Kastytis Spadavicius arrived in the early hours at Victoria coach station on 14th April and agreed to pay taxi driver Shahnawaz Razaq £250 for a ride to Bristol. However, when they arrived at Bristol Temple Meads he refused to pay and took out a knife when challenged, Bristol Crown Court was told.

Another taxi driver then helped Razaq, who locked Spadavicius at the back of his taxi and called the police to arrest him.

Spadavicius pleaded guilty to making off without payment and having an offensive weapon. He was then sentenced to 18 months in jail.

Judge Susan Evans QC had remanded Spadavicius in custody to give the Crown Prosecution Service time to clarify his convictions in Lituania, his home country, before the sentence.

The judge, Susan Evans QC said that Spadavicius was an undesirable person to stay in the UK, told him via an interpreter, “As soon as you reached this country you committed serious offences.

“It is important to note that it must be in the public interest that taxi drivers have to be protected. They are a vulnerable group of people who have an important duty to perform.”

The sentence means that Spadavicius will be automatically deported to Lithuania.

Prosecuting, Robert Reid, said that Spadavicius agreed the £250 fare but when they arrived to Bristol, he was allowed to collect the money and disappeared. He carried on saying “The taxi driver drove around for a few moments, looking for him, and caught sight of him.

“He asked for the money and at that point the knife was produced.”

Reid then said he scared the driver who backed off and called the police. Razaq then explained to another cab driver what had happened, who then drove him to find Spadavicius.

Spadavicius was then arrested after being locked into the cab. Initially he refused to talk unless he was given a cigarette, but it did not happen and he stayed silent.

Nicolas Gerasimidis, defending, said his client had fully accepted the way he behaved and pleaded guilty.
At an earlier court hearing, the court heard that Spadavicius had told a probation officer that he had shot and stabbed people before, but he no longer admitted or accepted that.

Spadavicius said that he carried a knife for work in Lithuania and he had not been convicted for having it and had not used it as a weapon before.

The knife has been forfeited for destruction.

Even though Razaq was unharmed, it is still a frightening experience. Luckily the other driver was able to help him and track the passenger down. The taxi vehicle was also undamaged, which can also be a worry for drivers, as it unnecessary increases their taxi insurance premiums, as well as stress levels.

The proposals set out by the Law Commission for England and Wales, a “peak time” taxi licence could also be introduced.

The commission also recommended a national minimum of safety standards.

Private hire tour operators would be able to take bookings outside their local area and taxi numbers would no longer be limited by local authorities.

The new plans, if passed would ensure that childminders who collect children or volunteers who drive elderly people as part of their work would no longer be at risk of being caught by licensing rules.

The commission which recommends and reviews law reforms said that there would also be exemptions from licensing for funeral and wedding cars.

There would be no scope for additional local requirements such as specific vehicle standards for mini-cabs or local knowledge with the introduction of minimum standards, but these would stay in place for taxis which can be hailed on the street.

The commissioner responsible for the review, Frances Patterson QC, said the proposals would “streamline and improve taxi and private-hire legislation”.

The document said that the law on taxis and private-hire vehicles is “fragmented, complex, and out of touch with 21st Century life”.

The new plan comes after peers called for the licensing of pedicabs in October 2011, to prevent them from becoming a hazard for other road users.

Tory Baroness Gardner criticised that the pedal powered tricycles in London, which can carry up to three passengers, sometimes “cut right across traffic”.

Many taxi drivers have also complained about them being dangerous, as many have no driving experience, licenses or commercial taxi insurance, making passengers unsafe. Some taxi drivers have also witnessed accidents.

Gardner explained that they posed “quite a danger” which could be tackled with proper regulation.

The current law was reviewed by the commission, which some of it dates back to 1831, and the consultation on its proposals will run to August.

Drivers are hired on a job to job basis, which gives customers access to hundreds of taxis within their vicinity. The CEO of Get Taxi, Neal Fullman, explains “Our whole philosophy is to give as much of this away to as many people for free as possible. We give the taxi drivers the unit which is worth £200. We don’t charge any subscription fees, unlike cab companies who charge £50-£60 per week to be on the books. We just charge a pay-as-you-go 10% on all account work and £1 on all cash jobs. No sign up, no contracts”.

The benefit of this pay as you go system is that drivers are free to do Get Taxi jobs at their convenience, and still continue to get business from regular customers who hail them. The CEO claims typical jobs can bring in between £20-£25 whereas Transport for London figures report the average hail for standard black taxis is £7-£13. Regardless of the average earnings of a taxi, all drivers will want to ensure they are covered with quality UK taxi insurance at a good rate.

Customers too can benefit from this advanced taxi service. Get Taxi eliminates the time spent on the phone, on hold to place a taxi order and waiting an unknown amount of time for the taxi. When an order is placed through the app the customer gets information on the driver such as their name, registration, estimated time of arrival and distance from you. It even features a live map so you can track the driver’s movements, similar to the map you see on a flight tracking the aeroplane’s movement towards its destination. Users then have the freedom to pay by cash or card which adds to the service’s great convenience.

GetTaxi is available to download on the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry and is currently live in London.

Taxi driver Jan Mohammad turned midwife on Tuesday. Samantha Fraser gave birth in the back of his cab after they were on their way Wexham Park Hospital.

Samantha gave birth to her 6th child in the back of Mr Mohammad’s Vauxhall Astra weighing, 6lb 2oz. In the taxi with her was her partners mother, Anne-Marie, she said “It was shocking.”
Samantha said, “He was due on May 3rd.

“I started getting my normal contractions. They were not coming that quick, about 5 minutes apart.

“We phoned for a taxi and thought we had plenty of time but he just decided to come straight out.”
Mr Mohammad drove them all to Wexam Park and they arrived there at 8am. She was met at the door by hospital staff that were already aware of what had happened. At the hospital baby Aaron is now known as “our car park baby”.

Jan Mohammad had to take the rest of the day off to recover from the events in the morning and to have his car cleaned.

This is not the first and won’t be the last time someone gives birth in the back of the taxi, although Samantha was lucky she wasn’t charged for the journey unlike Melissa Crosdale who gave birth in March. Not only did she have to pay £14 to the taxi driver just minutes after giving birth, she also faced a £40 soiling fee as her waters broke inside the cab.

Although giving birth in a taxi doesn’t cause actual damage to the vehicle it is always a good idea to have taxi insurance as you never know when you will need it, or what could happen inside your taxi!

The fee for a new one year licence has risen from £380 to £478, while renewal licences have gone up from £190 to £240. One way private hire taxis in this region can reduce the impact of these expenses is by finding a cheap private hire insurance quote.

Minicab drivers in the city are so angry with these increases that they’ve threatened to go on a one day strike. To show they were serious, a warning was sent directly to the council’s licensing department in Aston when 250 private hire drivers staged a protest outside their offices.

Joint Chair of the Birmingham Private Hire Drivers’ Group, Hakil Ahmed said, “All the council is concerned about is making the rules up as they go along. But there are things we can do try to make them change their mind. We’ve got a go-slow demonstration through Birmingham planned for June 1st and we can also do a withdrawal of service to show how essential our services are to the community.”

A spokesperson for the city council defended the renewal costs and explained the new prices affected drivers by adding just £1 per week to their expenses. “Compared to other expenses drivers incur, such as radio hire, fuel, insurance and vehicle servicing, this still represents a very small proportion of their total expenses.”

“All money gathered through licence fees is invested directly back into the service. This rise is necessary partly due to fees having been artificially frozen or increased only marginally over the past five years, and therefore not covering costs.”

Unveiled by Mayor Michael Bloomberg last weekend, the new bright green cabs are scheduled to be released on the city’s roads by June 2012

Known as ‘Boro Taxis’, the fleet of livery cabs will be allowed to pick up passengers outside of Northern Manhatten and Manhatten above East 96th and West 110th Streets. New Yorkers have said that the biggest problem with hailing a cab is outside of Manhatten, so Mayor Bloomberg hopes that the new cabs will make it easier for passengers.

Only yellow taxis were previously allowed to pick up passengers from outside Manhatten, which led to around 100,000 illegal hails happening each day. In February a law passed which allows the 7 million people living in areas outside of Manhatten to hail taxis, which led to the introduction of these new green cabs.

New York are issuing 18,000 Boro Taxi permits and in June the first 6,000 permits will become available. The permits will be valid for three years and cost $1,500 each.

Mayor Bloomberg said the new scheme will encourage “thousands” of “livery drivers” “out of the shadows and into the legal economy”. He said, “We went out to try to find something that would be recognizable…that would be distinguishable from the yellow cabs, and that would be pleasing to the eye and fit in with the city.”

The new green cabs will be equipped with roof lights signalling, credit card machines and meters, the same as yellow taxis. They will also cost the same as yellow taxis and the cost of commercial taxi insurance will also be similar.

At the beginning of April, the new mini-van style vehicle that has charging plugs for passenger’s electronics was also unveiled.

Managing Director of Surface Transport at TfL, Leon Daniels said “The court felt compelled to grant an injunction because of the substantial risk of Addison Lee taking action that could result in the law being broken. We maintain that Addison Lee’s instruction to its drivers was irresponsible and at odds with its position as a private hire operator. We maintain that allowing tens of thousands of Private Hire Vehicles to drive in bus lanes would impact on the reliability of our bus services, and risks inconveniencing our customers.”

While these latest developments appear quite clear, Addison Lee seems to have interpreted the ruling in a different way. On their website they have published their own press release today which is titled “TfL Fails in its Bid to Silence Addison Lee over Bus Lanes”. They explain that TfL has been forced to abandon their application for a mandatory injunction on Addison Lee withdrawing their bus lane instructions to drivers. Addison Lee view today’s ruling as a choice for their drivers, while their legal challenge of bus lane legislation continues. The private hire taxis that use the bus lane at present could put themselves and others at increased risk so they, like black cab drivers, need to ensure they are covered with taxi insurance.

It was acknowledged by the judge that the current legislation is “flagrant discrimination in favour of black cabs” and “gave black cabs a significant unfair competitive advantage causing private hire vehicle drivers significant loss”. The final decision related to bus lane legislation is hoped to be addressed before the Olympic Games begin on the 27th July.

The article was published in the ‘Chairman’s Column’ section of a magazine that is distributed to all Addison Lee customers, has angered many people in London. The London Cycling Campaign (LCC) has written to Griffin, to make him aware that a study by the independent Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) shows that the major cause of crashes involving adult cyclists is because of bad driving.

Even though motorists pay taxes on their vehicles, not the roads, Griffin said cyclists should pay the same taxes as motorists and undergo the same training, if they want to use the roads.

Griffin has already spent several days in the limelight, after he told his drivers to use the bus lanes and he’ll reimburse any fines. Although the Transport for London warned that drivers could lose their licences if they kept reoffending.

Mike Cavenett, LCC Spokesman, said that Griffin’s orders were more than likely going to encourage his drivers to behave irresponsibly, who will possibly lose their licence and private hire insurance. He said, “It’s hard to see how the government departments and corporate clients that currently use Addison Lee services can continue to do so without appearing to condone the chairman’s complete disregard for cyclist safety.”

Green Party candidate Jenny Jones said she would no longer use Addison Lee and was happy to support the campaign to boycott the company, and a spokesman for the Mayor of London’s re-election campaign said the comments were “irresponsible and unacceptable”.

Griffin said to the Huffington Post that he was glad his comments had made such an online storm and that he stood by his words that cyclists should have compulsory training.

However, he did release a statement later on, saying, “I accept that the tone of the article was perhaps a little too inflammatory. It was meant to entertain and generate debate, but the online reaction has obscured the main message that there are many inexperienced cyclists who need better training to be safe on London’s busy roads”.

In Edinburgh the latest plans to protect taxi drivers for aggressive passengers are said to include putting CCTV cameras in the vehicles.

The Edinburgh Licensed Taxi Partnership (ELTP) thinks that by adding cameras into the cabs it will cut down on all types of incidents that range from arguments over fares to verbal or even physical abuse.

The plans are going to be put forward later on this year to the council’s regulatory committee and if it is approved, drivers will be given the option of having the cameras installed or not.

The plans are to have 3 cameras installed in the cabs, with one in the front with the driver and two in the back with the passengers. It would cost the drivers £400 to have all three installed.

Drivers experience problematic passengers every week and the chair of ELTP, Les McVay believes many situations could be avoided or defused if the passenger knows they are being recorded.

Mr McVay, a 57 year old taxi driver who has worked for 32 years in Edinburgh says, “I have done nights for 30-odd years and I have had cracked ribs and a broken wrist. You go into all these areas without a thought.

“CCTV would help to protect the driver and the public. It would defuse a lot of hotspot situations – if somebody knows they are going to be recorded, they might think twice about taking the incident further.

“We are not trying to force this on anybody; it would just be an option for licence holders.”

Among the plans is information about who would be able to view the footage. The drivers themselves wouldn’t be able to watch it but the information would be passed onto a third party, possibly the police. The recordings would also have to be deleted too, possibly within 30 days.

Councillor Rob Munn, the convener of the regulatory committee says, “The safety of passengers and drivers is of paramount importance, so the committee will carefully consider any proposal aimed at promoting this.”

Sometimes taxi insurance isn’t enough to ensure your safety so the CCTV cameras will provide this extra level of security.

Addison Lee has instructed all of their 3,500 drivers to use bus lanes in the city and will pay out for any issued penalties, which is potentially £1,000 per offence. However, Transport for London has issued a warning that the drivers could face criminal prosecution and have their license taken off them, if they reoffended.

John Griffin, Chairman of Addison Lee, said “The current Bus Lane legislation is anticompetitive and unfairly discriminates against the millions of passengers that use Addison Lee. Minicabs perform the same function as black Taxis and are licensed by the same authority, so there is no reason that they should be penalised due to outdated legislation.”

Addison Lee was involved with the scrapping of the M4 Bus Lane in 2010, which saw 130 court summons and 200 tickets against the firm dropped, when the lane was closed.

Since the M4 Bus Lane closed, it has been reported by the Highways Agency that the overall accidents and journey times have decreased.

Addison Lee has already secured an official court review of the Bus Lane legislation later this year, but Mr. Griffin believes that in the mean time, Addison Lee drivers should be able to use the bus lanes whilst waiting for the review.

Mr Griffin said, “Black Taxis are not a public service, they are a business just like minicabs – and we will fight the injustice in the current legal system that subsidises them as if they provided a public service. The black Taxi produces 1.5 times the amount of CO2 and 44 times more PM10 toxins than our minicabs, contributing more than a third of all particulate pollution in London. They are more expensive and they often refuse to pick people up or go south of the river. Why on earth does our legal system treat them as any different to other private transport providers?”

Leon Daniels, Managing Director of Surface Transport, said. “The letter from the management of Addison Lee is utterly irresponsible. By issuing it, Addison Lee risk regulatory action against themselves and leave their staff liable to criminal prosecution. We have asked Addison Lee to withdraw their letter immediately. We are also writing to all Addison Lee drivers reminding them that repeated breaches of traffic regulations could see their licence to operate withdrawn.

“London’s bus lanes are in place to ensure the efficient operation of the bus network, which carries more than six million passengers a day. Allowing tens of thousands of Private Hire Vehicles to drive in bus lanes would seriously disrupt the bus network and our passengers’ ability to get around the capital.”

Transport for London is considering legal and regulatory action against the taxi firm and it working with the Met Police to target those unlawfully using bus lanes in London. It is also uncertain how private hire taxi insurance policies will be affected by the moves.