76 PRIVATE HIRE AND TAXI MONTHLY
SECURITY STAKEOUT
CCTV SUPPLIERS EYE NEW MARKET AMONG MANCHESTER TAXI FIRMS
Taxi drivers in Man- chester have been given the green light to install CCTV cameras in their cabs, but the cost of almost £1,000 per car could make it hard to sell.
The city’s licensing and appeals committee has found three potential suppliers of approved technology after a six- month consultation with private hire firms, hackney carriage oper- ators, trade unions and CCTV firms.
The systems must be able to store images for at least seven days, be able to identify a person in low light and comply with the Euro- pean industry standard.
Knutsford-based Screen Media Group
Ltd, one of the three suppliers, has estab- lished a new company, Cab Secure Media Ltd, to sell its system which uses a camera in the rear view mirror. It is linked to a touch- screen in the car and a media player ID data storage device in the boot which uses a removable 3G card. David Williams, a direc- tor of Cab Secure Media, said the screen would display adverts and information which could be tailored to each borough of Greater Manchester. Williams is looking to sell the £900 system to a quarter of the 6,000 drivers licensed by the city council as well as targeting fleet opera- tors in London.
“We’re looking for big unit sales,” he told Crain’s Manchester Business.
“If we achieve volume sales we can start look- ing at ways to lower costs. It is UK-pro- duced currently, but we could look at getting the screens from China to lower costs. If adver- tising revenue from the screens is high, that could bring the cost down too. “We know we probably won’t be dealing with individual cabbies. We want to target local authorities, fleet own- ers or corporate buyers who would use it for in- car advertising. There are 50,000 taxis in Lon- don and I think putting this system in 5,000 of them is achievable.”
Other suppliers on the list include Salford- based CSI Manchester Ltd and Vehicle Inte- grated CCTV Systems Ltd based in Trafford Park. Their systems were said to meet the minimum specifica- tion. George Simms, secretary of the Man- chester- based Taxi Owners and Drivers Association, said the cost was too much for owner-drivers, who account for 90 per cent of Manchester taxis.
He added: “We had a trial scheme with some CCTV equipment sup- plied by Chubb a few years ago. Six cabs ran it and then we were offered it for £1,500. Nobody bought one. You might get the odd
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nervous driver installing it, but in gen- eral, the cost would just be too much for most.” Paul Blackmore, opera- tions director of Radio Cars (Manchester) Ltd, supports the idea but said the price needed to be in the low hun- dreds at most. “You can’t argue with it in terms of improving
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driver and public safety but at around £1,000 it just isn’t going to appeal to most drivers and a fleet owner prob- ably wouldn’t invest £1,000 a car across 20 vehicles,” he said. The city council believes that CCTV would encourage would-be drivers who are deterred by the risk of being attacked.
MARCH 2009 Public Hire&Taxi Drivers
DOSOME OF YOUR PASSENGERS TRY TOAVOID PAYING THE FARE?
CCTV CRUCIAL AFTER BRIDLINGTON CABBIE BITTEN
CCTV footage taken from a Bridlington taxi has led to the prosecu- tion of a teenager who bit a driver. Ken Smith was bitten three times on the chest after his passen- ger tried to run off without paying. Now, Benjamin Lumby, of Hastings Walk, Bridlington, has been sentenced to communi- ty service, a curfew and has to pay damages after pleading guilty to the attack. The 19-year-old is the first person to be taken to court using CCTV footage from a taxi camera.
The system was installed as part of a six-month trial by ten of the town’s taxis.
Lumby was one of three passengers picked up by Mr Smith at the rank in Prome- nade. He said: “When
we got to their destina- tion, the two lads said they did not have any money. “After a bit of arguing, a woman who was with them eventually paid. “I was in the middle of a three-point-turn trying to leave when one of the lads reached in through the open win- dow and snatched my glasses.
“I chased and caught him and he bit me three times on the chest before threatening to bite my nose off. “The other passenger then stepped in and picked me up off the floor.
“The CCTV helped police see exactly what happened instead of it being one person’s word against another’s. Magistrates in Bridling- ton sentenced Lumby to a community order until July 31, a five-
month curfew between 8pm and 5am each night and 220 hours’ unpaid work.
He was also ordered to pay £500 damages to Mr Smith and £60 costs for the assault, which happened in November last year.
Chris Chapman, Hum- berside Police licensing officer for the East Riding, told the Hull Daily Mail: “We are delighted with the result of this case. “The equipment avail- able to the taxi drivers offers them a good level of support.
“This system works. The assault was caught on CCTV and the offender has been prosecuted.
“I hope this sends a message out to other taxi users that this sort of unacceptable behav- iour will not be tolerated.”
LEICESTER DRIVERS CALL FOR CCTV TO PROTECT THEM
About ten taxi drivers a month are suffering vio- lent attacks by angry customers, it has been- revealed.
Drivers’ union leaders are now calling for help from council bosses to install CCTV cameras in the city’s cabs.
Manjit Judge, chairman of the Leicester Black Cabs Association, told the Leicester Mercury that “vulnerable” driv- ers need to be given more protection against aggressive passengers. Mr Judge said that each month about ten drivers report attacks by pas- sengers, although the figure for January was higher. He said that of those reported, on aver- age, at least one driver will need hospital treat- ment.
In the last few weeks he has been talking to Leicester City Council about the possibility of
obtaining funding to install a camera in every taxi in the city. He said: “Taxi drivers are on their own and if a group of people attack them there isn’t much they can do. “There is a lot of verbal abuse, but drivers don’t think it is worth making a complaint. It’s the same with passengers who just kick taxis or ones that run off without pay- ing, that happens a lot. “It’s very worrying and it is starting to happen more often at the week- end. I think the only thing to stop the attacks is for CCTV to be installed in all
taxis.People would not do these things if they knew they could be caught on camera.” In one attack, Syed Kazmi, 63, was knocked unconscious and repeatedly kicked as he lay on the floor after picking up two
men from the Quebec nightclub, Belgrave gate, in January. And on the same night, cab- bie Muhammad Asghar, 48, said he “felt help- less and trapped” as three men hurled paving slabs and road- works signs at him. Mike Broster, head of licensing for the city council, said he had been discussing the option of CCTV. He said: “Taxi drivers are in a very vulnerable posi- tion so we will see what we can do, but our resources are limited. “We’ve trialled the scheme before and it was a success, but afterwards the drivers said they didn’t want to pay for it themselves.” Police have arrested a 29-year-old man in con- nection with the criminal damage caused to Mr Asghar’s taxi.
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