Big Drop In Driver & Taxi Vehicle Numbers, New Taxi Ranks & more
Today’s episode was the start of the relaunch of LCDCTV, which we will be broadcasting every week from our studio.
In today’s episode, we discussed the alarming rate in which driver, knowledge students and vehicle numbers within cab trade are dropping. It was rather ironic that Boris Johnson made a speech at conference where he confirmed his commitment to put an end to the low paid economy. But when he was Mayor of London, he oversaw the biggest transfer from a highly skilled taxi service rated the best in the world to a service that relied solely on cheap, low paid labour and in many cases subsidised by us and other UK taxpayers.
LCDC committee member, Danny O Regan spoke regarding the alarming fall of both driver and vehicle numbers. We see that during lockdown the vehicle numbers have dropped by 25% and we also lost a staggering 2,575 drivers. Danny goes on to explain the long term effects of the policies being introduced by Mayor Sadiq Khan, it is well worth a watch.
Next up was Alan McGrady, ranks and highways officer who goes into detail regarding new taxi ranks and the work and effort that goes in by the ranks and highways committee in obtaining both new rank spaces whilst also maintaining the current ranks. Alan also pointed out how some drivers abuse the feeder ranks such as the Shard for their own benefit, and therefore putting the ranks in jeopardy after the trade fought so hard to obtain them.
