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The advice, which was originally posted on this blog-site 12 July 2010, was a follows,
The RMT London Taxi Branch (Heathrow) advises all taxi drivers who are registered with Taxi Expert, the tagging system for entering the Feeder Park, not to sign up with Heathrow Airport Licensed Taxis Society (HALTS).
We have grave concerns regarding the integrity of HALTS, and will not sanction its validity by signing up to, what we believe is, a flawed system.
The RMT cannot subscribe to a scheme that excludes non HALTS drivers from obtaining work from the Terminal Taxi Desks. All drivers contribute to the costs of these desks through the Feeder Park entry fee, and are therefore entitled to whatever jobs are brought out to the rank from inside the terminal building by taxi desk staff.
There can be no exclusion.
Michael Moran, RMT Heathrow rep. London Taxi Branch.
Now, I don't know who had this advice printed in Taxicab News, but I would like to thank whoever it was for doing so.
I'm sure it reached a bigger audience as a result, but one person who definitely did see it was Mr. Howard Kaye, who happens to be one of the directors of Heathrow Airport Licensed Taxis Society (HALTS), what a mouthful, no wonder they use the trading name of Heathrow Taxis!!!
Mr. Kaye took umbrage to this advice and felt compelled to respond by sending a letter to the editor of Taxicab News. This letter appeared in the September 6 2010 issue, number 145, and went as follows;
Dear Editor
With reference Mr Michael Moran’s advice (in issue 144of TaxiCb News) to Heathrow’s RMT members. May I begin by referring to his questionable statement about HALTS integrity.
Indeed perhaps Mr Moran should look at his own integrity as he has made statements that are scurrilous and completely untrue. We at HALTS are pleased to state that any driver holding a Heathrow tag is welcome to use the facilities offered including the use of a credit card machine and the ability to accept any voucher work that will come to the point of the rank. We insist on the “first cab first job” principle. Indeed we have many RMT members that quite happily use our facilities and may I suggest that Mr Moran must firstly base his opinion on fact and not mistruths and secondly not to put into print as Heathrow Branch Rep an untrue article that could be deemed to be RMT opinion.
On 26th and 27th July Heathrow Taxis had an open day some 150 yards from the taxi feeder park and Mr Moran would have been very welcome to gather the facts before writing his article. Unfortunately he chose not to attend. Doing ones homework first means better results later.
Thanks for the right to reply.
Thanks, Howard, you've given me the opportunity to talk about the very company that we at the RMT have grave mis-givings about.
I have contacted Taxicab News with my response to Howard's response to the advice.....well I hope you know what I mean! It's a bit long winded, but it is worth the read.
Anyway, it's printed below:
I don’t know who sent Taxicab News the RMT statement advising taxi drivers not to subscribe to the new private company which trades under the name of Heathrow Taxis, but Howard Kaye’s “reply” to it has given me the opportunity to explain why we gave the advice in the first place. I would also like to thank the person that got it published in Taxicab News.
Firstly, I want to address one or two of the comments made by Howard Kaye. Howard has accused me of printing mistruths (lies) about the conditions relating to membership of Heathrow Taxis (HALTS). The RMT advice to its members was posted in the Heathrow canteen on 15 July 2010, almost 2 weeks before the so called Heathrow Taxis trade show held at Capital Place, Harlington and the facts, as stated were correct at the time. Changing your modus operandi and then accusing me of lying won’t wash with me, Mr. Kaye.
This is relevant, because at that time we were being told that drivers who sign up to the Heathrow Taxis credit card business would be given a sticker with the letter “V” to put in the windscreen of their cabs so that they could be identified by taxi desk personnel when they brought a credit card job out to the rank. The information, at that time, was that only drivers who had signed up would be eligible to accept these jobs. This can be confirmed, and our advice had the full support of Eddie Symes, the chairman of Heathrow Airport Taxi Drivers United (HATDU). It is also interesting to note that the LTDA has distanced itself from officially supporting the scheme.
Howard Kaye has been forced to back peddle on more than one occasion in the face of criticism from fellow drivers. A classic example goes back to the middle of 2009 when it emerged that the newly formed HALTS - or Heathrow Taxis, as they prefer to be known - had in its Memorandum and Articles of Association the following paragraph:
“3. The objects for which the Company is established are:-
(k) To give or award pensions, annuities, gratuities, and superannuation or other allowances or benefits or charitable aid and generally to provide advantages, facilities and services for any persons who are or have been Directors of, or who are to have been employed by, or who are serving or have served the Company, and to the wives, widows, children and other relatives and dependants of such persons; to make payments towards insurance; and to set up, establish, support and maintain superannuation and other funds or schemes (whether contributory or non-contributory) for the benefit of any such persons and of their wives, widows, children and other relatives and dependents.”
This revelation quite rightly caused uproar at Heathrow and led to Howard Kaye protesting to angry drivers that he had no idea that these provisions had been made, despite the fact that he is one of the directors of HALTS. Is it conceivable that the contents of a company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association are a mystery to its directors?
In February 2010 the four directors and company secretary held a meeting at the Holiday Inn Ariel hotel, Bath Road, Harlington to amend the Memorandum and Articles of Association, thus removing the offending paragraph, but only after being forced to by the furor that it caused. Would it have been changed if it hadn't been spotted by a vigilant driver?
Another area of concern relates to the Heathrow Taxis website, which went live sometime in the middle of March 2010. I have made numerous visits to this site via the BAA Heathrow website, and I have discovered a very worrying fault with it! Any potential passengers who want to book a taxi from this site are met with a message stating,
“Please check back soon………….we will notify you when our booking facility is up and running.”
So you can’t actually book a taxi on this site!!! But now we have another option, because on the same BAA web page Addison Lee DO take bookings and they are accessed by the same “taxi” link button that leads to the Heathrow Taxis website!!! Are the directors of HALTS, not aware that they are effectively putting taxi passengers in the back of private hire vehicles?
I’ve looked into the background of the Heathrow Taxis website, and it transpires that the registrant of this site once worked for Radio Taxis as Head of Marketing!!!
As I understand it, this same person is now working full time for Heathrow Taxis at their new offices in Capital Place, just across the road from the Feeder Park. Now it may not be a crime to move from one company to another within the same industry, but surely concerns must be raised after the attempt by Radio Taxis and Addison Lee to gain a foothold in terminals 3 and 5 in 2009. Has Radio Taxis found a way in through the back door, I wonder? Addison Lee are already BAA's preferred supplier of private hire vehicles at Heathrow.
I could list a whole catalogue of concerns that I have about Heathrow Taxis, but I think the above is enough to justify the RMT advice to stay away. I would not raise these concerns if I didn’t have documented evidence to back it up, so Mr. Kaye, please be careful before you accuse me of lying in print.
Michael Moran.
