TAXI FEEDER PARK INCREASE 2011: PART II

                                            Remember

      The Taxi Feeder Park entry fee will be £6.54 from Monday 1 August 2011

BAA announced a 26pence increase in the Taxi Feeder Park entry fee on July 11th, rather than the 34pence suggested in "The Taxi Feeder Park-Price Review Consultation Document 2011".This increase would have included a 2pence rise in the amount handed over to the private company Heathrow Airport Licensed Taxis Society (HALTS) bringing the HALT levy, as it is properly known, up to 80pence.

The taxi trade at Heathrow is unanimous in its rejection of any more money going to this company, and a further meeting was held with those trade reps that BAA will talk to on Monday 25th July 2011. The RMT London taxi branch replied to the BAA proposals rejecting the notion that any money should be going to a private company, let alone increasing the amount we are already forced to hand over. Many of the suggestions put forward in our response now seem to have made their way onto the agenda for further discussion. Funny how BAA doesn't want anything to do with the RMT but seems to listen, for fear of upsetting the trade, when the RMT puts forward suggestions that would be very difficult to disagree with.

The outcome of this meeting seems to have pacified some of those trade reps that were at this last meeting, but I don't think they have gained anything when BAA agreed to reduce the proposed TFP entry fee increase from 26pence to 24pence. This reduction may seem as though HALTS won't now be getting their 2pence after all, but does it? It would appear that there is a twist in the tail, and the taxi trade has been wrong footed by BAA after it was revealed that HALTS will be getting a 2pence increase after all.

BAA has stated that it will pay the increase to HALTS out of its own portion of the TFP fee! How is the taxi trade supposed to swallow this little gem? After all, the money that we pay to BAA is for the running of the Taxi Feeder Park, not for awarding its pet company more of our money. The trade has been sold yet another pup by BAA, and it seems to have done the trick. No wonder BAA doesn't want the RMT at any of these meetings! This piece of chicanery has not gone unnoticed.

Looks as though the HUTG has done another good job for its members. What, you may ask is the HUTG?

Apparently it is Heathrow's version of the UCG, which is a loose affiliation of taxi trade organisations consisting of Unite, the LTDA and the LCDC. The HUTG consists of HATDU, Unite, the LTDA and the LCDC. The irony is that this is all done in the name of "trade unity". United in what? Well anyone with half a brain can clearly see that this so called "trade unity" is nothing more than a ludicrous attempt at excluding the RMT. You  only have to take a look at the LTDA Taxi paper to see the pathetic lies and misinformation that emanates from Woodfield Road. It is known as the "Stop the RMT" campaign.

The sadness of all this is that there are members of these other trade orgs that actually believe what they are told by trade leaders who do very little for their money, except waste time finding ways of keeping the RMT on the outside. What was that you were saying about "trade unity"? The only people to suffer from all this is working taxi drivers and their families. 

Join the RMT today and stop the further decline of the London taxi trade.