Taxi Driver Online

Taxi drivers battle to keep licences as meeting told of 'errors of judgement'

A Blackpool cabbie who was involved in a collision after driving through a red light has been punished by town hall licensing chiefs.

The driver, who has not been named, had their licence suspended for a week and received a letter warning them they could be stripped of their licence if such an incident happened again.

Minutes from a meeting of the council’s public protection sub-committee say dashcam footage showed the driver had been “a substantial distance from the lights” when they changed from green, and “had accelerated from approximately 18mph to 34mph when they passed through the junction.”

The driver blamed an error of judgement and pressure from their employer to meet their schedule for the offence, which happened in March 2023 but had not been reported to the council until recently. The cabbie, who now works for another taxi company, said their previous employer only reported the incident after they had left the operator.

During the same hearing, the sub-committee stripped another driver of their licence after hearing they had been arrested over alleged drugs offences and in relation to an alleged assault in a hotel room.

Minutes from the meeting say due to “the seriousness of the offences disclosed, particularly the domestic incident in January 2024” it was considered the driver “was not a fit and proper person to hold a licence” and councillors ruled the licence should be revoked with immediate affect.

Both incidents were among four cases considered by the public protection sub-committee, sitting behind closed doors, when it met on Tuesday February 20 at Blackpool Town Hall.

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IDFIMH

Charming.

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IDFIMH

My nitpicking nature and natural curiosity raises a few questions here...

No word of any criminal charges, so I'd guess police not even involved. So not clear if there was anything that the driver should have notified to the council himself?

And I'd guess he wasn't really working for an 'employer', but was driving an office car, with a dashcam and maybe telematics (although even the dashcam footage mentioned would presumably record the speeds disclosed in the article).

So eventually the driver left to work for another office, and/or had a fallout with the operator, perhaps nothing to do with the incident.

It was only then the operator complained to the council and sent them the footage, hence the delay in reporting it...

And the rest is history, as they say

as we all know some proprietors can get very nasty with "traitors" who take their services elsewhere.

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

More than likely dealt with by way of a fixed penalty for careless driving, or jumping the lights. He then reported it to the council, or maybe didn't which is why he is in trouble.

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IDFIMH

And so-called traitors can get very nasty with the paint stripper.

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IDFIMH