LTDA: “We don’t want to see fleets of licensed ‘UBER-SHAWS’ roaming the streets plying their trade”

What started out as harmless fun, pedalling the odd tourist around the pedestrianised confines of Covent Garden, has now turned into a nightmare. Rickshaws are without a doubt a scourge on our streets.

The Problem

Rickshaws, or pedicabs as they are also called, cause massive congestion, with London’s traffic queuing up behind them, as they travel at little more than walking pace on major roads. They congregate in large numbers outside theatres, shops and restaurants, blocking the entrances and exits. They also park on the pavements outside, forcing pedestrians to negotiate the traffic, as they walk in the road to get around them. They do all of this whilst making a nuisance of themselves playing extremely loud music in the early hours of the morning and disrupting local residents.

The rickshaw riders are also forced to charge exorbitant sums to recoup the high rental fees the operator’s charge them for the use of the bikes. There have been reports that the cost of getting in one of these death traps can be £500 from Harrods to Marble

Arch, and I have no doubt that there are many members of the public, who have been ripped off.

Ban

The LTDA has campaigned hard to get rid of these rickshaws since 2012 and we continue to push for a ban in every meeting and forum we can. They should have been removed from our streets a long time ago, when there were only about 100, but after decision makers ignored the problems for so long, there are now thousands, committing offences on the streets. All that was needed was for someone to put their heads above the parapet and act. Sadly, the authorities largely continue to look the other way. There is the occasional clamp down, with fines issued here and there, but only when things get really bad.

The LTDA produced a report on rickshaws, which looked at the dangers associated with travelling in them and highlighted the need for a ban to protect the public. Findings from safety tests included in the report, warned that “any impact with a motor vehicle” was likely to result in “serious injury to both passengers and riders”. It also showed that the standard of braking for a rickshaw “fell well short of that expected of a car”. Now, things are worse. Many rickshaws are powered and can reach speeds up to 30mph. Imagine if one was carrying a passenger and was involved in collision with a motor vehicle at that speed, it would surely have a devastating outcome.

Failing to act

Unfortunately, the ‘free market’, anti ‘red tape’, Conservative government’s since then, have routinely refused to act and the councils and TfL’s hands are tied, as they don’t have the powers they need to act. Any ban would need to come from the top (the Department for Transport).

Now, instead of the ban that we need, there is talk about the government introducing legislation to licence pedicabs. When the then Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps MP, first suggested that it was “high time” to crack down on their activities and bring in new laws to control the “wild west” of unlicensed rickshaws in central London, many in the trade were outraged. ‘Licensing? Madness,’ they thought, ‘that’s the last thing we want!’ I do agree. We don’t want to make them a legitimate and credible part of our transport network, with passengers being encouraged to use them.

But, if we can campaign for the licensing conditions to be so tough that they deter individuals and operators from entering the market, then we can maybe curb them once and for all. The idea being that we can make it so difficult to become a pedicab rider or operator and so tightly controlled, that it’s not worth it and there is no money in it.

Nickie Aiken, the MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, who brought forward these proposals, has been campaigning on pedicabs for years. She is very much on our side and also recognises they are a scourge on our city. She, like us, doesn’t want to see fleets of licensed Uber-shaws or something similar, roaming the streets plying their trade. But she has recognised that there is not enough support for an outright ban and that done properly legislation and regulation, could eventually take these dangerous, disruptive cowboys off our streets once and for all.

Better than nothing?

As it stands, I do struggle to see how licensing would even work. Would the individual rider need to go through the same licensing process as taxis, including completing a criminal records check and a tax check providing an HMRC code? Would they receive fines and penalties like other road users for breaking the rules of the road? Would they be able to use bus lanes?

We still believe a ban is what’s needed, but if licensing is the only thing on the table, then alongside pushing for a ban, we need to make sure that any licensing conditions being developed are so strict, that it becomes almost impossible to get a licence, and that it is no longer a viable business to be in.

Article written by Anthony Street, Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association (LTDA) Executive. First appeared in TAXI Magazine.