Taxi drivers are celebrating today having won a victory over “pedicabs”, preventig a new bill coming through Parliament from allowing them to use taxi rank spaces alongside their black cab brethren.
The London Local Authorities Bill does a number of things including allowing local authorities to hold premises responsible for litter they create,enabling the seizure of hot dog trolleys, and regulates selling your car off the street on the internet. The Bill also seeks to give Transport for London a number of powers around introducing electric vehicle charging points and recovering costs from developers for damage to the highway following remedial works.
The RMT, who represent some taxi drivers, today announced that the proposers of the London Local Authorities Bill have been forced to withdraw the clause which would have enshrined the right to register pedicabs and provide them with taxi rank spaces. They state that “If the Bill with the offending Clause had been enacted it would have meant the introduction of a fully-fledged licensing and right to ply for hire regime for pedicabs, undermining the tightly-regulated licensed taxi trade.”
RMT General Secretary Bob Crow, in uncharacteristically bombastic mood, said that “The idea that someone on a lashed together pedicab should enjoy the same rights as a taxi driver who is tightly regulated on the grounds of both safety and knowledge is one that RMT taxi branch has fought tooth and nail alongside our parliamentary convenor John McDonnell… However, we are well aware that the pedicabs have a history of bending and breaking the law and of flouting public safety and the RMT campaign to get them off the streets of London altogether will continue.”
If the union’s campaign to abolish pedicabs altogether is successful we will be sure to let you know.
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