Latest news with #taxi service
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
With their sneering TikTok videos, the people smugglers are laughing at all of us
Fancy a new life in the UK? For those trying to sneak in by the back door, it takes two ticks – or rather two TikToks – to find multiple travel options. Depending on budget and appetite for risk, there are tickets for hiding places in the back of lorries, seats on coaches, and even lifts in private cars. The big business is what the smugglers call their 'taxi service' by small boat, a route to England they describe as 'safe game.' What this slang means is that they don't expect any trouble getting their human cargo from A to B. No passport? No problem: they can arrange fakes. Even insufficient funds are not a dealbreaker. Advertising in Arabic, one TikTok account suggests customers can pay their way by 'working for us' in France for two months. Quite what penniless potential customers are expected to do in exchange for safe passage to England is not spelt out. What is clear from the plethora of online promotional material for small boat crossings is that those behind this booming business have become so cocky that they now barely bother to cover their tracks. While Sir Keir Starmer's Government continues to make this country an irresistible magnet for foreign criminals and economic opportunists, the 'vile people-smuggling gangs' he promised to 'smash' just get bolder. To 'gangsta rap' soundtracks, their social media accounts proudly display the many ways in which they brazenly break the law, apparently without fear of any consequence. Given our hapless Prime Minister's track record, this arrogance is hardly misplaced. The astonishing ease with which the gangs are still able to operate has taught them that neither the French police nor the British authorities are serious about getting in the way. So, far from running scared, they are scaling up.
South China Morning Post
02-08-2025
- Automotive
- South China Morning Post
How easy is it to ride with Hong Kong's 5 premium taxi fleets? Only 1 passes test
Four out of the five new premium taxi fleets in Hong Kong have failed to accept ride requests within 30 minutes in the city centre, a test by the Post has found several days after the cabs hit the streets with full licences providing ride-hailing alternatives for commuters. The test, conducted on a weekday morning in Tsim Sha Tsui, involved five Post reporters placing orders using separate apps from the five operators: SynCab, Amigo, Big Bee, Big Boss Taxi and Joie. Only SynCab confirmed a ride after an 11-minute wait. The other four platforms either failed to respond or repeatedly cancelled orders during the 30-minute testing window. This contrasted sharply with a separate test to get a traditional taxi or Uber, both requiring less than one minute of wait time and offering cheaper fares than SynCab. With the long-awaited launch of four more taxi fleets on Monday after SynCab, transport minister Mable Chan recently reiterated the government's commitment to improve the sector while stressing that 'each new thing has a transitional period'. Premium taxis were seen by the government as part of the solution to address long-standing complaints about poor taxi service and limited electronic payment options. The new fleets are required by authorities to install in-vehicle cameras and accept e-payments. But the Post's test found that most fleets struggled to take instant ride orders and dispatch vehicles in a timely manner.
