Taxi Driver Online

There has been some debate about the recent decision of Burnley council to indefinitely withhold licenses on the say so of a cab driver. It appears some cab drivers have an aversion to anyone obtaining a license because here we have another cab driver in rugby who doesn't like the outcome of a survey.

The text is part of the committee report presented by the LO a Mr Kearslake for the relevant committee to decide on Monday. The decision is a foregone conclusion, however some observant members may notice that Mr Kearslake has put his own misguided interpretation on the facts. Licensing Officers are supposed to know what they are talking about obviously this one does not. Perhaps you can notice the errors in this section of the report, intentional or otherwise.

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2.4 De-regulation

There are approximately 400 licensing authorities in England and Wales, of which 2/3 are delimited and 1/3 are restricted.

In November 2003, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) published a market study of the regulation of taxis and private hire vehicles in the UK. This report advocated national delimitation and recommended that the Department for Transport (DfT) should produce guidance on best practice which was published in August 2005 and is referred to in paragraph 2.3.

It is not clear that de-regulation benefits the general public.

Delimitation could simply mean that all the private hire licence holders would hand back their plates and pick up Hackney Carriage plates. This could lead to lack of adequate rank capacity and ensuing congestion and increased emissions, which would obviously disbenefit customers.

If there were a vast amount more Hackney Carriages due to delimitation, yet a similar number of general paying public across the authority that wished to use them, the trade may ask for fare increases to make the now smaller pool of passenger pick ups more viable. This in turn would therefore be a disbenefit to the consumer.

In addition, Hackney Carriages generally operate off a meter and are therefore more expensive than private hire, and so if all private hire became hackney carriages the paying public would lose out creating a disbenefit to the consumer.

Therefore it is believed that there are reasons why Hackney Plates should be limited rather than delimited i.e.:-

i) sufficient vehicles (Hackney Carriages and private hire vehicles) will still be available to provide the total service (without the need for private hire vehicles changing to hackneys);

ii) more rather than less vehicles will be available during unsocial hours;

iii) 24 hours availability of Hackney Carriages and Private Hire cars;

iv) continued economic viability of the local industry;

v) reasonably priced fares will be maintained, avoiding the inevitable drift towards higher fares and increased business failure rates as proprietors chase a decreasing share of the market;

vi) standards are not likely to deteriorate in terms of service levels and quality; and

vii) a well maintained, high quality fleet of vehicles.

2.5 Study Conclusions

Tpi’s conclusions and recommendations are that:

i) On the basis of the analyses conducted we conclude that there is a significant demand for the services of Hackney Carriages in Rugby Borough which is unmet.

ii) To eliminate this significant unmet demand we recommend a licence increase of 5 Hackney Carriage vehicles above the level issued at the time of the survey (46), taking the total fleet to 51. This recommended increase represents a rise in vehicle numbers of 11%.

iii) It is apparent from the current government proposals for the implementation of the taxi provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act, that Rugby is a ‘First Phase’ Authority. As such the Government intend to introduce regulations over a longer period from 2010 to 2020 which would apply to Rugby. In line with both this direction of Government Policy and results of the Mobility Impaired User Survey, we recommend that consideration should be given to further Wheelchair Accessible Taxi provision if additional Hackney Carriage licences are issued.

iv) Introducing a programme of specialist driver training in, and an understanding of, disability awareness is also recommended.

v) It can be seen from the report that there is enough passenger demand and associated taxi hiring along Lawrence Sherrif Street at its junctions with both High Street and Sheep Street to warrant the possible introduction of an officially designated night-time only rank in the vicinity of these locations.

vi) The anticipated useful life of the current survey is three years and we would recommend another survey in October 2007 in line with current Government guidance.

2.6 Consultation

The results of the study have been the subject of consultation with RHODA, the Police, the Town Centre Company and the Disability Forum. A copy of the final report is available in the Members’ Room.

RHODA has challenged the outcome of the study and copies of their response together with the subsequent response from TPi is also available in the Members’ Room.

RHODA claim that the study was not carried out fully in accordance with legal requirements. They also claim that business levels are low and the imposition of five more licences would impact seriously on their ability to function efficiently.

JD

I think Mr Rugby is a little bit thick.

The only thing stopping the courts issuing as many plates as there are applications, is this SUD survey.

And soppy old RHODA is saying it was flawed.

WTF can't I have idiots as stupid as that down here?

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IDFIMH