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My name is Martin Hizer (M47) and I am a London
Licensed Taxi Driver who has held his Bill for 11 years. When I
first contemplated writing this letter or if you prefer,
proposal, it was as a personally aggrieved individual whose own
perceived injury was, if I'm honest, the only concern to me.
Upon reflection, I now regard the nature of my grievance as
possibly one of the biggest threats that our collective trade
has ever faced.
That threat comes from a technology that was initially introduced
(if we believe the powers that be) to protect us from threats
ranging from muggings and car theft all the way up to
international terrorism. I’m talking of course of Closed Circuit
Television (CCTV).
In the last nine or so months, CCTV has found a new niche in the
market, one which in my view is a form of extortion. I'm sure
that a number of you have had the unpleasant experience of
picking up the morning post only to find that you have been
issued with a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) informing you that you
owe anything up to £120 to some council or other for a parking
offence. As if the spiteful council Parking Attendants that
replaced the Metropolitan police wardens aren't bad enough, I
have now taken to looking up at the sky as well as around me
when I stop!
"So you got a parking ticket," I hear you say, "so what?" This
ticket however, was issued by CCTV whilst I was in my cab
waiting for a DaC account customer for whom I was booked. The
'offence' occurred in the cul-de-sac portion of Carlisle Street
(Soho), so there could be no through traffic to which I
could have been an obstruction or nuisance. I wrote to
Westminster Council, who issued the PCN and put this point to
them only to be told that although allowances are made for
picking up/setting down, no provisions are in place to allow
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DaC driver Martin Hizer (M47) asks whether
CCTV is the biggest threat the trade has faced?
THE CURSE OF CLOSED CIRCUIT TELEVISION |
you to wait for clients. Now whether you drive a
London Black Taxi, a Mercedes or a Vauxhall Corsa that has been
licensed for hire and reward, you must have
had times where you’ve had to wait for clients for a multitude
of different reasons, but mainly because your client is on the
telephone conducting business, which in some cases could mean
procuring thousands or possibly millions of pounds of extra
revenue for their companies - and they certainly are not going
to curtail such activities because the poor driver is waiting!
I have since received two more PCNs whilst on account trips - in
Soho St and Old Compton Street. Add another in Dean Street where
I had the audacity to pull over and eat a sandwich in my
vehicle, so I guess you could say the whole of Soho is
no-go. And for those of you not on radio, what about the clients
who ask (as they often do) to go via a cashpoint, because
if the fixed CCTV cameras don't get you, the new periscope
fitted Smart cars will! Both fixed and mobile cameras will take
your photos even if you are waiting for a matter of just
seconds!
When a client orders transportation, unless there are extreme
circumstances they expect to find you outside their door. Look
at it this way; if you had ordered a cab in Frith Street and it
was pouring with rain, you wouldn't want to walk to Soho Square
or Great Marlborough Street to pick it up and you certainly
wouldn't pay for such a poor service!
So what’s the answer? It goes without saying that you cannot accept
a job that will earn you £8 for example, if it ends up costing
you £120 (or £60 if paid within 14 days)! Surely we are not
expected to give up literally millions of pounds of accounts?
Not only is it unfair, but to me it is a blatant restriction of
a perfectly lawful trade and as I stated before, a form of
extortion. Normally the practise of demanding money
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with menaces is carried out by people
that most refer to as gangsters! It has now got so bad that I
had a warden come over to me whilst I was on an account job
recently and gruffly told to "move." Yet I thought what a good
lad, at least I got a warning!
My dear brother Antony, who has been a driver for over 25 years and
who is also on DaC, hit the nail on the head when he compared
the introduction of prosecution (or persecution) by CCTV to the
other bane of most drivers, the speed camera, insofar as it has
removed discretion, commonsense and confrontation from the
process. It is now simply black or white. But there are other
implications. What if you have broken down, what if you need the
toilet? What if you are taken ill or overcome with tiredness and
need to rest? Isn't there a multi-million pound government
funded advertising campaign claiming tiredness kills? Even if
you appeal and have the PCN overturned, doesn't that just add to
the duress of an already stressful job? And to those who are
genuinely taken ill, should you just drive until you pass out
and plough into a building or some unfortunate pedestrian who
happens to be passing?
I say this must stop right now! There are currently 23,000 licensed
taxi drivers and God knows how many from the private hire
sector, but like it or not this is a problem for all of us!
If we stay strong and every single one of us without
exception refuses to pay every one of these
PCNs by appealing them all, we as a trade could make the
system grind to a halt.
At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, our entire trade
is at risk. Do not take this threat lightly and please, with
immediate effect, stop paying these thieves now. I will leave my
address with the Call Sign editor through whom I
will happily receive your comments and views.
Be lucky, be strong…
Martin Hizer (M47) |
