Taxi Driver Online

I took this from the IOL site.

Verdict in Plying For Hire Case

Four private hire vehicle drivers and an operator were convicted of plying for hire from Watford Junction station

At many railway stations throughout the country, taxi ranks can be found on the railway premises for passengers to use; at many others a private hire vehicle booking office can be found. In the latter case, passengers are generally expected to go into the office to book the use of the vehicle whereas the taxis are immediately available, on-demand and with direct access.

Taxis operated from the forecourt of Watford Junction station for many years until 11 January this year when train operating company Silverlink Railways handed the contract to a local private hire vehicle firm, AA United (see Licensing News during 2004 for details). A significant feature of the new operation was that private hire vehicles were parked on the station forecourt in the rank formerly occupied by taxis, and waited there in public view even when there were no passengers waiting to be conveyed in them.

Following numerous meetings and advice from officers at the council to the licenced operator - in which they were told the general principle should be that passengers should wait for the vehicle to arrive rather than vehicles waiting for the passengers - the most complex prosecution undertaken by Watford Council was launched. A total of eight individual drivers were prosecuted for plying for hire both from the station forecourt and from adjacent streets; the operator was charged with aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the same offences.

After a two-day trial at Hemel Hemsptead magistrates' court, District Judge Wickes acquited four of the drivers who were charged with plying for hire away from the station.

Applying the judgement of a former Lord Chief Justice in the well-known case of Rose v Welbeck, he said that it was clear from the location of the vehicles (where they were not exposed to public view); a mandatory door sign required by the council which stated: 'Private hire vehicles - advanced bookings only'; signs installed by the operator which said 'Not plying for hire'; and clear contractual instructions to drivers not to ply for hire that an acquittal had to follow.

However, the four drivers who were on the station forecourt were clearly on public display and the manner that the vehicle was displayed together with the conduct of the driver and all the surrounding circumstances clearly led to the technical offences of plying for hire being committed, with the charge against their operator also being found. He gave each of the defendants an absolute discharge - partly due to the fact that they were following the instructions of AA United's operator - and ordered the operator to 75 per cent of the prosecution's £11,500 costs.

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IDFIMH