Day 2: Notts Hackney Cab Strike

18 June 2014, 08:26 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

For the second day in a row Hackney Cab drivers in Nottingham are going on strike.

Hackney cab drivers are striking because they think passengers are being put at risk by private-hire cars picking them up in the street, something they're not insured to do.

Mohammed's been a hackney driver for 16 years:

'You've gone to the cab and asked 'are you free?', they say 'yes'.

'You sit in and down the road you have a big bang, you're not insured.

'You're not going to get paid for your injuries, you're not going to get paid for your death.'

'Upsetting a lot of people'

Graham Chapman, the Deputy Leader of Nottingham City Council, has asked drivers not to go on another go slow but they are.

He thinks the cab drivers are in danger of turning people against them:

'I've said to them 'you're upsetting a lot of people and you'll turn them against your cause, rather than in favour of your cause.'

'It is wrong for the local Taxi Federation to suggest we are not meeting our licensing duties and we don't believe illegal plying for hire by private taxis is underway in Nottingham on anything like the scale they suggest and it is not responsible to raise unwarranted safety fears about this.

'The Taxi Federation are failing to recognise, both nationally and in Nottingham, that, whereas previously private taxis were generally booked from home before people went out for the night, customers now have the option to book private taxis from wherever they are in the city from their mobile phones and there are apps on phones that make this easy to do. It’s therefore a flawed assumption that private taxis picking up fares in the city are illegal and uninsured.