Sussex wrote:
Course could cost cabbies their job
MORE than 100 Bournemouth taxi drivers could lose their jobs because they have not passed a college course in transporting passengers. Three years ago, taxi and private hire drivers were told they had to gain a relevant BTEC/NVQ qualification by February 28, 2008.
But with that deadline now passed, 330 of the town's 693 drivers have yet to fulfil this requirement.
Councillors could decide to suspend the licence of every single one of these "unqualified" drivers, but instead they are being recommended to grant an extension for all those who are booked on to the course.
This would still leave 101 drivers unable to operate but Ashley Miller, chairman of Bournemouth Taxi and Private Hire Joint Committee, had little sympathy.
He said: "Those of us who have complied with the council requirement have had to take time off and sit in a college while other drivers have been out on the roads earning money. "Why should the majority of drivers be penalised for something that the other guys could have done?"
He acknowledged the decision to make the qualification compulsory for all drivers was controversial and had caused a lot of bad feeling between the council and the trade.
"But even accepting that, the course is free and you can always learn something new," he said. "I agree with extending the deadline for those booked on the course but those who have simply stuck two fingers up to the council could find themselves with no job."
Any driver who has their licence suspended would have the right to appeal through the magistrates courts, which could prove costly for the council.
I wonder...would a Saturday night reveller wanting to go the 18 miles Home be More Interested in Getting a Taxi with a Cabbie With no Passgenger Handling NVQ certificate...or would the Reveller prefer the 18 mile walk home because he cant find a Certifacted NVQ holding Cabbie.
At a guess the Punter just aint that bothered....Another Regulation dreamt up by Another Council Jobsworth with "F" all Better to do. Is'nt Cooperation better than Coercion ????
to many Rules and regualtions these days, Some in here seem to love the extra Regulation....they Have a certain piety along with a misguided view that more regulation is better because it keeps the less Pious out. yet through a Blinkered view they fail to see that through time they to will fall victim to the Jobsworths because the more they embrace the Hairbrained jobsworth utterings without question the more confident and Intrusive the Jobsworths become....Until...one day...the pious to will have there Nads squeezed to the point where they can't continue operate without fear of repercussion. We need to be heard , not Herded !!