Hi everyone, I thought I would share some past memories with you.

I met an old work colleague the other day his name is Tony aka @taxitony on Twitter, while ranking up on (padders bri,) thats the feeder rank for Paddington Station on Bishops Bridge Rd, he recognized me, I’ve seen him only once in the last 22yrs, he talked me into doing the Knowledge all those years ago, now I know his twitter tag I’ll give him a call some time.

The conversation the other night on Twitter,we started talking about the good old days and Johnny aka jt188chinesecab said to Greg aka @GBCINTHEVITO  and Paul aka @taximanpaul I remember when it was virgin trains and I was on DAC. They sent cabs to Watford junction, Northampton, coventry, Nuneaton, MK, Brum airport and new st. All sent from London. I got new st stn to sw3 one time. Best times ever to be on radio long gone and he said he can remember drivers working there arses off before doing shift on Virgin trains and just sleeping instead, those were the days.

Just to show you the diversity of my job, contrary to believe, we don’t get long jobs aka roaders  all the time, I picked up a young couple last week in the City, they wanted to go From Gresham St junc of prince’s St to the Guild Hall, I could see their destination, it was about two hundred yards up the road but they insisted in getting in, £2.80 on my meter and he gave me a fiver, how bad is that, I could do those all day long.

Another night I picked up 2 ladies from Chepstow Rd to Chippenham Terr W2, W&R for a free withdrawals ATM machine, £7:80 on my meter + £2 tip, they could have walked round the corner into Westbourne  Grove, I believe most ATM machines have free withdrawals these days, as they say, the customer is always right and who am I to grumble, It’s easy money when people want to throw it away, lol

I had one earlier, he asked if I knew dominion theater and said I’ve got a map and can show You, I said I’ll find it, he said it’s in the west end if that’s any help, I said thanks I’ll take a stab in the dark and guess, he did look worried, lol
Night and god bless.

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In a survey carried out by Hotels.Com, London cabs have beaten their rivals my quite a sufficient margin again.

Year after year London cab drivers have come top in a survey carried out by Hotels.com and have proven to be the best in the World, why is it then that London cabbies are treated with contempt by those in authority.

The world’s best taxis:
1. London – 28 percent
2. New York – 9 percent
3. Hong Kong, Tokyo – 7 percent
5. Singapore, Bangkok – 6 percent
7. Berlin, Helsinki, Dublin, Madrid – 4 percent.

The independent on Sunday

For the past 3 years or more London cabbies have been trying to stop T/PH  Taxi & private hire & TFL Transport for London from destroying the infrastructure from which cabs have always worked from.

Taxi drivers have always had a free run of the City and served Londoner’s well,that was until T/PH & TFL allowed Minicab satellite office to open.

By allowing this they have opened up a can of worms and made the risk factor for assaults and rapes very high, with only a handful of cab enforcement offices available, they cannot check the thousands of illegal minicab drivers touting the streets and venues.

The authorities are making things ten times worse by not officially allowing Taxis to rank outside those premises and when they do finally put a rank there it is normally in the wrong place, allowing Minicab’s to park illegally outside the door.

Most of London’s clubs,Restaurants,Hotels and Bars have these Satellite Minicab offices working from their premises and they pay the authorities a annual fee, so when you walk outside one of these premises your more  then likely to be touted/Hounded by one of their drivers, if that is the case then they are working illegally and you should report them to TFL

By allowing the authorities the power and Glory, they are  destroying the London Taxi trade as we know it, is for for the power the money, those people who control us should hold their heads down in shame.

Hi everyone,

It’s been really difficult recently to blog, with the run up to moving and my involvement with the RMT and now moving in to a new house,it’s been a bit hectic to say the least.

Back in July2011 I got my moving date and that was the 5th of August 2011, it has taken me since the beginning of May 2010 to finally sell and move.

After giving away my wardrobe,Freezer,cooker,washing machine,table,sideboard and corner unit, all of which wouldn’t have fitted in my new house, all I had to do was buy a new washer/dryer,cooker and hob, the rest of the house was ok and in good condition.In my new house there is a  fitted wardrobe in the main bedroom and the small room I use as an office as before in my old place, my garden is a lot smaller but that suits me, I will eventually turn it into a paved courtyard with potted grape vines,Olive trees and exotic plants and of course a water feature, hopefully thats all I will need to do, sounds great,doesn’t it.

I’m looking forward to visiting my brother Mark in New Zealand sometime in the next couple of years, so I need to start saving, I’m hoping to take my mum,son and friend with me.

Every day since moving it has been busy, not so much work wise but doing things round the house, just putting things in order and the never ending chain of mail coming through my door, change of addresses etc.

Moving on to my usual winge section.

Some cyclists are getting more careless on the roads, I’m getting more close encounters then ever, only last night, a cyclist turned up Kensington Church Street at the same time as me but on the wrong side of the road, no lights on and driving down the middle of the road, waving me on past but not looking to see if I acknowledged her.

one thing I hate is when cyclists use the pedestrian crossing in Hyde Park as a cycle lane, only last week a cyclist pulled in-front of me in Hyde Park, she didn’t even notice I was there.

It’s not always cyclists that drive carelessly, quite often I’ve seen Rickshaws  zig zagging down the road, no wonder people fall out and injure themselves, there seems more and more people jumping red lights, even Taxi drivers, a couple of weeks back a black cab nearly drove into me after jumping a red light.

I picked up a couple of guys in Kensington Church Street the other day, one of them asked me if I took credit cards, I told him I did,he then asked to be taken to the Charring Cross Hotel, so off we go,on our way there he was asking me lots of questions, one of which was why don’t all cab drivers have card machines, I would have thought anyone with an ounce of intelligence would be able to work it out, not he.

It was like an Spanish Inquisition,he didn’t shut up, when we reached Pall Mall East, he asked me to stop the cab and said he will walk the rest of the way,that nearly always happens these days,as soon as I reach a traffic jam, they want to depart.

He said what do I do now,this guy was playing games with me, he could not be that thick, I said put your card into the machine and follow the instructions, so he did but the wrong way round, when he finished putting in his details, he told me he was instructed to take his card out, even tho my reader in the drivers compartment said it was still Processing the transaction,for some reason I couldn’t take his card details, so he said can you now take me to a ATM machine, he suggested the one in Chandos Place.

Off we go, because of the heavy traffic round Trafalgar Square, I decided to reset my meter and treat it as a separate job, he asked what I was doing, I said I’m treating this as a second job because you need to get cast from a machine,it’s normal procedure, he said that he would only pay me the £14 on my meter, I said in that case I’ll take you to charring Cross Nick, he said ok then, it didn’t seem to bother him,you’ll understand later why. when we arrived at Chandos Place,where the nick is,coincidently, It’s where he wanted me to go to, for the ATM machine, he said again, if you want ,I’ll pay you £14 cash and thats all, being that I only clocked up a further £3 on my meter, I said I would take it.

When he payed me, I told him he was braking the law by not paying me the extra fare, he said it wasn’t his fault that my machine didn’t work,I said that doesn’t matter, you are still entitled to pay the full fare.

He and his partner raised their eyebrows as to say I’m wrong, he then flashed his police Warrant badge at me then walked off.

If I could have seen his badge no, I would have reported him.

Later on in Queens Gate I was flagged down by a young lady, she looked distressed, she began by telling me that her car was towed away and if I could help her find it, I googled and found a number for her to call, It’s the towed vehicle tracing service. 020 7371 5678. As I pulled away, she was pacing up and down the road,on the phone. Hopefully she found her car.

Two Minutes later, I was passing a cyclist, he was on the near side of the road, all of a sudden he stretched his arm out to turn right,that was before looking to see if there where any vehicles on his right, I was there, the idiot shouted something at me, then when he caught up at the top of the road he swore at me, I politely told him to go away.

Be Lucky out there.

A lesbian doctor has described how she was raped by a rickshaw driver after a drunken night out in London’s West End.

The woman, in her late 20s, said she could not remember the details about what happened.

She wept in the witness box of the Old Bailey as her video interview was played to the jury.

The woman said she had eight double Bacardis and a shot of sambuca at the GAY club and a bar in central London with a gay male friend.

They walked around the road closures near Tottenham Court Road in the early hours of Saturday February 5, this year, looking for a cab.

But she said the next thing she remembered was waking up in the cycle rickshaw.

The court heard that her friend asked the driver to stop so he could get out and go to the toilet. After this, the driver refused to let him back in and drove off.

The victim then asked to be dropped off at a cashpoint, and the driver did so before leaving, the court was told.

The prosecution allege that the driver, Murat Durmus, 23, returned a short time later, lifted the woman into the rickshaw, drove off and raped her near Tower Bridge.

Durmus, of Walthamstow, east London, denies two counts of rape, claiming sex was consensual.

Source press Association

Hi everyone, I’m back, not that you noticed I was gone in the first place, I recently  picked up this young Chinese couple in Kensington Gore, they asked me to take them to a pub in Ravens Ct Pk, Chiswick, I repeated to them the address, they said thats correct, on my way there driving down Ken Hi St,opposite the station, traffic came to a standstill, I took the opportunity to read my Twitter feed,I noticed from the corner of my eye, someone trying to push his way in front of me, normally I would let other vehicles go, not when they try forcing their way through tho, when the traffic cleared he managed to slip in-front of me,not that it bothered me, not until he wound down his window and threw a cup of  hot drink at my cab,lucky I noticed what he was doing and managed to stop the cab, he missed me, when I caught up with him at the next lights, I shouted some expletives at him, not that he was bothered, he just swore back.

I continued on my way, when I arrived at Ravens Ct Pk I asked my punter what was the name of the pub he wanted, he said it’s not exactly in Ravens Ct Pk but near it, I said where exactly is it then,after a short while, after he check his phone for details, he said it’s in Upper Mall, I said why didn’t you tell me exactly where it was in the first place, he said I thought you new where it was, he apologized and said do you mind taking me there, I said of course not, I’m not likely to leave you stranded, so back down the A4 and under the flyover so I can come back down the A4 West bound,a couple of hundred yards and we where there, he payed me off, no problem.

Conaught hotel,Carlos Place W1

More changes to London

On the left outside the Conaught Hotel in Carlos Place, a new water feature with steam,

It’s quite impressive, it livens up what used to be a bland corner of Mayfair.

Below Paddington Basin

A Snazzy looking bridge

It used to be a big hole in the ground but know Paddington basin has been turned into a serene place to visit.

Paddington Basin

Paddington Basin

This  is what London cabbie Brendan Fitzpatrick saw while driving up Shaftesbury Avenue.

Brendan says:

Friday 3.20 am I was pob going along shaftesbury Avenue, I  crossed cambridge Circus, there were two Rickshaws side by side both with passengers on and they started racing each other then the outside one suddenly Lost control and capsized ejecting a girl directly onto the Tarmac, I got out of my cab and tried to wave down a passing police car with his siren on to no avail meantime the Rickshaw riders were lifting the bike off the girl who at this stage was crying and howling and I could see blood on her forehead, I then rang 999 and requested police and ambulance to the scene while in  meantime the girl was moved to the pavement and traffic could move again, I don’t know if the emergency services turned up because I had to complete my fare.
This morning I have just read that three Arab girls fell out of one of these dangerous contraptions in Knightsbridge. This is complete madness and its just a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or even killed. The fact that it hasn’t happened already is a testament to the driving skills of the motorists who, at the cost of causing congestion are giving these third world deathtraps a wide birth.

RMT London taxi branch chalks up significant victory in fight against unlicensed and unsafe rickshaws.

I am glad to be able to report that RMT’s parliamentary group convenor, John McDonnell MP, has successfully objected to the TFL London Local Authorities Bill at its second reading, on the grounds that it would lead to the continued proliferation of unlicensed, unsafe rickshaws clogging up central London

The RMT parliamentary group objection means that the bill is now kicked back and will have to be presented again for second reading on September 6, at which point RMT will object again, and keep objecting until the final debate on the Bill is given.

RMT will use the breathing space to give us the leverage to force TfL to negotiate on the revised content of the bill and to take tough action against the spread of unsafe and unlicensed rickshaws.

We know that rickshaws are unsafe and increase congestion, and that there are no checks on who is fit and proper to operate them. If John McDonnell hadn’t taken decisive action on behalf of RMT taxi drivers it would have had dire consequences for passenger safety.

The clauses that TfL was trying to bulldoze through made little or no provision for statutory minimum standards or for checks to be carried out on the rickshaws, their riders or their operators. Nor would there have been any provisions for any training to be required or for compulsory registration.

It is shocking that TfL has refused to negotiate on this issue and is ignoring recommendations from parliamentary committees that a compulsory registration scheme for rickshaws and pedicabs should be explored.

RMT and its parliamentary group MPs will continue to fight on this issue to defend the licensed taxi trade against this attack on their livelihoods.

Bob Crow

RMT General Secretary

From time to time myself and Steve get into an argument over taxi drivers having to provide change to passengers. You know the story, a passenger gets in the cab, takes a £5 journey and then tries to pay with a £20 note and you don’t have the change. Steve maintains that a driver can take the £20 and write a cheque for the balance and the passenger has to accept it. I argue that it’s the driver’s responsibility to provide change since they are running a service and should be able to support the transaction. Being a cabby I’m sure you’ll fall on Steve’s side of the fence and blame the punter but if you went to Tesco and they didn’t have change you’d be a bit annoyed if they tried to pay you in clubcard vouchers.

At a BBQ that Del Boy very kindly invited me to last year the same argument came up so I decided to investigate the matter further and see who was right.

Interestingly neither of us are correct as there is no legal entitlement for anyone to provide change. If you go shopping and offer to pay for a product that cost £10 with a crispy new £20 note you are deemed by contract law to have offered to exchange the £20 note for the goods. The store does NOT have to provide you with change of the amount you offered for the goods. Of course if shops refused to give you change it would be commercial suicide and they would soon lose customers so change is offered as a courtesy not a legal entitlement to customers.

It doesn’t help you with the drunk on Friday night who is trying to pay with a £20 but at least you can leave the cheque book at home.

Tags: law, money