Many drivers at Heathrow feel bewildered by the recent "hike" in the entrance fee to the Taxi Feeder Park, and I'm not in the least bit surprised. After all, there seemed to be little or no consultation whatsoever with any of the trade reps! What happened?
From June 1st 2010, the entry fee to the TFP was increased by a massive 80p, representing an increase of almost 15%, from £5.50 to £6.30. But who agreed to this? Well as far as I can see, almost no-one!
It has emerged that no "official" trade organisation was consulted on the gate increase, except for the "acting chairman of HALT (Heathrow Airport Licensed Taxis), Mr. Colin Evans.
HALT was set up in 1994 as a mutual society to represent the interests of regular drivers that work the airport. The unfortunate thing is, though, that HALT has never been able to conduct itself in a democratic fashion because of an unrealistically high quorum level. .
The acting committee took it upon themselves to by-pass the normal formalities of converting from a mutual society to a private company by registering a new company with Companies House under the name of "Heathrow Airport Licensed Taxis Society" (HALTS)! The word "Society" would lead anyone to believe that HALTS is another mutual society, but it is in fact a private company limited by guarantee.
There is a very strict procedure, under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act, to convert from a mutual society to a limited company. The "acting" committee informed members of HALT that it would give them more control of their interests at the airport if HALT was "converted". But there was no conversion!
Mr. Evans simply registered a private company at Companies House under the name of Heathrow Airport Licensed Taxis Society (HALTS), and a survey was held at the Feeder Park in September 2009 asking drivers if they were happy for this "conversion" to take place.
This is in contravention of the Industrial and Provident Societies Act. If a mutual society, such a HALT, is to "convert" the original mutual society is dissolved. The thing is though, that HALT has not converted, it still exists as a mutual society, but Mr. Evans has tried to convince drivers that it has converted!!!
What we are left with is a mutual society that is no longer acting in the best interests of its members, and a private company that IS acting in the best interests of its directors. Add to this the preference of BAA to conduct business with a few self interested drivers, rather than representatives of the various trade organisations, and you are left with a situation where taxi drivers at Heathrow feel as though they have no say in the running of their legitimate operation at the airport.
This brings us back to the recent gate money increase. Why was BAA allowed to increase the TFP charge without proper consultation with the trade? A very murky story starts to emerge from evidence put forward by the trade reps who were supposed to have been consulted on the issue.
BAA has recently called for a number of meetings with the trade reps, but at least four of these meetings were "cancelled" at the last minute, much to the annoyance of those who were supposed to attend. At the last meeting that did go ahead, it was announced by BAA that emails were sent out to all those concerned for a meeting to discuss the TFP entry fee, but only Mr. Evans had turned up! So, the 80p increase was agreed by default. What happened?
According to BAA, proof is available that emails were indeed sent out to all the reps, but only Colin Evans seemed to be aware of this....funny, that!!! I know most of the trade reps personally, and I believe them when they say that they never received any emails that called for a meeting to discuss the TFP entry fee.
I carried out an interesting exercise to see how this type of thing might happen. I sent an email to both myself and two other people, but I changed one letter in the email addresses of the other two people. I received the email, but the other two did not.....and I can prove that I sent the emails. How strange!!!
Perhaps BAA should take a look at the way communications are sent to taxi trade reps in the future, after all, it is so easy to make a mistake!
One final point. In what capacity did Mr. Evans act when he "represented" drivers at the entry fee meeting with BAA? Was he there as the acting chairman of HALT, or the director of HALTS? Surely he couldn't have been wearing two hats!!!
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