Taxi Driver Online

You're becoming more and more desperate by the day Mr A to undermine Britain’s largest and most successful taxi trade body.

Did you know the membership (hot of the press yesterday) is nearing 9000 with over 60 new members from last month alone?
We go from strength to strength, whilst the RMT (LTB) will fade away into nothing within a few years.
I would comment on the LTCPR (Who?) but what's the point, no one's heard of 'them'.

Your latest post is nothing short of a rant from a blog, read and commented on by 0.002% of the trade.

Laugh? You have to.

Whose turn is it this week on the vigilante forum? The LTDA? The girl in the TX4? The alleged Yellow Badge in the Merc? The guy in the FX with the advert? The LCDC?

Laugh? You most certainly have to.

Whilst I was at Taxi House we talked about NOBU, and we have the full consent of the Transport OCU to work the venue. Like Peter Rose, I've seen none of your 'story' in action so far this week, but you always did like to exaggerate to further your obsession with the LTDA.

Apart from your 8 online fans who have been driving Taxis for all of 2 or 3 years each . . . No one in authoritys listening to you Mr A, no one.

Leave it to the professionals.

Leave it to the LTDA, as always.

Why can't you just put a rank there?

Then problem solved.

_________________
IDFIMH

Hi Losty,

Can you confirm if i could still possibly be down as a member of the LTDA even though i left over 4 years years ago?

And was there any chance those new 60 recruits might have been new , fresh, badge's who had just passed their REQ'S and where met outside the yard with a lovely new welcome to the trade, with a LTDA pack & a promise of a nice passing out certificiate if you sign here sonny?

Like i was 8 years ago.

Well over 300 & growing daily in just 3 months....

Glad to see you still tune in Philip.

When the former T&G branch formed (Now Unite) there was a 'rush' of members joining as well.

They've been static at around 1000 ever since.

When the Metrocab Drivers Club (Now the LCDC) formed there was a 'rush' to join that as well.
Their story speaks from itself, under 900 members left and most of the new socialist RMT fans came from the LCDC / Unite, including some of their former officers.

If they break the 1000 mark, I'll pre-pay your breakfast / dinner at the St Johns Wood shelter CSP.

Just PM me if they ever reach that mark. I suspect my cash is safe.

What's the difference between the three minor players and the major one?

The rest are motivated with politics. Unions are political, the LTDA is'nt.

Remember when the BNP activist chap came on to the Vigi Forum?
If I remember correctly lots of people agreed with him, now these same people are supporting a guy who thinks the BNP should be exterminated?

I'm lost.

And that's not losty.

If you’re not paying the monthly contribution, you're not a member.




I don't have the profiles of those that have joined, but they're licensed London taxi drivers just like me and you, so I'm not sure how their status or length of service is relevant, unless you're suggesting those folks gaining their badge can't make up their own minds about trade membership.

ALL trade bodies canvass candidates leaving Penton Street, just like any work based representative body.

Besides, the majority of the 20 regular posters on the vigi forum have freshly pressed badges hanging around their necks, their opinions seem to be accepted with no challenges.

The ranks committee have been negotiating with the local authority for some time now and as usual it comes down to finance.

For instance, did you know the entire budget for rank maintenance and installation for the entire year is only a meager £2000?

Westminster naturally wants TFL (The PCO) to pay for any new installation, but the annual budget has already been spent.

However, thanks to constructive talks with Jerome Weiner from TFL, it would appear the cap on rank maintenance will be opened up for deserving projects such as the safer transport at night scheme, so we're hopeful that some ranks will appear in the near future.

Obviously the whole process takes forever with objectors such as local businesses getting a say, and you can bet the owners of NOBU will object, before the rank can be made official.

However, the times will probably be from 9pm onwards, so the majority of businesses won't object, but the local residents may well moan.

The York Hotel rank fiasco comes to mind.

Peter Rose from the Unite Cab Sections reply:


I have to say that to blame the LTDA for the action of the Police is a little disingenuous in my opinion. Whether it was wise to print the doorman’s picture within the pages of Taxi was a good idea not I personally am not so sure, it made me smile for a second or two and was then forgotten.
However to claim it put a loaded gun in the hands of drivers is doing a disservice to the intelligence of the London Taxi driver. We are all over 21 and capable of making our own decisions about what to do with such material.
Also to claim that it has undone the work of the LTDF etc is also premature. I spent over an hour at Nobu last night watching what was going on and in was business as usual, no police in sight apart from the two cars that drove straight passed the double parked minicabs. This despite me asking Steve MacNamara to call the police when the minicabs managed to occupy the whole of the outside of Nobu.
As for the spark that caused the police to clear the cabs on Wednesday night, I was called yesterday by an RMT rep who told me that it all ‘went off’ after he took the picture in the paper up to the doorman and asked him to autograph it. You can’t blame the LTDA for that, rather you should be looking more closely at the actions of those you seem to think are closer to home.
As for what the drivers are doing at this and other venues I can only applaud them, but let me say one thing, the drivers orgs are working very hard to cure the problem of satellite offices after a great show of trade unity last February, to continuously snipe at them seems to me to be a counterproductive step.

Peter J Rose

Then get the trade to recommend a £5 increase in the license fee. £5 times 22,000 should give anyone enough money to create as many ranks as required.

_________________
IDFIMH

I'll hold you to that fry up !

Cheers.

they could all join the nta.

_________________
C. Oakes


The Hackney Association Ltd
bbha@btinternet.com

What's with you keep calling it the vigilante forum ? Is there a need to keep being so dismissive of a group of London taxi drivers (i seem to recall you also being one) who are at least trying to do something about the problems we are facing ? I don't go out of my way to de-ride many of your postings, believe me i could be equally spiteful or malevolent but choose not to as i see it as just another form of in-fighting which we as a trade have had to endure for too long.

I'm just an ordinary fella doing what he feels is right, i don't consider myself a vigilante as much as i don't think of myself as a freedom fighter! I'm just trying to do my bit to protect my living and most of the drivers on the forum are doing the same thing.

You are entitled to your views and i respect that. You also chose to ignore the questions the admin of the site put your way regards your actions on the forums but again thats your right (incidentally your privacy wasn't breached as the AOL ip numbers are in the public domain: http://webmaster.info.aol.com/proxyinfo.html )

You don't agree with much of what is written about yet you also have to witness much of what could be your work getting into private cars night after night. The LTDA may well be working away to resolve it but why did the drivers have to take the initiative and start forming illegal ranks outside venues to reclaim some work ? Why weren't the LTDA (or other trade organisations for that matter) doing more when the whole idea of satellite offices was originally mooted by the PCO ? Why let it get to that stage in the first place ? The LTDA should have been leading from the front. They need to wake up and realise that the PCO and TfL like dear old Ken are not their friend! guess what, the LTDA get it wrong sometimes!


Regards membership numbers. It means F**K-all to me to be honest! I couldn't give a monkeys if one has 9000 members or 9, i'm interested in seeing results. All this chest puffing and d**k measuring is great but it means sod all if TfL and the PCO are walking all over our trade. To all the organisations i say: stop looking down on each other and work collectively. Each group has their merits and all have valid points to make. Get on and get a bloody resolution to the issues.......




I'd be interested to see how they propose we "work this venue" ? I've been moved off by a rather stroppy WPC who told me i could only ply for hire from a taxi stand! I'm having to double park to stand any chance of servicing this venue as the scabs have their cars parked up outside and make it night on impossible to get kerbside. I witnessed the scabs double parked on Thursday night and went into West End Central to report it so that they could be privvy to the same heavy handed dealings we've had to endure and guess what ? No one turned up! I have it on good authority that Steve Macnamara also called the police but again nothing came of it! So, whilst i applaud the members of the LTDA getting the "full consent of the Transport OCU to work the venue", the reality is very different! Perhaps Barry, John and Bob would like to wait outside their for 20 minutes only to moved on by a surly WPC then come back and tell me we have consent..............oh, i forget; they will be in bed at that time!

As i've said before, i have no beef with you personally. I think you've been underhanded in how you've behaved on the forums. There are many more drivers on there like myself who just want to change things for the betterment of the trade and coming on and being devisive is just counter-productive. I'd appreciate it if you stopped referring to it as the "vigilante forum" as that is far and away from what it is trying to achieve. The forum is simply that, a place for people with a common interest or shared vocation to air their views and get feedback from others. The guy who runs it is of the mindset that people should be allowed to express their opinions without the threat of censorship. He will however ask any contributors to remove material he feels could be inflammatory or libelous or just downright derogatory............trust me, i had a PM from him recently about my tirade concerning the PCO and their most recent notice We did have the incident regards the yellow badge driver working in Central London, personally i agreed with it as he was clearly in breech of his licence and had been witnessed on many occasions doing the same thing. There was no character assasination but more a frustration that any attempts by drivers to make the PCO aware of it happening was falling on deaf ears!

I digress, your views are always welcome on the forums, perhaps you are already there under another guise in which case i hope you make your points and they are treated with the same respect as any others. We can never hope to be in 100% agreement with one another but we can only hope we can reach a level of mutual respect and appreciate each others views.

As I said, I'll never go there again.

Thanks for the post.