i recently asked Mr Wright M.B.E. if he had come across you you do not seem to ring any bells JD.

i will discuss our trade and association with any one that tells the truth about us JD but when you send reports out to councillors etc that are to say the least un true and having now spoken to the legal representatives at Manchester City council and had my say and put my evidence forward i think i know who they believe.

Any person who represents any Association JD should always tell the truth or they soon get found out and then what credability they have has gone for ever.

When your report was destroyed you lost your credability JD or perhaps you need to speak to JH and get some more lies off him we put him in a private hire car and got him home safe and sound the other night JD even thoe he was very drunk and could have gotten him self arrested see we play fair not dirty.

Once again and this time tell the truth how do you work out that our pick up point is illegal our very happy and growing fast customers fairs are pre booked the customers get in to the correct vehicles they have booked we do not tout.

Every private hire vehicle in manchester is fully licensed and insured the customer approaches our agents to order their Taxi this is not touting JD the Job is booked with the base dispatched from the base to the vehicle and the vehicle sent to the pick up point to collect the pre booked fair THIS IS NOT TOUTING JD.

This weekend i did a bit of filming I filmed half a dozen Hackney vehicles forming an illegal rank on Dantzic Street out side the Print works JD and the traffic warden warning them to move on or they would be booked dear ho dear JD whats this one rule for the Hackney trade and one for the Private Hire trade.

Do you know the very funny side of this JD i actually have Hackney lads pulling up and saying to me GOOD LUCK TO YOU PAUL it is true we do need help to get people home on a friday and saturday night and if you lads do not step in and help us then we are going to end up with another at least 200 Hackney plates being sold that would really cripple this trade we cant park up during the day as it is were would we put another 200 these so called representatives of ours have not got a clue what they are going to do to us if their not careful.

Come on JD lets have a truthful and true discussion tell me what is illegal about this pick up point with out inventing storys about.

English and grammar wasn’t your strong point at school then?

The Law which relates to touting wasn’t either?

What has Steve Wright got to do with it? Does his view now overrule what is accepted law?

Nice earner though Mr MPH, but we should remember you are doing it for the good of the public . . . .

If no one in London knew me I would regard that as a reason to celebrate.

Now there maybe taxi touting going on as well, but they are both illegal.

Although PH touting is regarded as a B fine, whereas the other mob only get an A.

Most unfair IMO.

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IDFIMH

Who by they're very presence . . . ??



God, give us strength.

Are there any PH representative bodies that have literate, intelligent, articulate folks to speak on their behalf?

The question I have..... is the site licensed as a private hire office ? ....

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Any council that infringes taxi licensing law is prone to come under the scrutiny of this website whether by me or someone else. This website is proactive in delivering the facts, regardless of to who or what those facts relate.



Is that your answer to the question I asked about your membership figures? If you want to mislead Evening News Reporters then that’s fine by me because in that case we can add you to the long list of so called secretaries who say they represent x amount of people yet can't produce the evidence to support their claim. Perhaps your organisation only has a hundred members or maybe less but I suppose you came to the opinion that you saying you represent three thousand Manchester Private Hire drivers sounds a lot healthier than saying you only represent a hundred?

It really makes no difference to me how many you represent because it would appear that just like the other organisations I mentioned who choose secrecy over openness that "you are dammed if you do and dammed if you don't"?



My report must have concerned you a little if you felt the need to go to Manchester City council in order to reassure them that your illegal activity is perfectly legal. Or perhaps the licensing department requested your presence in order to find out what was going on? Perhaps they are a little concerned that they might have an injunction served on them and that the person parading around with the clipboard along with the private hire operator he works for, will also be taken to court for soliciting custom off the street?



In that case why in 2001 did you tell a reporter that you represent 1000 private hire drivers in Manchester and in 2006 you said you represent 3000 drivers? Which is correct, or are both figments of your imagination? Are you saying your Manchester association has 3000 paying members or have you elevated yourself to be the unofficial and unelected spokesperson for all Manchester Private hire drivers including the overwhelming majority who are not in your organisation?.



Destroyed in what way and by whom? By you? lol.

Unlike London the only lifeline you have in Manchester is by virtue of the fact that the Manchester TODA along with the other taxi organisations in Manchester namely the T&G and GMB are reluctant to take the council to court or even go through the process of prosecuting the persons doing the illegal touting because they are chit scared of having derestriction foisted upon them. That’s what happens when you are held hostage to fortune because rather than have the prospect of deregulation hanging over your head it becomes far easier to bend with the wind. The Manchester Taxi trade will in the majority of cases agree to anything the council proposes as long as numbers are controled and that I'm afraid has always been the case and always will be the case.

I take it you didn't read the case law attached to that report or it would appear you may have read it but didn't understand it? When you discussed the report with the licensing department did you inform them of your expertise in the field of licensing and that both you and the persons holding the private hire operators licenses for Cresta and Radio cars are aware of the vagaries of illegal plying for hire by virtue of the fact that many of the drivers who worked at your company in the early nineties were successfully prosecuted for the offence of illegally plying for hire?

Should we assume that illegal plying for hire in your opinion is not viewed as an offence? If you do deem it to be an offence then I'm sure we would all like to hear just exactly under what circumstances you would consider a person to be in breach of that law?

I'll respond to the second part of your post when I have more time but it would appear you are a little confused with current legislation and hackney carriages forming an illegal taxi rank. I'm sure you being an avid student of the legislative process will be aware that licensed hackney carriages can stand and ply for hire anywhere in a controlled district and there is no such thing as an illegal Taxi rank as far as hackney carriages are concerned, however there is a standard by-law about conduct at hackney carriage stands that says a hackney carriage shall when plying for hire in any street but not actually hired proceed to the nearest taxi rank. However any offence would be for "not proceeding to the nearest taxi rank" and not for the offence of " hackney carriages forming an illegal taxi" rank as there is no provision in law for such an offence against a hackney carriage driver. I suspect you already knew that and you were just testing our understanding of the law?

Anyone no matter whom, found waiting in a prohibited parking zone will naturally be moved on by a parking attendant, I suspect you also knew that too.

Regards

JD

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Is that the best you can do GBC get personal. Is their any London Taxi drivers out their that actually want to talk about this with out getting personal. It really is very unprofessional and sad to see.

Morning Mr T

I understand were you are coming from but if the powers that be at the print works decide to open a Private Hire booking office with in their complexs then we do not need an operators license.

The truth is we are doing nothing illegal now JD can quote me all the case files he wants they do not apply to this situation we have had the council the Police and any one else you want to name come to our pick up point and observe us we are doing nothing illegal.

Which site? There is no site, just a man with a clipboard exhibiting himself in the street and stood next to a pseudo taxi rank provided by the local council and contrary to what Mr Manchester private hire driver says, the person didn't take down any names because I am reliably informed that no one approached him.

The public just stood in the pseudo taxi rank queue waiting for a vehicle to arrive and if members of the public had been approached then that would have made the clipboard man even more culpable but I suppose he realised that.

It is obvious by the photographic evidence presented in the report what his intentions were, in fact the whole set up is obvious but thanks to your colleagues in Manchester who are all part of this "meetings of minds" exercise, nothing whatsoever will get done.

I've always said that these people are well passed their sell by date and this is another reason why.

On a further note, didn't someone from the London GMBPDB say when something needs sorting out they have the legal expertise to see it through? Well we have a GMB Branch in Manchester overwhelmingly populated with hackney carriage owners but it would appear that they are rather impotent when it comes to rectifying clear cut breaches of the law.

The words of the London GMB representative would appear to have a somewhat "hollow ring" about them and no doubt many will go even further and suggest they are nothing more than meaningless. If the GMBPDB can't put this little chestnut to bed without any legal abnormalities, then what can they do?

Regards

JD

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What you really mean is that you and those who facilitate this exercise don't understand or totally ignore the law in respect of informal taxi ranks set up for the purpose of providing public transport for the general public whether by a local council or unlicensed individuals.

I'm afraid private hire booking offices have nothing whatsoever to do with it but I will tell you this, if such a practice is legal then the Hackney carriage trade throughout the country is dead in the water. There is no point in hackney carriage owners paying 30 grand for a piece of junk when they can buy a decent saloon car for half the price for the purpose of private hire and still pick up from pseudo taxi ranks. Therefore I'm quite sure that there are many in the hackney carriage trade who are looking at these activities with more than a passing interest because if the activity escalates without any legal challenge then no one is going to buy a hackney carriage with all the conditions attached to wav provision, etc, etc.

Regards

JD

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You know JD i do not have this problem with the Hackney trade in Manchester we sit round the table with the likes of Pat and we have heated discussions yes but we do not tell porkys and we do not get personal is this a trait of the London Hackney traide.

Any one who reads this in Manchester knows you are lying again and again or your informant is.

Names are taken and addresses jobs are booked in at base and vehicles dispatched to the pick up point vehicles do not rank up they are to busy to come on JD take a truth pill for christ sake or change your informant to a decent one we have License enforcement officers watching our every move do you think they would allow half of the bull you are coming out with.

Why are we not getting any Manchester Hackney cab drivers in on this discussion is it because they do not want you getting involved and costing them another 200 plus Plates because thats what they are telling me.

Are you really that thick that you don't understand that taking names and addresses in the street for the booking of private hire vehicles is UNLAWFULL.

You don't have to take my word for that, you can ask any private hire operator or driver who subscribes to this forum and I might add we have many. It would seem the only person who doesn't realise the practise is illegal is the man who puts himself forward as being the Secretary of the Manchester private hire association.

Up until recently we had another council and another secretary from a taxi organisation who were of the opinion that they could make up their own laws as they went along. We all know what happened to them, or perhaps you don't but I'm sure you will, eventually?

Regards

JD

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