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Meeting with the Mayor’s
Director for Transport Policy…
I have recently had a meeting at City
Hall with the new Mayor’s Director
for Policy Transport, Kulveer
Ranger. There were a number of topics on
the agenda including signage, bus lanes,
congestion charging, parking tickets and
any possible fuel surcharge.
I must say that I was quite impressed with how quickly he had
grasped the topics on the agenda and
showed an understanding of our industry.
All too often politicians just sit and
listen and you are never too sure
whether or not they understand the
situation, however, in Kulveer’s case he
asked some very intelligent and
pertinent questions and genuinely showed
interest in our concerns.
As you can appreciate, nothing was resolved because that has to be
decided by Transport for London
and not an individual, but I believe it
is essential that the leading
politicians are well briefed on the
concerns that face our industry. This
was the first time I had met Mr Ranger
(with a name like that, it’s good enough
for me) and I must say that I was quite
impressed – however, time will tell and
we will have to wait and see how he
performs.
Signage
I must have bored many of you to death
with the number of times I have written
over the past few years concerning the
exterior advertising on minicabs. I am –
as I have always been - totally against
any form of advertising as it will be
used by members of the public as a sign
of authenticity that the minicab in
question is bona fide, whereas we
all know that very soon there will be
cars cruising around London with bogus
signage purporting to be legitimate
licensed private hire.
Members of the public will not look for the licence roundel,
because so far as they are concerned the
exterior signage will suffice to
indicate the vehicle is licensed.
When private hire instigated |
their
lobbying for exterior signage, it was
intended the signage should be anywhere
on the vehicle but this was vehemently
opposed by the taxi industry. So it
appears that the authorities compromised
(hopefully due to the lobbying we did)
and agreed there could be signage on the
rear of the vehicle including the back
window, but only advertising the name of
the minicab company- you know, like
Addison Lee used to do!
I was told at the PCO in December 2006 that they had recommended to
TfL that exterior signage be allowed on
the rear of the minicabs, but only
advertising the operators name. TfL were
just expected to rubber stamp the
recommendation, however I heard nothing
and did enquire several times as to what
had happened, only to be informed that
everything was going through its normal
process.
Then out of the blue, like other organisations in our industry, I
received the following communication
from the PCO. I thought the sentence
that started the communication regarding
the guidelines was quite unusual – what
do you think?
The attached sets out new guidelines affecting London licensed PHVs
which reflect the change in Regulation 8
of the Private Hire Vehicles (London PHV
Licences) Regulation 2004, approved by
the TfL Board and signed by the
Transport Commissioner on 15 October
2007. The changes come into effect
immediately.
Why wait until July 2008 to release guidelines that were signed
in October 2007? It seems rather a long
time to me.
Oh and by the way, I am reliably informed that when Boris
Johnson was running
for Mayor earlier this year, he received
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particular donation to
his election fund of £25,000. Three
guesses as to who it was from – aaahhh,
you got it in one… that’s right, Addison
Lee!
Golf Day
As many of you golfers are aware, DaC
tends to have a golf day every year and
donate any proceeds to a taxi trade
charity. However, we did not have one
last year due to the fact that we were
moving premises.
I am a member of the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage
Drivers (WCHCD) and they too have a
golf day each year in order to raise
funds for their general charity fund,
consequently I thought it would be a
good idea to combine the two with
Dial-a-Cab
sponsoring the day and with the proceeds
being donated to the WCHCD general
charity fund.
The event took place on Friday 18 July at Nazeing golf
club. Although not a golfer myself, I
went along for the day and I must say
the whole day was excellent. Eighteen
teams took part and the support that
Dial-a-Cab received from the remainder
of the trade was also excellent. I
believe there is a report of the day,
including pictures, elsewhere in the
magazine.
I really must give a special mention to Keith Cain and Jacqui Chart
who organised the day extremely well and
to Natalie, who came along on the day
and who with the assistance of Jacqui,
coerced the golfers into parting with
their money to purchase raffle tickets.
DaC Finance Manager, Howard Pears, checked the scorecards and Allan
Evans was the starter on the 1st tee. We
laid on a comedian for the evening (no,
not me) and the day raised £4k for the
charity, which I believe is an excellent
result and I know the WCHD will be very
pleased with the amount raised. My
thanks to everyone who was involved on
the day and helped make it so
successful.
Brian Rice
Chairman
Dial-a-Cab |
