Taxi Driver Online

Weymouth cabbies concerned over increase in number of licences

TAXI drivers in Weymouth and Portland are warning services would ‘cease to exist as we know it’ if the council axes the limit on licences. They told Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s management committee the limit on Hackney carriages – taxis that can pick up fares without being booked – needs to be kept to prevent a drop in safety standards and reliability.

Nigel Richardson, chairman of the borough’s Hackney Carriage Association, told the meeting a survey costing £10,000 was carried out three years ago. He said it found a need for 37 Hackney carriage drivers – there are now 80 in the borough, the current maximum.

Legal officers told members a survey should be done every three years to safeguard the council against appeals for licences. Mandy Fry, secretary of the Private Hire Association, said there were plenty of taxis available as non-Hackney carriage licence holders operate through private hire companies.

She said: “The onus is on the company to ensure sufficient vehicles are working at all given times including Christmas Day. “If delimiting the industry was enforced, then private hire would cease to exist as we know it if private hire drivers chose to obtain Hackney carriage licences, as is the case in West Dorset.

Ms Fry told members since licences were delimited in West Dorset, Dorchester has seen an excess in Hackney carriage drivers who are ‘fighting for spaces’. She added: “The decisions you make will affect the livelihoods of many families and by delimiting our industry will do nothing but reduce the income for drivers and also compromise safety standards and reliability.”

John Sapsford, chairman of the Private Hire Association said delimiting licences would see the service to the public suffer. He said: “Public transport in some areas is somewhat limited and the private hire service is the only form of transport available. “For example, Southill on a Sunday or after 6pm on weekdays.”

As the committee went to vote taxi drivers were supported but with five votes each way chairman Mike Goodman’s deciding vote means a public consultation will go ahead. And this could lead to a new survey to check demand as they consider whether or not to delimit the number of licences.

Councillor Tim Munro said he saw no justification for a survey as he has seen no increase in usage. He said he would guess more people are using buses due to the concessionary fare scheme.

Coun Christine James said if current drivers were put out of work by an influx of new drivers it would be ‘atrocious’. She said. “We don’t need more cars going around the town.”

Coun Peter Chapman said he has always been able to get a taxi ‘in the small hours’. He said: “I know fights can kick off at taxi ranks but we don’t have that problem as far as I’m aware.” After the meeting Mr Richardson welcomed the councillor’s support but said he wants an ‘unmet demand’ survey to be carried out, which drivers are willing to pay for.

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IDFIMH

I can understand why many cab drivers don't want some PH drivers to change over to the other side, don't agree, but understand.

But what does stick in my gob is when some PH operators decide they don't want to give PH drivers the option. They would sooner they kept having to wet their fat beaks.

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IDFIMH

I agree.

It also annoys me when the barons claim to represent the views of HC drivers. These are the views of HC owners, not their drivers.
Why would any non owning driver want to pay for a survey which will most likely stop them obtaining their own licence?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Why are the council asking the PH what they think, FFS they have feck all to do with hacks

Good point.
May as well ask the bus company or the guy who runs the burger van as well.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

I suspect folks like that own many of the plates.

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IDFIMH

I don't blame them, 75% failure rate with derugulation, mainly because of plate barons, which as I understand it is the main reason for many of the comments on here.

The fact is when a council deregulates they effectively swamp the market, it's no good saying it isn't fair that someone might profit from a restricted plate, if it's such an issue about service and demand then surely every nightclub requires 3 more bars and 25 more barmaids to ensure everyone gets a drink within 5 minutes, lets roll it to the Police, when most ppl report a crime an officer rolls in 3 days later to take a report, totally bad service imo for the amout of council tax a working man pays, but that is how it is, so why is it such a big issue if someone has to wait for a ride home because current policy has made all the drinking zones in one area, if it was like it used to be spread out then cabs would drop an area and pick up in it and work like an efficient electric current ring, all these problems have been caused by ppl meddling in what they know nothing about and thats why it's a mess right now, when I can get anything I want within 5 minutes I'll join the dereg crew willingly, but as we know that isn't going to happen, why is it such an issue to wait for a cab when you've waited all night for everything else, simple isn't it, the cabby is looked upon like a bin man, once everyone else has turned a nice guy into a raving animal and emptied his wallet they want him home asap before he causes any trouble, call in the cabby, he can listen to it all and struggle to get the last £5 out of the guy, if I kicked up like everyone else does about having to wait ther'd be no unemployment, lets insist on 9 bank tellers all day, lets insist on a dedicated cop to answer my distress call at the drop of a pin, lets have 8 good looking girls in every bar so I can get served at the moment I want to, lets have an end to waiting for service calls, no more waiting on hold to speak to someone, get out of my industry whoever you are who insists on instant cabs.


Oh, and another thing, how do ppl who can't speak English get a badge when the rule is held a full UK licence for a year?

When the Eastbourne LO prepared her delimit report to councillors she did some research on the so-called flooding claim, in relation to councils who have recently delimited in Sussex.

Two examples given were Crawley where 24 new plates have been issued in the last six years since delimitation, and Worthing where only 5 have been issued since a SUD demand said they needed 8 new WAV plates.

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IDFIMH

They may have feck all to do with HC but they have everything to do with providing a taxi service whether you like it called that or not. In fact as is probably well known by now our PH companies have everything to do with HC seeing as they have a sh*t load of them working their systems since de-reg. I think there needs to be an alternative to de-reg. Something that has some control but not as controlled as limited numbers.

I don't think de-reg would have had such a negative effect on the trade if they hadn't hit the problems after the no smoking was introduced and then a recession to boot.

I think the whole thing needs looking at, but, nobody is going to hold their hands up and say 'oops it wasn't suppose to work out like that'.

As far as I'm concerned some PH companies are just as bad if not worse than the so called plate barons with their desire to control and take over more than their market share, it boils down to greed.

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

In all fairness both of those areas are small fish, any major city that does it invites the carpetbaggers in, even with one plate one man rules they get around it, fair enough if the survey says there aren't enough of a specific type to meet demand, but even then it should be spooned in say 5 at a time and looked at again afterwards, the whole thing collapses when they say come in everyone, because once it's issued it's issued and if there's oversupply there's no way to take the plate back.

I'm inclined to agree with doom on this matter. De-reg might work in smaller communities, but, in larger towns it just floods the system. I'm sure if they did another survey here even though there are excessive amounts of taxis there would still be an unmet demand in certain areas of our borough. You can't force taxis to sit in areas where the demand could be 1 an hour if your lucky it's unrealistic, but, these are the people who will complain about a bad service.

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

What point is there for a carpet bagger to move into a delimited area?
Free plates are useless without drivers. Decent entry standards for drivers will reduce a flood to a trickle, with no profit for carpet baggers or plate barons.
Delimit and allow anyone to get a drivers badge is a recipe for disaster.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Ok, I'll try to put this over as best I can, rules can be made up for any purpose, getting ppl to stick to them is another thing, also there seems to be rule bending going on locally, it's imposssible for a non English speaking person to obtain a license, yet we seem to have plenty who hold one, second rule, hold UK license for at least 12 mths, this seems to have been ignored also, Aberdeen doesn't have the migrant issue to deal with, someone has taken the decision to send all non working migrants in for a badge, this is where one area of flooding happens, also you probably won't be aware of it yet, but locally I believe 60% of PH & HC driver's are not born here or have roots elsewhere, so gradually the cab is becoming a takeaway, and soon it will become impossible to earn a living without having done a 16 hour day for min wage.

Ok, I see the problem now. If your LA is not enforcing even the minimum legal requirements, it will become a complete free for all.
Someone needs to challenge them over their flauting of the law here.

A limit on taxi numbers would not halt the problem.
By your own admission, there are too many already. Cap the numbers without any quality control of drivers, and pretty soon most cabs will be double shifted and working 24/7. The plates will end up being owned by plate barons, who will thrive because there will be an unlimited supply of drivers for their 'investments'.

BTW Aberdeen has a large immigrant comunity, mostly Eastern Europeans, attracted by the oil industry. There are not many of them driving cabs because of the local knowledge test we all have to pass here, even the PH drivers.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Glad you knew what I was on about, I didn't realise you had migration up there yet, I thought Scotland had avoided it for now, our plate baron's run as PH mainly, there's a couple of lads who have 3-4 plates and one who owns 6, the PH is rediculous though 150 cars each, and their opening the door to ppl who wouldn't be able to drive a cab and even advertising in Eastern Europe for drivers as the natural cabbies don't want to work for a firm that competes with the buses, I think I could agree with you more if my town was run properly, but it isn't and the effect would destroy me, Brighton is a good model, there's one firm, no undercutting and anyone caught breaking the rules is ousted with nowhere to go, so the rules get pretty well adhered to.