Putting aside the arrogance shown by the recipient of the TfL letter below, who feels he should be given the same status as a Taxi driver because he pays Tax and NI contributions, again we see more proof that the TfLTPH Twitter account is no more than a sham.
Private hire drives have no need to park on Taxi ranks while waiting to pick up, the Law is actually in their favour.
Taxi drivers are frequently compromising their safety, confronting private hire drivers contravening parking regulations, which clearly state they must not park on, wait on, pick up or drop off on, a licensed Taxi rank or standing.
Drives are puzzled that it's the same vehicles breaking the regulations, night after night.
Taxi drivers regularly put themselves in danger collecting hundreds of photographs and report to the TfLTPH Twitter account. This has always been done in good faith, that after confronting angry aggressive PH drivers, recording all necessary data and sending to TfL, the matter would be dealt with, in accordance with the legislated regulations.
It now appears this is not the case and that all that happens is the offending drivers just receive an acknowledgement in the form of a very friendly reminder with a caveat pegged on the end stating:
"If there is anything I can help you with, please reply to this letter or you can phone me on .....".
This isn't good enough from our licensing authority. Our Taxi ranks should be kept clear or PHVs and we need TfL to take stronger measures as these drivers are currently taking no notice of the regulations.
The problem has become so bad at weekends that one of our representative groups is using subscriptions from their members to finance rank marshals. This is money that should not have to be spent by the trade, this should be dealt with by TfLTPH.
Under a ruling in the high court, Taxis and PHVs have the right to wait (for as long as it takes) for a pre booked passenger on any single or double yellow line, 'regardless of the streets restrictions'.
However, they can't park on disabled bays, loading bays, zigzag lines or Taxi ranks. It's very clear and every PHV should be made aware of this by TfL. If they continue to carry on contravening this regulation they should face much harsher penalties.
If this sham Twitter account carries on acting with a benign biased, we could see violence on our streets in much the same way we see from other countries facing similar problems.
The High Court case is shown below, and has a very interesting comment in conclusion by parking expert Barry Segal.
Taxi Leaks Comment :
The question needs to be asked;
Why do TfL come down harder on Taxis parking on working Taxi ranks, than they do on PHVs illegally using Taxi rank spaces ???