Boycott Addison Lee

Can you get AL to reinforce section 163 of the Highway Code in their training?

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/travelandtransport/highwaycode/dg_070314

Can you get AL to reinforce section 163 of the Highway Code in their training?

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/travelandtransport/highwaycode/dg_070314

Yes this is a core element of the cyclist awareness training

[QUOTE“Addison Lee follows up every complaint about our drivers where we can identify the vehicle involved. We would encourage cyclists to send any complaints to us by email or even Twitter – we look at them all, including the videos and act on them with our drivers. Driver training for both new and existing drivers is a big focus for the company and we’re also working to address cyclist safety / awareness specifically.”[/QUOTE]
Cliveo, did you get a recording of your incident?
Sorry if already mentioned.

He couldn't, said something about using a camera to record his murdering spree across the wasteland that is known as Old Street.

I met with Addison Lee's PR Head and health and safety Manager this morning looking at working with them on cycle training and cycle awarenss training with their drivers. They have been working on setting this prior to the recent events and did contact LCC regarding this a while ago. They currently do have an element of cyclist awarenss information in their driver diploma training.

They wish to communicate the following:

I met with AL a few months back to discuss a proposition with regard to PR and cycle safety and I found them to be pretty canny.

Can't help but think that the PR team are having the worst few weeks of their careers thanks to Mr Griffin.

Oh and if you fancy a slice of the action, they're recruiting for a deputy PR manager at the moment :D

They wish to communicate the following: [quote]“Addison Lee follows up every complaint about our drivers where we can identify the vehicle involved. We would encourage cyclists to send any complaints to us by email or even Twitter – we look at them all, including the videos and act on them with our drivers. Driver training for both new and existing drivers is a big focus for the company and we’re also working to address cyclist safety / awareness specifically.”
[/QUOTE]
Or, just contact the police directly to ensure any appropriate fines are meted out.

I find myself a little jaded. There is no basis for us trusting the word of a company that encourages criminal behaviour (driving in bus lanes) that they would do as they say and follow up.

The only way I'd believe it would be if their complaints process was transparent. Literally, that every complaint is published in an online database... anonymised to protect the complainee and driver, but showing the communication, and conclusion.

In the age of the internet, it's not good to have a closed box complaints procedure, especially as a company that goes out of it's way to break the rules is hardly a company to be trusted to follow even it's own rules.

Agreed. Incidents should be reported to AL and to the police. This way they can't hide behind their internal corporate governance or lack thereof.

Lets see how much influence JG's management team have. He should be getting a bit of a slapping from them at the moment if the company is structured soundly.

I base this purely on speculation based on consultancy assignments at large successful family run businesses rather than any fact but I would not be surprised if his children (who are all involved at a senior level) are tearing their hair out over what is happening.

Its a difficult thing to step aside, retire and hand your company to your children but if you don't notice when your finger is no longer on the pulse there may be no business for your children to inherit when the time comes.

I'd provide some examples if I wasn't NDA'd to the eyeballs.

Given that AL drivers take the branded car they rent home with them when they are not working etc surely they shouldn't be allowed to claim preferential self employed tax status.

I agree with this, but HMRC have a different view.

http://www.movingtargetzine.com/article/could-it-happen-here-would-it-be-a-good-thing

Here's an open letter an angry londoner sent to Addison Lee http://imgur.com/qy16y

Good article Bill

Good reads!

Petition signed!

Here's an open letter an angry londoner sent to Addison Lee http://imgur.com/qy16y

We should all print this out and send it, clog their mail up.

report on Today R4 now

On R4 Today now...

Oh Sustrans... why were they picked to speak?

And I have no intention of "revisiting my relationship" with John Griffin...

The business line.oh yes.that's original.fairness.

Too short.not enough guts in the questioning.

Put him on a bicycle, tie him to the back of one of his cars and have it take him for a long ride on some busy bus lane in London. Don't know where this idea came from but seems a good one... Mind you I am flipping I'll at the moment so nothing and yet everything makes sense to me...

The R4 interview was rubbish. When sustrans rep made the point about his comments on cyclist deaths, Evan Davies / the reporter said something like 'we've covered that now, let's move on' when it hadn't been discussed properly, and then went back to the bus lane debate. If I was Evan Davies I would have said something like 'when you make what are widely considered to be disgusting and irresponsible remarks about the right to life of other road users, why should we take seriously your other concerns? How are they legitimate in this context?'. The two are intrinsically linked and allowing the bus lane question to be given airtime legitimises the idiots points about road users. R4 didn't dispell the road tax myth, that was left to sustrans. Compare the feature with the abortion piece before led by John Humphrys, which probably went to far in the other direction (he really is an imbecilic journalist - and I'm pro-choice so that has nothing to do with the feature)... overall it was an amateur hour morning on R4. James Naughtie is a bit more balanced.

Also, no mention by R4 of the fundamental difference between black cabs and mini cabs - very high levels of mandatory training, and much more regulation.

It pissed me off.

However, it seems the government is terminating their contract with them.

http://road.cc/content/news/57214-government-terminate-its-contract-cab-firm-addison-lee

Indeed - from the Times (quoting rather than linking as it's behind a paywall)

Addison Lee is to lose its lucrative Government contract, it emerged last night, hours after the taxi company was barred from illegally urging its drivers to use bus lanes.

In a major blow to the private hire company, a Whitehall source revealed that its deal to ferry around officials and ministers will not be renewed after it expires next month.

John Griffin, the company’s multimillion chairman and major Tory donor, launched a provocative campaign this month instructing his drivers to use London’s bus lanes in an intensification of his war with the black cab trade. He said that he could not “allow our customers to continue to be victims of this unfair and discriminatory treatment”.

Mr Griffin also stoked anger last week by suggesting that cyclists have to expect to be hurt by drivers if they take to the roads.

Addison Lee currently has a contract run by the Department for Work and Pensions, which sees it used by several departments across Whitehall.

Parliamentary answers reveal that Michael Gove’s Department for Education alone has handed the company £2,370 on ministerial trips and £34,569 for ferrying around civil servants between August 2011 and January 2012.

The Whitehall source confirmed the company would not be considered as part of a new central Government system for private car hire. He added, however, that the decision not to renew the contract had nothing to do with Mr Griffin’s instructions to his drivers and was a “coincidence of timing”.

Mr Griffin was also instructed in the High Court yesterday not to repeat his offer to pay any fines incurred by drivers for defying the ban on driving in bus lanes. His move provoked claims that it would clog the lanes for buses and make them dangerous for cyclists.

After an application by the Transport for London highways authority, Mr Justice Eder also told the company to remove the law-defying call to drivers from its website. However, it was not forced to withdraw the notice altogether.

Leon Daniels, Transport for London’s managing director for surface transport, said that Addison Lee’s instruction to its drivers “was irresponsible and at odds with its position as a private hire operator”.

“Bus lanes enable buses to move around the capital efficiently carrying more than six million passengers a day,” he said. “We maintain that allowing tens of thousands of private hire vehicles to drive in bus lanes would impact on the reliability of our bus services, and risks inconveniencing our customers.”

The High Court did, however, order the courts to speed up Addison Lee’s application for a judicial review of bus lane regulations, which was greeted as a “great start to our campaign” by Mr Griffin.

The R4 interview was rubbish.

I don't know who the Sustran spokesperson was, but she wasn't very good frankly. It's a shame they couldn't have found someone more articulate to represent cyclists. Saying "We don't want to comment on that" when asked about taxis in bus lanes was pretty poor.

It was Evan and his friendly interview style didn't really suit the piece, but on top of that he seemed to approach it as an amusing news in brief, not a serious issue.

Also, no mention by R4 of the fundamental difference between black cabs and mini cabs - very high levels of mandatory training, and much more regulation.

Ms Sustrans should have brought this up, it was the elephant in the room.

yep, i'm sure it's hard when you're in that position but the only way to get your points across on today seems to be to ignore other questions and demands from the reporters to hurry up and shut up!