TAXI LEAKS COMMENT :
Every driver needs to support this demo.
There can be no fence sitting, no egos, no tribal mentality. If you want to carry on being a licensed Taxi Driver, then you need to turn up.
TfL have tried desperately to divide the trade at every opportunity. The implementation of the Credit Card Mandate was no more than smoke and mirrors, designed purely to keep us at each other's throats.
• TfL waited 4 years to go to court over Uber driver insurance.
• They lied to the GLA about on off policies
• They coached Uber how to get round legislation
• They relaxed regulations.
• Compliance has been a white wash.
While new regulations were bought in which take even more of our income, Uber have been given a free hand to run riot.
They've been allowed to operated from unlicensed premises, they lied about having a landline, admitted they don't do pre-bookings....in fact it recently came out, under oath in the Toronto verdict, that it's the driver who takes the booking in the vehicle. A total disregard of the Private Hire Act 1998.
TfL have allowed all this to go on.
The GLA made promises
The new Mayor made promises
All promises have been broken
It's clear TfL have no intention of changing Uber's modus operandi.
We've seen drivers licensed with fake medicals, fake topographical passes, no UK driving licence, no enhanced DBS checks. TfL are refusing to publicise the results of multiple FOI requests, for whole of London minicab related sexual assault (including rapes) statistics, because they say it's not in the public interest.
Now we have the latest revelation:
TfL are to drop the requirement for Uber to have a pre bookings landline, after lying to us and the GLA for 4 years saying they had one.
The United Cabbies Group have called on the trade (drivers, orgs and unions) to attend a mass protest, to be held on the 8th of November, around Trafalgar Square and along Whitehall, at 2pm.
Permission has been granted for a letter to be delivered to the Prime Minister, calling on the government to set up an enquiry into TfL.
No one is fighting your corner for you.
It's time to turn up and fight....or sit back and watch your trade die.
TIME FOR TALKING HAS RUN OUT.