GMB PERSPECTIVE MORE STATION STIRRINGS FROM BRIGHTON
Once again we welcome Andy Peters, Secretary GMB Brighton & Hove Taxi Sec-
tion, with a New Year message to all:
So that is Christmas and New Year done and dusted, and we are now officially in the ‘Kipper Season’. This is taken from the idea that cab drivers could only afford to eat kippers at this time of the year when business slows down - which actually seems to be the trend throughout the year nowadays. But as I have made it a rule not to eat anything that comes with a face - even a flat one - I would rather eat cardboard.
If you have been able to spare the time to read my December article you will know of the issue with the Brighton Station rank moving from the front forecourt to the rear under the order of the council. This has had a massive effect on driver earnings being down some 30 per cent, which is also due to the loss of the footfall from what the council called the ‘Gateway to Brighton’ at the front for those 325 drivers.
These guys each pay Govia Thameslink Railways £900 per year for the privilege of accessing the station, giving GTR a whop- ping 300K extra income! However, a lot of permit holders are now vowing to refuse to renew in January. Priority at the front of the station is now dominated by the ‘Brighton & Hove Bus Company’ which is owned by the ‘Go Ahead’ company - which funnily enough also owns GTR.
Well, the saga continues to such an extent that the trade has now been handing out an information leaflet at the station, and also has a petition for the public to sup- port and leave comments on - which has now reached 1,000 signatures! PHTM has seen some of the comments from train passengers; they’re scathing, to say the least.
The main aim is to give everyone the opportunity to have a central point to air their views and there are loads of derisory comments about this chaotic situation with train passengers complaining about the higher fares and lack of facilities... such as getting soaking wet! As a potential train user you would have the right to sup- port and sign it as well, which can be accessed via
bhtaxinews.cab/brighton-
38
get ‘Predominant Cross Border Hiring’ under control via an ‘Intended Use Policy’ that can currently and legally be applied to a hackney carriage, to be applied to both the PHV and the operator licence as well.
station. Our petition actually caught the eye of ITV so you can see some of our ugly mugs there too.
BACK IN TOWN…
We also have major problems with a new rank in the city centre that we have been after for a long time. We finally got a night time rank in Church Street at the heart of a great footfall, but so far it has been used as parking space for private cars, vans and – yes, you guessed it - Uber OOT’s (out of towners) from all over the south coast. This has caused an enormous amount of friction in the trade because to add insult to injury, we also have Uber private hire ‘ranks’ in places where we would like to have official ranks ourselves.
To add even more insult to injury we have now seen a steady increase of hackney car- riages not licensed by our council coming into the city working under Uber joining these unofficial Uber ranks in prime loca- tions. It really is getting worse by the day here.
CROSS BORDER HIRING
Or by any other name that it needs to be called... and I suggest it is now called some- thing like ‘Predominant Cross Border Hiring’ to get it into its correct perspec- tive... has been the biggest issue affecting towns and cities throughout the UK. With Labour losing the election, what hope do we really now have with fixing a very bro- ken issue? - because as in all my articles this past year about OOT’s predominantly working here, this has now become an epi- demic plague in the city and across the country.
We can now only really rely on Labour MPs such as Wes Streeting, who has managed to be re-elected, to carry on the fight and
And yes - make the operators fully respon- sible for predominantly using PHV’s not licensed in the area in which they are work- ing. This will allow for natural cross border hiring to continue as it always has done, but at the same time stops drivers getting a licence in a soft area with lower standards with the full intention of predominantly working in an entirely different area.
Because of the epidemic of Uber OOT’s predominantly working here, the Brighton & Hove Taxi Trade Forum made up of trade reps has united in supporting the stance that we will not accept any further enhancements to our ‘Blue Book of Licens- ing Conditions’.
This includes the notion of having compul- sory credit card readers that the council has now been looking at enforcing on the trade from a recent suggestion put to the council. Whilst we believe that all cabs in the city should have card readers to give a better service to the public, we consider that mak- ing it compulsory has many problems which we have put to the council and we are wait- ing for a full response to these points.
The trade reps have stated no more enhancements to our ‘Blue Book,’ all the time that Uber actively encourages OOT’s to predominantly work here unaccountable to local licensing along with forming bla- tantly obvious Uber ranks in the city. Why should we be forced to pay for expensive compulsory CCTV when the OOT’s do not have to do the same; let’s not forget that Uber has always been anti-CCTV.. and that is official, straight from the mouth of Fred Jones himself!
So to all of you in the trade over ‘Kipper Season’ I wish you good luck with this notorious delicacy... I will be sticking to cardboard and water... or possibly a Mar- mite sandwich.
Andy Peters Secretary GMB Brighton & Hove Taxi Section
andy.peters@
gmbtaxis.org.uk
JANUARY 2020
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