Trevor Merralls has been General Secretary of the committee since 2016

Welcome to the new UCG website.

Let me take this opportunity to reiterate, that the UCG hold the view that the interests of taxi drivers are diametrically opposite to the interests of PH, we make no apology over this stance. We have been much maligned via social media over this. The UCG maintain we want a statutory definition on plying for hire (P4H). TFL have the power to bring in secondary legislation but for some reason choose not to.

Plying for hire and the Knowledge(KOL) are intrinsically linked, it is no coincidence that numbers are falling on the KOL. Why spend year’s of your life studying the KOL when TFL have allowed P4H via an app. The reality is that PH is acting like a ghost taxi fleet of over 100K. For many years the trade has put off the issue of P4H, the UCG believe we no longer have that luxury, for our illustrious trade to survive in this new app technology-based world we need clarification on what is an E-hail? What constitutes a pre-booking?. These issues are not going to go away, it really is make your mind up time.

The UCG has in the past called many successful demo’s, we do not rule out calling more in the future. We, like many in the trade, are waiting to see how the legal process pans out. We are still the same UCG but we have taken the decision not to jeopardise any of the trades efforts at this time. That is not the popular decision but it is the right decision.

The UCG will never act like the grand old Duke of York, marching you up to the top of the hill and marching you down again. This trade deserves better than that.

The UCG offer unparalleled legal cover, the UCG committee is made up of working cab drivers who are suffering the same as you, we understand, we care, the UCG will continue to fight today for our tomorrow.