CAPITAL NEWS INDEFINITE ASBO FOR ILLEGAL LONDON CAB DRIVER
Shaffique Uddin, from Ilford, appeared at Highbury Corner Mag- istrates’ Court in August charged with possession of cocaine, and was fined £65. The 53-year old was also handed an indefi- nite Anti-Social Beh- aviour Order (ASBO), to stop him from tout- ing, sought by the Metropolitan Police Service’s Cab Enforce- ment Unit (CEU). Uddin was originally arrested when officers from the CEU were carrying out plain clothed patrols in Great Queen Street WC2. Police officers
spotted Uddin ap- proaching members of the public. He was stopped and searched and found in posses- sion of cocaine. In court the CEU pro- vided substantial evidence of his previ- ous history of touting. This included informa- tion of a conviction on 3 June this year for touting and driving with no insurance, which resulted in him being disqualified from driving for three months.
The ASBO also pro- hibits Uddin from applying for a private hire or hackney car-
riage licence indef- initely, as well as dis- playing any sign in his car which would lead members of the public to believe that he is driving a licensed cab. Steve Burton, Director of Community Safety, Enforcement and Policing, said: “This ASBO is a very encouraging result and should serve as a reminder to touts that police officers are out there cracking down on this illegal activity. We are working with the police and other partners to lobby for the strongest penal- ties for touting.”
LUCKY DRIVERS OF BRANDED CABS GET TRIP TO SAINT LUCIA
The Saint Lucia Tourist Board recently an- nounced the renewal of its contract with Ubiquitous which will see their eight brand- ed taxis on the road for a further 12 months. To celebrate this 12- month renewal, the taxi drivers - whose vehicles are branded with the tourist board logo and a backdrop showcasing the island’s majestic Piton Mountains - were invit- ed on a special trip to Saint Lucia to experi- ence the island they are promoting first hand.
Approximately 60 pas- sengers ride in any one London taxi every day, so the aim of the trip is to provide each driver with a wealth of knowledge about the island which they can then share with their passengers. As part of this trip, the taxi drivers will be provid- ed with special offer flyers from their host hotel, St. Lucian by rex resorts, to hand
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MINICAB DRIVER ‘HAD HEROIN IN BOOT’
A minicab driver who was allegedly found with more than £200,000 of heroin in his boot was taken crying from the dock after being accused of possession with intent to supply.
The Southwark News reports that, Segun Idris-Oloko, 42, was pulled over by police when he drove in a bus lane on August 25 at Newington Causeway. It was alleged that offi- cers then found 6kg of
the class A drug in his car.
Idris-Oloko, from Hat- field, was remanded in custody until Septem- ber 23.
No plea was taken, but he indicated that he would deny the charge.
IN LONDON, A VIRTUAL TAXI STAND VIA TWITTER
One of the eight branded London taxis
out to passengers back in London. The collateral will be given out in the taxis from 1st October - 30th November 2010. In order to qualify for the trip, the taxi drivers answered various questions on Saint Lucia which covered basic facts on the island as well as activ- ities and special events. Patricia Charlery-Leon, Director of Marketing UK and Europe for the Saint Lucia Tourist Board, said: “Over the last 12 months our contract with Ubiqui- tous has proved to be
a valuable marketing tool and we’re delight- ed to announce that the tourist board will continue with this mutually beneficial partnership.
“This relationship has provided us with a unique marketing opportunity to pro- mote Saint Lucia via word of mouth across the capital, helping to support our objectives in reaching our key target market in Lon- don and the sur- rounding areas.”
For more information on Saint Lucia, visit
www.stlucianow.co.uk
London’s black cab drivers are famous for having to learn the knowledge. However, over the last few months, a small sec- tion of cabbies has started to add another tool - Twitter - as a way to make it easier for drivers and customers to find each other. For now, organisers say @tweetalondon- cab is the only tweetable cab service in the United King- dom, and possibly even the world. “We got quite a few requests asking us if we’d take ‘tweet’ bookings,” said Lee Cox, one of the organ- isers. “Two of the guys decided to give it a go and that’s how @twee- talondoncab was born.”
It all began in early 2010 as just another online social network community: a Twitter group for London taxi drivers to chat and share information about work opportuni- ties and hotspots, traffic and road-works, bargain car part stores and coffee-break meet-ups. But the account soon attract- ed followers who were cab users rather than cab drivers.
There are now 115 members of the col- lective, which is managed entirely by the drivers. So far, they have over 8,000 followers and 100 reg-
ular clients - that’s still an extreme minority of the 25,000 licensed black cabs in the Eng- lish capital. At the moment, Cox says that only about five per cent of his business comes in through Twit- ter, but he adds, it’s growing at a rapid pace. For the hundreds of people who use the service, the booking system works by prospective cus- tomers following @tweetalondoncab’s Twitter account, which then follows them back. After that, they can send a direct mes- sage with details of their request. “We use direct mes- sage because it’s more secure and ensures privacy,” Lee Cox told Deutsche Welle. “Nothing is passed on the open Twitter streams that people can see so no- one knows where you’re going to and from.”
The drivers aren’t sending the tweets directly from the cabs. The cabbies in this group take turns doing online shifts at home, reading incoming messages and then passing on the rele- vant ones to the drivers.
Lee Cox himself does five two-hour stints a week at home in front of his computer but says the investment of
personal time is well worthwhile for the cus- tomer feedback they have been getting. Cox noted that offer- ing this kind of personal service can build relationships in a way that a traditional, anonymous taxi stand or automated phone line can’t.
“[Customers] like to know that they’re hav- ing a conversation with a group of people rather than a machine, it’s not just an auto- mated response.” As the number of tweet requests grows, the cab drivers are looking for more effi- cient technological ways of streamlining the booking system. That’s why they organ- ized a “cab camp” in London on October 1, to which they invited a number of social media and IT profes- sionals.
Lee Cox and his col- leagues hope to learn more about existing potential technological solutions to simplify their work and improve the service. “There’s such a lot of information revolving around the geo-loca- tion that you get from your phone now,” he said. “So we physical- ly know where the cab driver and the cus- tomer [are], so just the ability to link those two together would itself make it much more productive.”
PHTM OCTOBER 2010
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