David Cantrell wrote:
On Tue, Mar 02, 2010 at 02:52:01PM -0000, Basil Jet wrote:
David Cantrell wrote:
And there's nothing "shifty" about minicab drivers. Not, at least,
if you use a minicab instead of a random stranger touting for
business on the street illegally. If a minicab driver rips you off
on your Oyster card, well, you and TfL will know who it was, or at
least which company it was, and they'll be strongly incentivised
not to do that.
Like the way Lewis Day Minicabs were strongly incentivised not to
swindle quarter of a million quid out of the NHS?

It would, obviously, rely on people bothering to complain, and having
a personal incentive to chase TfL if they don't sort it out pronto.

And in any case, Lewis Day did get caught, and didn't they have to pay
the money back, with interest?

How would that disincentivise them from trying it again? No-one's been
prosecuted AFAIK. Lewis Day still have the NHS contract and are still
TfL-approved. The man responsible is now at another TfL-approved minicab
company. The NHS managers who awarded the contract to Lewis Day and then
told the whistleblower to take no notice of the 250k gone AWOL still have
their jobs and pensions AFAIK.

I have a suspicion that the major motive behind minicab licensing was to
facilitate corruption by public service managers. If an NHS manager is
paying double the going rate for beds or biros, it sticks out like a sore
thumb on the balance sheets, but "taxi" contracts for unmetered vehicles can
be awarded for way above the going rate without it being noticeable unless
you study a map. After all, metered fares in taxis were introduced because
the potential for exploiting taxi customers who are in an unfamiliar area
was so much greater than the potential for exploiting mars bar customers or
shoe customers, so the corruption potential of allowing non-metered vehicles
to perform "taxi" services under contracts awarded by public service
managers is obvious. One of the non-existant journeys in the Lewis Day scam
was 105 pounds for 21 miles in the daytime (Hammersmith Hospital to Gerrards
Cross), which is nearly twice what a ride in a hailed £33,000 taxi would
cost - this would be robbery of the taxpayers even if the journey had been
performed.

When Labour brags about how much they have spent on the NHS, they know that
much of that money is going straight into manager's pockets, tax-free, all
of whom will vote Labour.

--
We are the Strasbourg. Referendum is futile.