Addison Lee

The real story relates to bus lanes.

Mr Addison Lee has told his drivers to drive in bus lanes just like Black Cabs. He will defend them in court, and pay their fines if they are fined.

Now why does he think he can win? Well its down to European law. European law bans illegal state aid to one part of an industry compared to another. That applies to handouts as well as legal discrimination.  So black cabs and addison lee are both in the taxi business. You can't ban one and not the other.

TFL are worried on one major point. If they lose, its retrospective. It's that TFL was acting illegally, and that means they have to hand back the loot. That's really worries them. Now they can deal with it in two ways. Give in and allow him in by changing the law then he probably won't go for the test case, or they can ban all taxis from bus lanes. Bound to piss off lots of MPs and Peers.

The same applies to the post office parking on double yellows. White van man needs to sharpen up and work out that in the delivery business, that is also illegal state aid.

More ways that the state have created regulations where they will be shafted as a result.