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AL driver tries to run over DaC driver! |
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It had been a
fairly ordinary Saturday night for Dial-a-Cab driver Marc
Turner (R97) and at just after 1am, with things beginning to
quieten down, Marc took a look at the Holiday Inn Forum Hotel
in South Kensington. But he couldn’t get onto the point
because an Addison Lee car - complete with driver - was hogging
it. Marc takes up the story... "I put onto the rank and gave him a good stare as if to say please pull off because this is a taxi rank and you aren’t a taxi. But he stayed put, so I got out and made as if I was going to take a photo of his car with my phone. No sooner had I held the phone up to his registration plate than he started up his engine and attempted to run me over!" Calming down a bit, Marc continued his story: "After missing me, he drove off but I had failed to take the photo, |
 being somewhat more concerned at getting out of the way of his car quickly! But then to show his apparent stupidity, instead of just legging it he returned and pulled right up to my bumper and told me that he wanted to hit me and judging by the look on his face and tone of his voice, he may well have attempted it. Fortunately a member of the public came out just then and defused the |
situation. I told the
passenger that had I not been there, he might well have ended up
in the minicab with what appeared to be a mentally unbalanced
driver, who was flagrantly breaking his licensing conditions by
being an opportunist. "The Addison Lee driver then butted in and asked what I meant by opportunist, as being from Africa he did not understand the word? I didn’t want to involve myself any further and took the passenger and left the hotel – but not without successfully photographing his registration number this time." Marc has sent two letters of complaint, together with the photo of the AL registration number, to both the Public Carriage Office and also Addison Lee themselves. At the time of going to press, neither had responded... |
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GEELY SALES GO THROUGH THE ROOF! |
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Announcing their 2009 full year vehicle sales, Hong Kong listed
Geely Automobile Holdings said they had risen by an astonishing
59% up to 325,413 units. China's largest privately owned automaker also added in the statement that their December sales were up 108% to a record 43,446 units and that their 250,000 unit full year target set for 2009, was easily exceeded. The company have now revised their 2010 target upwards to 400,000 vehicles. This includes the TX4 taxi, which they also manufacture in Shanghai and begs the question that many are asking: Will the TX4 end up as a Chinese manufactured vehicle if more variants of the London taxi are passed for use in London, should the Conditions of Fitness be written off in March? |
Geely have already made an estimated
US$1.8billion bid for Ford's Volvo cars and according to Geely Automobile's
chief executive Gui Sheng Yue, the group wants to expand overseas sales – including western
Europe - by exporting two-thirds of output by 2015. Gui added this telling
quote: "Our principle has always been the same. It is that the parent company will build up new production bases and will inject them into the listed company once the construction has completed and the bases become profitable." That seems to be what is happening with the TX4." |
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