Although the past few years have been fairly quiet for various reasons, all of which you are very familiar with, the coming month will be even quieter as is the norm for August. However, I am hopeful that the extra work generated by West Coast Trains for the nine consecutive days in August will go some way to compensate us during this quiet period. Although work may be quiet, there has been a lot of activity behind the scenes on your behalf.
 

Meetings
In recent weeks I have had two very important meetings; one at City Hall with the Mayor's Women's Adviser Anni Marjoram, whilst the other was with the Director of Taxis and Private Hire at the Public Carriage Office, Ed Thompson.  The message I was endeavouring to relay to both of them was the disastrous effect that Private Hire door signage would have on our industry.
   I know that I have written about this topic on several occasions in the past, but I believe that it is so important that we should keep it in the spotlight. I believe that both of them are now very conversant with the pitfalls that would go hand in hand with the proposed signage on the front doors of Private Hire vehicles. They both made it abundantly clear to me that the Mayor will have the final say regarding the signage, but I believe that the Mayor is not naïve and he will not make a decision without first talking with his advisers and others connected to TfL and hopefully, they have been sufficiently influenced.
   The outcome of the consultation document regarding the licensing of the Private Hire vehicles will not be known for around another month, but I am optimistic that we have done enough lobbying so that door signage will not be permitted. We have had an EDM
(Early Day Motion) signed by twenty three MP's supporting our

position together with a letter of
support from HAL (Heathrow Airport Ltd), and we all know the problems Heathrow face regarding touting, so hopefully their opinion will be taken into account.
   Finally, and for the first time to my knowledge, we have gained support from the LPHCA (Licensed Private Hire Car Association) who also do not want signage on the front doors of their vehicles. They had a meeting on the 9 July where 99% of their members voted against door signage. It was pointed out to the meeting that false door signage had lured a young girl into a tout's car in Oxford St and she was subjected to an horrific rape.  Door signage had also caused operators to lose control of their drivers outside London due to some being seconded by the public on the streets and also the illegal plying for hire by some drivers outside London. Finally many licensing authorities have phased out door signage due to the confusion it brought about.
   Faced with the facts that I have relayed together with our own well-documented arguments, I believe the Mayor would be extremely foolish if he allows door signage on Private Hire Vehicles,  I happen to believe the Mayor is not naïve and consequently I'm optimistic that he will support us on this issue, however, we will have to wait and see.
   Whilst we are on the subject of attacks against women, you might be surprised to learn that 92% of raped women know their attackers whilst of the remaining 8% who do not know the assailants, 80% of those rapes were committed by unlicensed minicab drivers. That is a staggering statistic...

New Laws?
Due to the touting that is being perpetrated on the streets of

London every night, TfL are being urged to approach the Home Secretary to introduce a Statutory Instrument of State, which means that a new law (offence) can be introduced without the need of the approval of Parliament.
   It would appear at the present time that if a tout is cautioned, it is a 'reportable' offence and not a 'recordable' offence. That means to you and I that a tout can be cautioned, but that it does not go on his record, similar to when someone is reported for speeding or indeed has a parking ticket issued against them.
   The proposed new legislation will mean that in the future, should someone be found guilty of touting, they will then have a police record. If they should then subsequently be stopped for touting or indeed any offence, the police would then be able to see whether they have any previous convictions against their name and be able to take the appropriate action - including fingerprinting and DNA sampling. That, if you read my previous paragraph, could well clear up quite a few more unsolved crimes.
 

Private Hire Consultation
As I've written earlier, the outcome of the Private Hire Consultation Document concerning the licensing of the vehicles should be known in approximately one month. I believe that this time frame will be reasonably accurate as I have it on good authority that the company who will be responsible for testing the Private Hire Vehicles, SGS, will start testing on January 1 2004.
   However, in advance of this, commencing next month extra Police are being drafted in to tackle the tout problem in London while at the same time, the Mayor is going to commission economists to study the 'Supply and Demand' situation regarding taxis - seems like a good idea to me!

Brian Rice
Chairman
Dial-Cab