JD wrote:
Horse drawn Hackney carriage legislation came about in the 1800's first in London and then in the provinces. At no time since that date to this date has a hackney carriage driver ever been required by law to enlist the services of any other person for the purpose of a private booking either within or without the area they are licensed.
Agreed!
But just imagine for a moment that you have gone back in time (like Superman) & it is 1847, & that you are a legislator in 1847 drafting the TPC 1847.
You have a prescribed distance of say five miles radius in which a Hackney Carriage is licensed & can stand & ply for hire. And let's say for the sake of argument that the Horse drawn Hackney Carriage is licensed in Liverpool.
In the post this morning a Liverpool licensed Hackney Carriage proprietor receive a letter from a regular passenger who would like to be picked up in Manchester a week on Saturday at a certain time & be brought back to Liverpool.
I would very much doubt if such a scenario would have ever been envisaged by legislators in 1847!
For a start, the horse would have been knackered by the time he had trotted half way to Manchester for the pick-up, let alone get to the pick-up address, collect the passenger & return to Liverpool!
IMO the situation that we have now is a million miles away from what it was in 1847, when the TPC 1847 was enacted.
The legislators would never have imagined a future without horse power & so would not have foreseen the need to legislate for cross-border hirings.
Times change & there is a need for legislation to keep pace with the acceleration of events, technology, etc., so that the laws are fit for purpose & the times we live in.
IMO the current laws that 'regulate' the 'taxi' trade are a joke & unfit for the 21st century.