Taxi Driver Online

May 30, 2008 Friday

12 cabbies flout anti-smoking law

York Press

IT'S a tough habit to kick - and one that will land you a £50 fine.

Since the smoking ban came into effect last year it has become illegal to smoke behind the wheel of a taxi, now classed as a workplace.

And since the smoking ban came into effect on July 1, 2007, a total of 12 £50 fines have been dished out to drivers caught flouting the law.

Hackney carriage and private hire vehicle drivers are liable to be fined if they smoke in the vehicles - regardless of whether they are carrying any passengers at the time.

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said: "As a place of work they must be smoke-free at all times."

Judy Horwell, police liaison officer at York Taxi Association, which represents hackney carriage drivers and owners in York, said: "This is the law of the land - that you will not smoke in public areas. It isn't the city council making up this ruling and it's there to be abided by for everybody's sake, and if the drivers are going to carry on smoking in the vehicle knowing what the law is then they're going to have to accept the fines that go with it.

"I don't think it's acceptable that hackney carriage drivers have been smoking in their vehicles - they shouldn't have been doing it.

"It is disappointing the fact that that is the law and they've still smoked."

Judy said she gave Stubit packets - small plastic wallets in which smokers can put their cigarette ends - to drivers so they could smoke more easily outside their vehicles, and that she gave them no-smoking signs.

"But it seems we've got a percentage that it doesn't apply to," she said. "I do find it very disappointing that a minority are letting the trade down. I don't know what action we can take as an association because it's the council that has to enforce it. The only thing we can do really is when we put the newsletter out we can put a piece in there saying we're disappointed that a small percentage of drivers have let the trade down."

Barry Hamer, chairman of York Private Hire Association, which represents private hire vehicle drivers in York, said he was not surprised by the figures, but that he was "disappointed".

Mr Hamer said: "I don't doubt the figures because I've seen people. I'm very disappointed that drivers don't realise that they should respect the law, and disobey it. It's always seemed silly to me that people can sit on an aeroplane for two hours and not smoke. Why do they find it necessary to go against the law and smoke in a private hire vehicle? I don't see why people can't adhere to this law. It's not the council, it's a national law and it has to be obeyed.

"We'll put the figures in the newsletter we're sending out, and say gentlemen, please do not do this'. That's the strongest stance we can take. We can only recommend that they obey the law."
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Is it really as serious as they are making it out to be, is it no different to flouting parking restrictions, or speed restrictions or any other law of the land as they put it. city of york council and the like are branding these drivers as hardend criminals, with taxi licensing threatening to revoke drivers licenses on the grounds of wether they are fit and proper to hold it.

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now a licensed hackney driver

I suppose the reality of the situation is this, should their license be revoked or suspended they might have a hard time getting it back if the council can prove that these drivers after being warned ignored the warning and continued to re offend. I think a court wouldn't look too kindly on habitual re offending and that could be their problem in any appeal against license revocation.

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

the reality is then you would be more likely to get your license back through the courts if you are a convicted murderer/rapist/sex pest/thief/arsonist/mugger/drug dealer....................list goes on, but not if you get done for smoking in your P/H or Taxi.
This is one of the most rediculous laws to be brought out in this country.
I find it funny that non smoking folk think it is, but ex smokers think its great, bloody hippocrits.
And if these 12 drivers (because i havn't heard of any more)
are the only people that have been fined in the last year by the 2 smoking police at city of york council, they should be sacked. £50 a month wont cover there wages.

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now a licensed hackney driver

Well said bud!!!

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Why don't you get a proper job???

you must remember when a York taxi driver had his picture put in the York press when he reporting the Council bin men to the newspapers for chucking green waste in normal bin collection wagon, photographed it all, then followed the bin wagon to Scarborough where they incinerated it all at the incinerator, the Council said no it had gone to be re sorted for recycling

this was when the smoking ban had just started

a few weeks later the same York taxi driver, off duty, was spotted and fined by the smoke police for dropping a cig end down a drain in Coney St, seems funny that out of the thousands of people that would have been in that street at that time of day, it was the taxi driver they got

People in Glass Houses...

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Former taxi driver

The real matter should be that the customer deserves a smoke free evironment when they get in your taxi. Even if you have been smoking with the window open and no passengers aboard thye smell still lingers in the vehicle and that is what is unacceptable. Have you ever tried sniffing an ashtray as that is what a car that has had someone smoking in it smells like !

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Is this your own car driver ?

another York cabbie has got a smoking fine ticket through the post, traced through DVLA records, reported by someone on the street

he says he admits he smokes but never in the taxi, he is asking for photographic proof

A good move, under no circumstances should he or anyone pay that fine.

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IDFIMH

yes, and i still remember the abuse i had years ago when asking passengers (who asked) not to smoke, the ones who didnt ask were even worse

if a cabbie allows a passenger to smoke in his/her vehicle also guilty of an offence?...

Yes. I would think the driver could be done for permitting. In other words they have allowed the passenger to smoke. If caught, fine is £2000 so I have been told!!! .

Having now enjoyed a smoke-free environment for a year including shops, pubs and restaurants, it is very unpleasant to get into a taxi in which the driver has been smoking, as I did the other day.

With a greater choice of vehicles on the ranks as trade slows, I can envisage people making that choice and getting out of smoke-filled cars and taking the next one......If only!!

I was under the impression that both driver and passenger are fined but I wasn't aware it is two grand, in fact I thought it was only 50 pounds.

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

i have seen the lettter briefly to which the driver was sent, this came from the financial collection department of the council

the driver was SEEN by a city councillor smoking in a taxi


the letter lays down the law, re smoking and also states taxi driver license conditions re smoking,

the letter asks that the person concerned contacts this office within 7 days, as it could be one or another driver, as its double driven, basicly it is wanting the driver to come clean and admit

the driver is putting a reply in that he has received the letter but throwing the ball back to the council and not incriminating himself

but it seems its a differnet story when its a police officer in police vehicle drinking tea
http://www.thepress.co.uk/news/3204344. ... _cup_row_/