Radios Out of Taxis?
Before Parliament left for its summer recess, a debate chaired by Gwyneth Dunwoody MP took place concerning Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles. This followed the publication of her Committee report into the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) enquiry on the regulation of the Taxi and Private Hire Industry. The debate focused on the Taxi market outside of London, but there was a specific contribution regarding London’s taxi trade from Clive Efford MP (Eltham), who used to be a London Taxi driver.
   Clive opened his speech by focusing on the benefits of Hackney Carriages and emphasised that the trade was an integral part of London’s transport infrastructure. He felt there should be a single system of taxi service throughout England based on common standards for vehicles, drivers and the level of knowledge expected. He then went on to comment on the impact of radio circuits in reducing the number of taxis available for street hiring. Just so there is no confusion, I have reproduced Clive’s words verbatim:
   "The reason why Hon Members wait longer outside the House for a taxi to answer the light is that many taxis are pre-booked. People standing in the street may complain about empty taxis with the light out and no one in the back, but that is because it is increasingly a pre-booked service. That highlights the fact that the Taxi and Private Hire Industries are very similar and it is why the Mayor of London consulted and increased the excess after 10 o’clock at night. He wished to encourage more drivers to ply for hire on the street rather than be pre-booked through the radio circuits. I have made this argument over many years. The way to overcome the increasing trend towards pre-booking is to increase the fare when the driver first puts the meter on when people get in the cab.
   "The radio services in the Taxi Industry have tried to keep the figure down because they want drivers to sign up for the radio service and not to ply for hire on the streets. That is where the problem comes from."
   There you have it! Something I have been warning DaC subscribers about over several years has now come to fruition. We are being compared to the Private Hire industry and reading between the lines, Mr Efford is suggesting that there would be more taxis available for hire on the streets if they did not have radios fitted. This is a scenario I have always feared being raised in the House, what I did not conceive was that it would be raised by an ex-London Taxi driver.
   Clive has blundered into this issue and re-ignited the debate on radios out of Taxis. This is a disservice to every radio Taxi driver in London - all 8,000 of you - not to mention the enormous number of our clients

who would be disenfranchised.
   So just who is Clive Efford to reduce freedom of choice? After all, the average radio Taxi driver only completes approximately 20% of his work on the radio. Rest assured a letter has gone to Clive seeking a meeting, although that probably will not be until after he returns from his summer recess in October. A letter has also gone to Gwyneth Dunwoody requesting a meeting.

Proposed Amendment to the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act
If the above was not enough, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced a consultation regarding a proposal to amend the definition of a Private Hire Vehicle as stated in the 1998 Act.
   The intention of amending the Act is to close the loophole that allows minicab operators to circumvent the licensing system by claiming to service only specific groups of people rather than the public at large. Transport for London (TfL) has accepted that operators servicing only a specific group of people, such as through contract work to schools or hospitals, do not fall within the framework of the Act.
   Consequently, Tony McNulty MP has announced a consultation to "…seek views on a proposal to amend the definition to exclude the phrase "to the public" at the first suitable opportunity and thereby close the loophole."

The Department has considered four options for action:

   The Department is proposing to adopt the latter option, but has yet to identify a Bill that would be suitable in which to insert the Amendment. The option to amend the Act through the Regulatory Reform Order has been ruled out because the order only allows for lifting burdens imposed by legislation, however, the proposed amendment would have the effect of imposing one. I must say that I agree with the Department regarding the loophole and any responses must be with the DfT by 6 October.
   You will not be surprised to learn that some unscrupulous operators have found a way to possibly exploit some of the more vulnerable people in Society – so

the sooner this loophole is closed the better.

Heathrow Meeting
There is a letter published in this issue from Alan Sullivan with some genuine questions concerning the new procedures at Heathrow. Following Call Sign’s receipt of Alan’s letter, our Driver Services Department received some telephone calls from our members informing them that the radio taxi pickup points were going to be abolished at Heathrow within the next six weeks. A meeting was arranged for me to meet with Simon Talbot, the new Ground Operations Manager from the Commercial Transport Team together with Steve Cumber. Simon has taken over his position from Maureen Worron who retired in April. Steve and I already knew one another as he worked with Maureen. Both Maureen and Steve had been very good friends to the radio taxi industry at Heathrow and even wrote letters to the authorities supporting the radio circuit’s stance on Private Hire signage. However, when a senior person leaves their position, there is always some trepidation concerning the views that the new person might hold. I am delighted to report that the three of us had a meeting lasting for two hours and the outcome was that the status quo will prevail and the radio taxi pickup points will remain at Heathrow. However, the pickup point on T3 may be moved from time to time due to the refurbishment that is taking place on that particular terminal, if at any time you arrive there and the pickup point was not where it was the last time you picked up there, then please ask someone in authority where it has moved to. We have got off to a very good start with Simon and the less headaches we give him in the future, the better it will be for our particular section of the industry. After all, when things run smoothly they tend not to be noticed.

End of Year
The end of our financial year comes at the end of August and whilst I do not have all the final figures to hand – and which are yet to be audited - the data that I do have looks excellent. I believe, again subject to the fact that at the time of writing we have not reached the end of August, the figures this year will show an increase on turnover approaching £5m while our profit - sorry surplus - would have increased by some 6 - 700% over last year, a truly amazing achievement.
   Whilst everyone in our industry is struggling to keep their head above water, Dial-a-Cab just keeps striding forward. Rest assured, as soon as the final figures become available, I will let you know the details. In the meantime, keep the champagne on ice as it will be another fantastic year for everyone concerned with Dial-a-Cab…

Brian Rice
Chairman, Dial-a-Cab