There is much talk of work levels picking up, which is great news and hopefully it will remain so. But, beneath the good news of work levels, there is an “ elephant in the room” that needs addressing if the trade has any longevity and that is the Monopoly of vehicles that we have to endure. Now I like the TXe, it looks nice, I’m told it drives lovely and importantly, the public love it too….. so whats the problem?
This all stems from having a Regulator that doesn’t know “our” business.
During the ULEZ meetings, we were promised 5 taxis… we have one. We was also promised “so many charge points, you would fall over them”.
Neither have materialised and as the LCDC stated more than once to Tfl “ You cant make policy on promises”…. but they did and did not care about the repercussions for the cab trade as it was all to fulfil the Mayors green credentials. We should have been allowed to carry on buying diesel E6 taxis until 2020 and in that time Tfl should have increased charge point numbers, instead they put the “cart before the horse”. Mushers face a dilemma but when London’s largest fleet, Colts Cabs come out criticising both the service and build quality of LEVC, we should all be worried.
