Taxi Driver Online

POLICE seized two taxis in Chester and Ellesmere Port at the weekend as part of a joint safety operation with Cheshire West and Chester Council.

The test purchase operation saw plain clothed officers attempting to flag down private hire vehicles off the streets on Friday and Saturday nights in response to complaints about safety from the public.

Private hire drivers who accept bookings for immediate hire from the public breach the terms of their license and are committing offences. As a result, this invalidates the insurance on their vehicles.

By law, only Hackney vehicles can be hired directly with the driver by the public for immediate hire. Private hire vehicles must be booked in advance through a licensed operator and not directly with the driver.

Trading Standards and Licensing Officers, Cheshire Constabulary police officers and Special Constables worked on the operation on Friday December 4 and Saturday December 5 in Chester and Ellesmere Port.

Plain clothed officers test purchased around 30 private hire vehicles over the two nights between 10pm and 3am.

One taxi was seized in Ellesmere Port and another in Chester. The taxi seized in Chester was licensed under another local authority which has been informed of the breech. The one from Ellesmere Port was licensed by Cheshire West and Chester Council.

PC Mike Callan who ran the operation said: “It was encouraging to see that the majority of private hire vehicles complied with the law and refused to take passengers off the street. However, two vehicles did take the passengers, invalidating their insurance. We seized both the vehicles and now the drivers face both legal action and enforcement from the licensing authority.

“This operation was primarily about safety. If you get into a private hire vehicle you have not pre-booked, they are not insured to carry you and should there be an accident, you will not be covered.

“We were also there to ensure no unlicensed vehicles were attempting to pick up passengers by pretending to be a taxi.”

Police are appealing to people out and about in the evenings to think about their safety and ensure they get home safely.

PC Callan said: “It can be tempting, especially at this time of year when the city centre is busy, to accept a lift off the street from what appears to be a taxi but the consequences could be extremely serious.

“I would appeal to people to only flag down the hackney style taxis which are licensed and insured to pick up passengers on the street. If you want to use a private hire taxi, pre-book it for a certain time using the licensed operator and check it is your taxi before getting inside.
http://iccheshireonline.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews//tm_headline=police-seize-two-taxis-in-chester-ellesmere-port-following-complaints-about-public-safety%26method=full%26objectid=25389646%26siteid=50020-name_page.html

I don't agree with PH picking up fares that are not pre booked but it irks me that they keep using the word 'safety' when discussing this problem. It's more to do with compensation if you have an accident



I find this hard to believe. If the public were that concerned about safety they wouldn't try and flag the PH down in the first place. More like HC's quite rightly complaining to the LO

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

And there Speaks the voice of reality and comonsense....

The public are as thick as pig poo though, you give them credit for having brains when it is obvious that after a few drinks they dont.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I wasn't giving the public credit the LO's were

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

The public don't give a sheeite what they get into.

They don't give a hoot about safety or insurance either.

Some time ago I related the story of people trying to get into a Domino's Pizza delivery car because they saw the roof sign.

That about sums it up.

Most PH / Out of area drivers who break the law know this, and take full advantage of the situation seeing only the next pound.

PH companies everywere break the law indirectly almost every day. Any ppl who que outside a PH office & get into the PH cars should all have been processed! Names addresses etc. My point would be if a LO pulled up a PH driver, checked his data, MR Jones say, and there were two young ladies were in the car would that invalidate the insurance cover? The driver could face prosecution. What if the driver was illegally picking up from the street and the data was over an hour old? The whole PH legislation needs looking at. On the whole PH companies are doing a reasonable job, but its some drivers who let themselves down.

At weekends our town base is manned (in the week it's a push the button job). We drive onto the base and the passenger is put in the vehicle. The person on the door is suppose to take the names and destinations of all the passengers but he doesn't. Who would be held responsible in this situation?

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Operator I would wager.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

You.

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IDFIMH

I would be inclined to agree but what would be the insurance liability if there is an accident and no record of the pick up as there should be?

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

There you have the block booking situation in a nutshell.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

This is actually untrue as there is a system in place which does actually work on busy and quiet nights.

On quiet nights all cars in the area of the office have to park in a large carpark about 1/4 of a mile away and only pick up from the office when they have been given a job on the data head. If you have not been given a name and destination then you cannot pick up there under any circumstances and the area around the office is covered by cctv.

On busy nights the office employ 2 queue supervisors and a record keeper, Cars are called to the office 10 at a time as each person gets to the front of the queue the record keeper writes down the name and destination and then adds the driver number of which ever car picks them up (every car has a driver number displayed in the windscreen for this purpose)

I am not saying the system is perfect but it works and satisfies all the LO requirements.

I see....smoked glass is mistaken then.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

This maybe true! but I know from experience that its been happening for years. I do conceed that they may have introduced this system recently and are therefor mostly legal.
The car with say smith on the data head doesnt automaticaly mean you have smith in the car when you pick-up from there. Does the same thing happen on city road as well?