Not been great news this week for the Trade

First we heard that Uber was interested in opening its app to licensed Taxi driver…which was closely followed by the announcement from Bolt, they were opening up their app to green badge drivers (but not yellow badges)

Minicab app Bolt (formerly Taxify founded by Markus Villig in 2013) Taking On Licensed Taxis:

Bolt has now opened its platform to Licensed Taxis, making it FreeNow2

Unable to obtain a TfL PH operators licence under the name Taxify, they changed the name to Bolt, and were granted their first two and a half licence in 2017

Bolt in the UK mainly operates within London (the M25 area) plus, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead London airports (Stansted, Luton, Southend-on-Sea and Gatwick)

Originally from Estonia, they currently operate their micromobility, car-sharing, and food delivery services in over 500 cities in more than 45 countries in Europe, Africa, Western Asia and Latin America

It appears cabbies are signing up to the app as the Taxi trade sleepwalks into a one-tier service, the end goal of the infamous Project Horizon

They appear to be only taking Green badges onto the platform.

Wonder if the garages will be complacent and put Bolt liveries on their rentals?

Then in 2021, Sir Mike Rake joined ex director of Taxis and Private Hire Leon Daniels as a non executive board member on Ola

Now comes the news most of us have been expecting:

Gett and FreeNow To Form

A Partnership, To Facilitate Gett’s Business Customers Access To FreeNows 20,000 Private Hire Drivers

What the hell is up with Taxi drivers on these app, sleep walking into a one-tier service

Look what happened when Hailo took on private hire cars drivers boycotted and deleted the app in such large numbers, they had to change back to Taxis only, but the drivers never really forgave them and they had to sell out

You the drivers have the power to stop these apps, working with private hire, but then the trade's drivers today, don’t appear to have the stomach or the common sense to put up a fight, as the drivers of bye gone days had in their hearts

Today’s Licensed Taxi drivers appear to be happy to work for app’s that have now become pseudo Private Hire operators

Surely you can all see the consequences of working for an app, which is basically a Private Hire operator?

What next? will you be happy to work on the Uber app when it opens its books to Taxi drivers?

Free Now And Gett Combine

Mariusz Zabrocki, General Manager of FREE NOW UK, said: “We are delighted that Gett has chosen to enrich its platform with our exceptional minicab fleet, reinforcing our position as a leading ridehailing operator in London “Our partnership with Gett is a milestone in our two major areas of focus: driver’s earnings and customer experience”

I know that there are many drivers out there who think I’m a doom and gloom'er, I’ve recently been called a conspiracy theorist by a so called leading Taxi garage We were even accused by the LTDA in Taxi paper, of spreading false rumours but we now know they (the LTDA) knew my article about e-Taxi only signage authorised for TfL, was 100% correct (Still waiting for an apology)

I know I’ve banged on quite a bit over the last 13-14 years about Project Horizon, but the evidence is now crystal clear, it’s finally happening

• We will soon see the e-Taxi only bus lanes and road access implemented!

• The total number of London’s Taxi trade's drivers have been dramatically reduced!

• The Apps are now working their way towards a one tier service Ever wondered why they removed the word Taxi from their apps’ name?

Just look at these statistics posted on Twitter by Cabvision earlier this week: 2014/15 vs 2023

Total drivers 25,232 vs 18,391 (-26%)

Green badge 21,72416,399 (-25%)

Yellow badge 3,508 - 1,994 (-43%)

Total taxis 22,500 - 15,056 (33%)

With over 20,000 PH drivers just on FreeNow, they alone outnumber the whole of the Taxi trades combined Green and Yellow Badge drivers

Any driver willing to have a FreeNow or Gett livery on their Taxi, might just as well be advertising Uber

And on top of all this, we have the LEVC monopoly! The Taxi trade’s drivers need to do some serious reflection, and decide for themselves if they want their trade to survive

There’s an old Turkish proverb that’s as true today as it ever was:

‘The Forest was shrinking But the trees kept voting for the axe.

For the axe was a cleaver, and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them.’