RMT is demanding that Transport for London stamp out illegal taxi touting in London.
The union has demanded that every Private Hire Operator must have an IT booking system approved by TfL that receives bookings with details of the driver, passenger, destination and any other key details.
TfL can bring this about very swiftly by making it a condition of licensing without any legislation and it end fictional scribbled ‘instant’ pre bookings outside venues that flout the law
and in effect ensure the passengers are uninsured and vulnerable travellers and road users put at risk.
It will also break the links between corrupt door security staff, predatory drivers, organised crime, drug dealing, money laundering and much else.
The union is insisting that private hire businesses operate within the law and enforcement authorities have a clear ‘audit trail’ of all bookings made in advance available in real time.
This would protect legitimate operators and preserves the Taxi
trades hard won right to ‘Ply for Hire’.
It also ensures that all licensed PH drivers are working for an operator and those not so liable for the congestion charge etc., as all work must come through an operator, they can’t be working legitimately.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that RMT London taxi branch had put forward a simple solution to end the dangerous scourge of illegal private hire activity and it can happen now without waiting for the long- delayed Law Commission Draft
bill.
“There is everything to gain
for the law abiding citizens and visitors to this great city of stamping out these dangerous practices by adopting RMT’s proposals.
“The only losers are those with criminal intent.
“The question has to be asked why those with the power are resisting moves to clean up the trade and clamp down and what we know is happening out there on London’s streets night after night in the West End and beyond,” he said.
Latest issue of the RMT news is now online at : http://goo.gl/yyROo
What about in the case of London minicabs ?
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