For nearly 20 years drivers have been asking me the question "When are we going to have access to the Bus Lanes" a question I could never answer. I have given many hours of my time for free to attend various meetings, this includes The Houses of Parliament which opened doors to speak to politicians and senior figures from the PCO about the problems regarding problems faced by drivers daily trying to carry out their job. As the datacars.com site was about to be rebuilt I thought this would be an ideal time to place a section to accelerate "The Bus Lane Campaign" and the next move was to find a way of collecting as many drivers names as possible.
The campaign on our website
As datacars website was being rebuilt I thought this would be an ideal time to place a section to accelerate "The Bus Campaign" on the Home page. The next move was to find a way of collecting as many drivers names as possible. A full page advert was placed in the Newshopper the largest local circular at a cost of £1,500.00 paid by Data Cars to get the ball rolling.
The future of the campaign
I was pleased to see over 100 drivers registered supporting the campaign in the first week, however, we really need the number of drivers to be in the 1000's. I will therefore suggest to the "Private Hire Board" at my meeting at the headquarters of Addison Lee next week to have the list removed from datacars.com and place the list on a new site dedicated to the "The Bus Lane Campaign" ONLY A link on datacars.com will direct supporters to this new site. This new site will have no corporate names or tags, just "The Private Hire Bus Lane Campaign" for the interest of the drivers who have paid and supported the campaign. Then a media campaign could be started to build the list into the thousands. This will certainly make TFL and the Mayor listen.
I would to thank the drivers of Data Cars and other private hire companies who have shown there support for this campaign and I hope that in 2010 the job is finally done.
London Private Hire Car Association
I would like to add that last year Data Cars donated thousands of pounds in fighting funds supporting the LPHCA London Private Hire Car Association which includes the bus lane campaign.
I met Steve Wright the chairman of the LPHCA 1991. Now, Steve Wright MBE for his work in getting the trade licensed has been fighting for the rights of drivers and the trade for over 20 years.
Steve has my greatest respect, his tireless campaign for the best interest of the private hire trade is why we are where we are today. In my opinion, I have no doubt that drivers would be paying the congestion charge if Steve wasn't fighting our corner. If you would like to keep up with latest Private Hire News log onto www.lphca.co.uk
Les Chapman
Managing Director Data cars
Sepember 1st 2009
