So yet more scenes of mayhem and carnage on London's streets as pedestrians are mown down outside the Natural History Museum.
Let hope all those injured make a full recovery but we can be sure the event will haunt them forever, today the accident investigation teams will have the cameras and tapes out doing their job, but if you really want to stop recurrence you have to deal with the root causes.
1. The practice of accepting hirings (I won't insult your intelligence by calling them a pre booking) whilst in a moving vehicle must cease forthwith, it isn't safe UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. No more platitudes and weasel words BAN IT TfL.
2. The exhibition of vehicles available for hire (Eastbourne case refers) was, is and will remain plying for hire, it's this mechanism that causes job offers to appear on a screen so that a driver has to interact with a screen within seconds when their eyes should be on the road, as above BAN IT TfL!
3. The nonsense (only in London by the way) that a PH registered vehicle can be driven by a non PH licensed driver, bearing in mind the shocking rates paid to drivers this leads to the inevitable use by 'cousins, uncles and brothers' driving these vehicles and undertaking bookings or as we know Plying for Hire via an app.
Again stop this now by as a first step introducing fleet insurance & secure recognition logins whilst the law is amended.
Why do you think some operators are spending millions on lobbying to prevent fleet insurance rules, withdrawal of 'on screen ranks', or booking time limits or even the simple provisos of a telephone line, NOTHING BUT NOTHING must get in the way of the 25% cut that goes offshore.
TfL as a last resort after an operator was given ample time to up its game decided to not renew a licence, followed by a maelstrom of comment from ill informed politicians who if they purport to be even half competent should have researched even a tiny bit, but hey why let the facts obstruct political point scoring?
So citizens there we have it a stark choice.
Do we have a set of rules, conditions and standards that protect the public and uphold the declared intent of TfL, the Mayor & government for a two tier Taxi & PH system that is safe
OR WE CARRY ON LICENSING TO KILL.
Some in the trade fight shy of parallels with other tragedies, but as anyone who has seen the smouldering tomb of Grenfell Tower and will never forget it, knows that it's a failure of regulation, enforcement and standards that have led to so many deaths.
So let's ignore all the 'free trade & consumer choice' bogus arguments that don't withstand even a moments scrutiny and I probably suspect that as deaths and serious injuries only occur a few at at time, it’s somehow acceptable!
What kind of city do we want?
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