Taxi Driver Online

Taxi boss calls for tighter control

THE boss of a Henley taxi compay has called for tougher control of unauthorised cabs.

David Skittrell, who runs Streamline Executive Cars, claims that too many drivers not licensed to pick up fares in the area are getting away with doing it.

Taxis authorised by South Oxfordshire District Council have a white licence plate displaying the authority’s logo.

Mr Skittrell said that at weekends and during major events, such as the Henley Festival and royal regatta, the town was flooded with cabbies from outside the area.

At the same time local drivers were competing with each other and “cutting off their noses to spite their faces”.



Mr Skitterell, who has run Streamline for four years, said the solution was to form a Henley taxi drivers’ association. He said: “We should be looking out for each other rather than competing all the time for fares.

“We need to know which cabs are Henley cabs. Too many drivers are flooding in from outside, especially for events, and the district council doesn’t do anything about it.”

He said that as competition at the ranks got stiffer, drivers’ tempers had flared. “I’ve seen cabbies have fights because people are offering different prices and stealing customers,” he said. “If we worked together things would be much better.”

Nasar Ahmed, manager of Chiltern Cars in Greys Road, agreed with the idea of a drivers’ association.

He said: “It would definitely help all the companies to be on the same page but we would need to sit down with the drivers, the town council, the district council and the police. The difference in prices is a real problem. Lots of customers are getting ripped off by some cabbies. They just give Henley a bad name.

“If the drivers could get together and agree on prices everybody would benefit, especially the customers. I’ve heard enough complaints about prices to make me think people will start skipping Henley.

“The council officers are hardly ever out checking on plates. I know it isn’t easy but there are a lot of drivers out there pushing their luck. Something needs to be done.”

Jane Murphy, the council’s cabinet member responsible for licensing said: “Only taxis licensed by us can operate in this area and we carry out random checks of ranks in the district to make sure this is the case.

“During big events our licensing officers will patrol the streets to move on anyone that shouldn’t be operating there. If taxi drivers see this going on I urge them to get in touch with our licensing team so we can look into it. We can take persistent offenders to court.”

We've had this as well, council called on the firm and asked them to educate their drivers, seems to have stopped now, perhaps the owners of the firm got the threat of a big fine as well as the drivers this time, that stops it 99% of the time, ok you wanna pirate and you do it and get caught, but what if you then have to face a 3rd party whose also out of pocket thx to your actions, moves it into another playing field doesn't it.