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Posts Tagged ‘private hire taxi insurance’

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Battle for Bus Lanes

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

A row has broken out between the UK’s biggest minicab firm Addison Lee and Transport for London.

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as black Taxis and are licensed by the same authority, so there is no reason that they should be penalised due to outdated legislation.”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.

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Claypath Residents and Taxi Drivers Angry with Outsiders

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

ClaypathCivic bosses have been accused of creating “a monster” by allowing outside cabbies to trade in historic city, say taxi drivers.

From 1st September 2011, Durham County Council deregulated the taxi trade, which allowed unlimited numbers of cabbies to operate in the city centre, despite the warning from cabbies’ leaders that it would result in chaos.

The residents in Claypath, Durham, have said that their lives are being ruined by cabs queuing in the early house of the day.

Now the situation will be even worse over Christmas, warns a taxi boss.

When cabbies from outside areas were given freedom to ply their trade alongside the city cabbies after deregulation, the city’s taxi driver warned of a “free-for-all”.

Chairman of Durham Independent Taxi Driver’s Association, Adrian Fets, said “We said that allowing a free-for-all into the city centre would be a disaster and we have been proved right. There are far too many taxis coming into Durham City from outlying areas which is causing gridlock. The county council has created a monster and it will get worse over the Christmas period. We get taxis into Durham from places like Peterlee, Easington, Stanley and Bishop Auckland.

“These outsiders think there is money to be made in Durham, but the truth is that they have to hang around for two hours to get a single fare. But the extra influx creates queues which are unacceptable to residents, and nobody can blame them.

“Who wants taxis parked outside their homes at midnight? The council has created this monster and doesn’t know what to do.

“At weekends taxis queue from Claypath right up to Hild and Bede College, and it will be worse over the next three weekends.”

Last Month, Joanne Waller, the county council’s head of environment, health and consumer protection, said that she hoped the introduction of mobile CCTV would help solve some of the problems.

Waller said, “While the deregulation has certainly solved some previous problems including people having to wait for long periods for a taxi in Durham City and instances of anti-social behaviour, there is more work to do in this area.”

Deregulation is also affecting the cabbie’s income as there is more competition from other taxi drivers, which certainly doesn’t help alongside the increased cost of fuel, private hire taxi insurance and service costs.

Corporate director for neighbourhood services, Terry Collins said, “The council and the police are continuing to work together to monitor the impact of the changes, which should have a positive effect on people visiting our city during this busy time. We hope these changes will help taxi users to leave the city centre with greater ease.”

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Cut Resistant Clothing for Cab Drivers

Thursday, November 24th, 2011

In our previous news posts, QuoteSearcher reported how taxi and private hire drivers have been victims of knife crime.

Following the increase of the number of brutal knife attacks on cab drivers in the UK, PPSS Group, a UK based manufacturer of certified stab vests and bullet proof vests, has now launched cut resistant clothing to help protect drivers when out on their job.

Robert Kaiser, CEO of PPSS Group, says “We believe that our high performance cut resistant clothing will help protect taxi drivers, who often work alone at night, dealing with potentially hostile and intoxicated members of the public.”

Kaiser is a worldwide respected expert in body armour and is recognised for his passion for personal safety and protection.

Taxi drivers and private hire drivers can choose from comfortable, smart looking and slash resistant windbreakers, sleeves, gloves and sweatshirts, to help keep them protected from knife attacks.

Kaiser explains, “A knife attack, which sees the radial artery, the carotid artery or the axillary artery being cut or slashed will under normal circumstances lead to a rapid blood loss and can subsequently lead to death,”

He adds, “We strongly believe knife and slash resistant clothing, shielding these four main arteries, should be available to all taxi drivers who frequently have o face racial harassment, aggressive complains about the fare and serious drunken disorders.”

The protective clothing is made out of the world’s market leading cut resistant fabric, Cut-Tex PRO, offering Blade Cut Resistance Level 5, which is the highest possible level. Conveniently, the garments are also machine washable.

It’s not just good private hire taxi insurance that drivers need to think about getting nowadays, as they need to look out for themselves, as well as their vehicles. With the increase of knife violence in the UK, the safety of cab drivers is paramount, as no one knows when someone violent will step into their cab and their job can take them to some places of great danger.

The groundbreaking fabric hopes to make driving safer, and is now also being used to manufacture cut resistant clothing for emergency services, police, military, private security professions, prisons as well as metal pressing and glass handling industries worldwide.

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Bus Lane on M4 Scrapped which Cuts 60 Seconds off Journey Time

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

Figures suggest that motorists in London on the M4 have shortened their journey times by shaving 60 seconds off their commutes after a controversial bus lane was scrapped.

The general public was able to use the motorway’s third lane again, after it was reopened a year ago, which was described by the then Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond as “a piece of folly”.

The impact of the bus lane’s closure will be reviewed by the Highways Agency, which will be published in 2012.
The interim figures were in a reply to a written parliamentary question.

Only motorcycles, buses and black taxis with private hire taxi insurance, were allowed to us the bus lane which ran for 3.5 miles between central London and Heathrow airport, which was introduced by John Prescott in 1999.

The bus lane earned the nickname the “Blair lane” after the former prime minister used it to avoid heavy traffic and during its 11 years, the bus lane was also criticised for rarely being used.

Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson called the lane as being “idiotic” and speaking last year, Hammond called it symbolic of Labour’s “war on the motorist”.

However, Prescott argued that research had proved that the bus lane reduced traffic jams along the M4.

An estimated cost of £400,000 since its closure, journey time savings for cars were “in the order of 60 seconds”, said the Transport Minister, Mike Penning.

The Highways Agency calculated this by comparing journeys captured on camera between January and June this year and the same time period in 2010.

The bus lane is going to be temporarily restored for the London Olympics in 2012, and then more likely scrapped altogether once the games has finished.

The head of road policy for the AA, Paul Watters, said “The bus lane was a symbol of an era that was trying to make motorists out to be an unnecessary evil on the road.”

Watters said it had failed to encourage new bus services to open up and that it merely relocated a queue.

He said that the 60-second saving for drivers was “marginal” and was happy to see it go.

“It’s more of a psychological benefit – they feel better not seeing some traffic sailing past them or an empty lane.”
However, he said that morning rush hour commutes into central London remained a lottery that it could only be solved by a major programme to increase road capacity.

“It would probably be worth doing in economic terms, but politically it would be considered a construction scheme too far.”

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Report on Taxi Faults is Flawed Claim Cabbies in Cardiff

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

New measures to improve the standard of Cardiff’s ageing black and white taxi fleet has been proposed, which cabbies in the city have criticised.

The proposal happened when Cardiff council licensing officers, tourists and the police reported that the standards of taxis around the city had fallen over the past year.

The number of cautions that were handed to cabbies about the conditions of their taxis has increased by 31% in 2011.

388 warnings for faults such as missing wheel trims, damaged bodywork and defective headlights were issued over the past 6 months, compared with 295 over the same period in 2010.

However, the people in the taxi industry have defended themselves and said that the faults were often ‘cosmetic’ which did not pose a risk to passengers or the public.

Cabbies also suggested that the evidence was “flawed” and accused the council of not understanding how the tough economic climate is affecting their livelihoods as there haven’t been many passengers using a cab service, which has an impact on keeping up with overheads like private hire taxi insurance. A committee of councillors have agreed to task Cardiff council officers with a task to come up with a list of proposals to bring the taxi fleet up to standard.

The amendments could comprise of lowering the initial licensing vehicle age restriction from 25 months and limiting testing of vehicles to only MoT garages that have been approved by the council.

Testing used to be carried out at the Cardiff Bus depot, until last year when that scheme was scrapped because of the extortionate prices that were charged by the company.

Another controversial proposal that was declined by the public protection committee, was to restrict all hackney carriage vehicles to purpose built black cabs.

Councillor Ed Bridges, the committee chairman, was one of the people that were in favour of standardising the taxis in line with the London style cabs, as he suggested that it would stop the confusion between private hire vehicles and hackney carriages.

Those councillors who opposed the suggestion said that there needs to be a selection of vehicles so passengers have ‘freedom of choice’.

Chairman of the Union of Taxi Drivers, Abdi Ahmed, said that councillors expected cabbies to improve their taxi vehicles but would not agree to a major taxi fare rise. Ahmed said “It’s a case of having your cake and eating it too.”

Mathab Khan, Chairman of the Cardiff Hackney Carriage Association, said “The report that was produced for the councillors was flawed.”

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Cab ride to the British Coast

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

A new taxi firm, Cross Street Radio Cars, gave a group of disabled adults a day to remember by taking them to a trip to Weston-Super-Mare.

The group, aged from 18 up to 80 years old, who are supported by a nationwide provider of services for people with diverse and often complex needs, Lifeways, were taken to the seaside for the day which was funded by the taxi company.

Mark Bicknell, one of the taxi drivers, whose sister Emma is supported by Lifeways, said he was eager to give the adults a break.

Bicknell said “We just wanted to give them all a day out, it’s a change of scenery, a new experience and it is quite stimulating in a lot of ways, and I know my sister has been really looking forward to it.”

One mini-bus, a fleet of nine cars and a bus were covered by private hire taxi insurance which were all donated by Swindon Car and Van Hire, took the group of 65 service users and their carers to the seaside, where they spent their day trip playing football on the beach, saw the recently transformed pier, visited the Ferris Wheel and saw the sand sculptures.

Caroline Brzezinski, service manager of Lifeways, said she was delighted to be approached by the taxi firm.

Brzezinski said, “Weston-Super-Mare will be a great day out, it is accessible for people with disabilities, it’s nice and flat for those in wheelchairs and they have been brilliant because they have given us lots of concessions.

“Everyone has been really excited about it,” She added.

Owner of Cross Street Radio Cars, Sat Nijjar, said drivers at his firm were more than willing to help out and give up their free time.

Nijjar said, “It is not about costs, how can you put a value on seeing these people smiling?
“We want to be a bit different to other taxi firms. Most are in it just for the money, but that’s not what we are about. A lot of this is about trust – these people are putting a lot of trust in us.

“We are definitely going to make this an annual event now.”

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