Taxi Driver Online

Would your council let you away with this?

A driver has just got a new Merc vito.

He wont put a roofsign on it, so he has got a small neon strip that displays the name and number of his firm... it moves along the strip like one of these things you sometimes see in shop window. It looks like a boy racer kind of thing. Its quite small lettering, but its at the top of the passsenger side windscreen.

He has also got an illegal number plate on the back...I think its RU54 LBA, but hes got a square one and split it to read;

RU5
4LBA

His name is Russel and maybe the second line is meant to read Alba, which is gaelic for scotland or something like that!

So as far as I can tell hes breaking four laws,

illegal number plate
advertising on his car - we can only have the name and number on the roofsign
no roofsign
the boy racer neon strip is probably illegal as well

Apparently its been passed by the council...do other councils bother about number plates and the like?

I've never heard of an LA that allows taxis without a roofsign

The plates defo sound illegal. I don't think the new-style plates can be split, and certainly not between the numbers in the 54 or whatever.

The neon sign sounds dodgy under the construction and use regs.

Maybe the LA doesn't know he's not using a roofer, and he may have just changed the plates for the test.

I would get your LO onto it.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

well is it a ph or taxi, and the number plate can be square if the number plate light lighs it up, there also the posability that the sign could blow off or the publice cannot see a roof sign due to the hight of the cab roof ask your licencing officer, I will pass on the stobe sign as i dont have a scooby as to how he managed to get away with it

From the thread title I assumed that it was a taxi/hack

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Its a taxi or I wouldnent have asked the question...it was sitting on the rank behind me last night.

The problem cant be the number plate lighting because theres a similar Vito already licensed and it just has the standard number plates.

In fact he has the square number plate and the council plate side by side where the number plate usually goes, so that was why I thought the council had passed it.

He might have went with normal plates then swapped them and shifted the taxi plate, or maybe he said he would get the taxi plate fitted himself and took it away with him.

Anyway, i dont normally complain about these things because theres always plenty others who do it first, so by next weekend i've no doubt he have a roof sign.

Theres another vito and it has a standard roof sign.

There are a few Caraveles which are higher and they have standard roofsigns.

Theres no problem with the public seeing a roof sign, but the little sign in the window is a joke.

Down here the council allow taxis like Vito and VWs to work without taxi rooflights.

I'm not too sure punters would see them anyway.

The council do insist on the spoppy little 'For Hire' sign, but I'm not too sure a normal saloon rooflight is that much of must.

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IDFIMH

I'm surprised they would want to work a hack without a roof light.

They certainly wouldn't get any flagged work, and I know that in my manor when guys have sat on the ranks without signs it's just caused problems, because the punters have walked past them etc.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

I think if the cab trade have proper signage, then the great big motors should have enough great big signage to suffice.

Perhaps the ones that don't use their roof lights could donate them to the local PH trade, who no-doubt would welcome such generosity.

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IDFIMH

I've never seen a taxi of this kind where the roofer wasn't plainly visible.

Maybe if you were standing right beside it you might not see it, but then again if a child is standing beside a mondeo they won't see the roof sign.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Thats interesting... its maybe not that ridiculous after all.

There are quite a few Caravelles and Vitos already and therees been no problems with them and no reason why theres any need for new rules just for one person, although one of the past big mercs had two roofsigns.

The only roofsign theres a problem with was one on an Espace, that was because the driver put the spare wheel on the roof to give him more boot space...no prizes for guessin who that was.

I cant see how he wants to go without a sign anyway, since at the main rank in the evening lotss of people just get into the nearest taxi and often just walk past the big taxis. So going without a sign wont help him get fares.

So what does he hold it on with, a bit of string or his right hand?

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IDFIMH

He rolled that one a few weeks ago so they say, so its not a problem now.

I think he had some kind of frame for it, it looked a bit untidy but he got a fancy cover for it.

He has another espace but theres no sign of the spare...I think the other one was maybe a lpg conversion which took up some of the boot.

hi,
i dont use a roof sign,i use a windscreen light ,perfectly legal in my borough and many other boroughs