Taxi Driver Online

Interesting, as some would say..

Now ,back in the mists of time, or back to bus deregulation. Lincoln City Council, in 1985, bought 20 new, TX4's, to run them on their bus routes, and dubbed them "Limo's" (The toplight used the four letter word limo instead of taxi,see) They were meant to operate inbetween the timetabled buses to defeat the opposition from taking passengers. They could be "hailed" at bus stops, and operated to a particular route and timetable. However, it was easily proven that they would respond to a hail down anywhere. Their fares were higher than the buses, so punters waited another few minutes for the bus. They operated on a PSV license, as far as I can remember, though I may be wrong, because they only had six passenger seats. They were, a huge failure, and they quickly ran up massive losses. The council then decided on a terrific wheeze. They decided, as they could not make money with them as "Limo's" they would issue themselves 20 Hackney licenses, and run them as "Taxi's!" A Court case ensued, and the council lost. So they were then left with 20 FX4's, which they sold off, (they even offered us first refusal!) by tender. (minus the tyres!!!, they were provided by lease by the bus tyre provider.)
Did they therefore break the law by not licensing them as hackney carriage in the first place? Not really bothered. It was bound to end in tears, as it did. They gave away four of them to "dial a ride" and it must have cost the ratepayer, (me) a fortune. Don't know who the bus operator is in Plymouth, but they are sure to put up fierce opposition in the fare department, to squeeze Mr. Preece out.

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Former taxi driver

Mr. Preece used to be the 2nd in command at western nation buses (plymouth) brfore it became first, so he's know a thing or two about buses. he's been after the citybus contract for a few years but always got turned down for some reason or other. i guess this is a back door way in.

we had "taxi buses" here a while ago, they started with good intentions like Mr Preece is saying, but pretty soon the drivers realised that he might as well start picking up anyone and everything i.e. illegal pickups, he was charging well above what we would charge.

Pretty soon we got thier "Taxi buses" off the road.

Taxi buses? Define a Taxi bus for me?

JD

you know what a taxi bus is, and you know what it becomes.........and you know its nothing more than a loop hole to get a free hackney license

I know what they are but I asked you to define them, seeing as you got rid of them in Oxford?

I'm curious to when u got rid of them and how?

JD

http://makeashorterlink.com/?W2BB35FEC

trying to force the councils hand now....


COURT-BATTLE CAB IN SERVICE
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12:00 - 08 April 2006
There's one more black cab on the streets of Plymouth today - after private hire firm Taxifast finally received the Hackney licence it was awarded in a court hearing last month. It means there are now 360 black cabs in the city.

But what is still unknown is the future of Plymouth City Council's black cab cap, which had stood at 359 since the 1990s.

Taxifast, owned by transport entrepreneur John Preece, yesterday also applied for a second Hackney licence, after presenting two gleaming new cabs, worth £32,000 each, to the council.

But the authority has not made a decision on the second vehicle, even though it has been given paperwork, including insurance and inspection documents, by Taxifast.

A city council spokeswoman said: "The cap on plates still stands and it has only been four weeks since the court case so we have not yet made a decision on whether the cap or limit should be revised.

"One of the plates will be granted because it is the subject of a court order and we are considering our position on the second one."

Alan Johnson, company director, said the newly-licensed Hackney would immediately be ready to use on the city's roads.

"It's available for work to meet the unmet demand," he told the Herald.

"They have said the other (licence application) is in the hands of the legal department; it's all we expected, really."

Mr Johnson presented paperwork for the two new taxis to the council's licensing officers at 10am yesterday.

He was initially told a decision would be made on both within five working days.

But five working hours later he was being told Taxifast would receive one black cab plate.

In total, however, the firm has waited three years for the decision.

Taxifast, which runs private hire vehicles as its main business, originally applied for 30 Hackney licences in 2003, but had the applications turned down by the council, which operates a limit.

The firm went to the courts and last month a judge upheld the appeal, but granted only one licence, because the initial application had presented just one taxi for inspection.

Taxifast boss John Preece has since launched another appeal, in the High Court, to obtain the further 29 hackney licences. He also wants the council to grant him an additional 50 plates so he can run a 'taxibus' service.

The firm has already put its phone number and logo on the new LTI TXII Bronze cabs, and will install DVD players.

when i see Alan Woodward, Secretary of COLTA, I will ask him how and when. And I will try to get you a definition

hear we go again:

COUNCIL'S NEW CAB SURVEY

14:11 - 17 April 2006
A new taxi survey will be carried out by Plymouth City Council before it decides whether to scrap its black cab cap, the Herald has learned.

The council will tender for consultants to do work it said is necessary before councillors can make an "informed decision" on the future of the 360-cab Hackney carriage limit.

The council must show that there is no unmet demand for black cabs, or it must delimit.

The move has angered private hire mogul John Preece, who last month won a court appeal against the authority's decision not to award him a black cab plate in 2003.

He wants 80 licences to run taxibuses.

During the hearing a taxi rank survey, carried out by consultants Transport Planning (International) Ltd (TPi) last year, was rubbished.

In court TPi admitted it had not carried out "a Rolls-Royce" survey due to the constraints of the £20,000 Plymouth City Council paid it.

Following the hearing, Mr Preece's Taxifast firm submitted two applications for Hackney plates, on April 7.

One was granted within hours, but a decision on the other was deferred.

Ann Gillbanks, from the council's licensing department, has now written to Mr Preece's legal advisers to say: "For obvious reasons the evidence provided by the current survey is unreliable to allow for an informed decision by members, so a new survey will have to be commissioned."

She stressed "this is not a refusal of the application", and said the council will consider it "once results of that survey are known".

A furious Mr Preece claimed a new survey will cost the council £150,000 to £200,000.

He called for a public debate on the issue because his taxibus idea fits with the council's Local Transport Plan.

He called the council's decision "a disgrace" and said: "I don't know why they are doing it. It will keep taxibuses of the roads."

He warned that the survey will have to withstand a legal battle and added: "It will have to be more than robust as we will challenge it."

Mr Preece has already launched an appeal in the High Court to obtain a further 29 hackney licences, denied him at last month's Plymouth hearing. And he has applied to the council for a further 50 hackney plates.

In her letter, Ms Gillbanks said the council made its decision to cap black cabs on May 24 last year. However, the Herald understands Hackney vehicles have been restricted to 359 since the 1990s. There are now 360 black cabs after Mr Preece was granted the licence he won in court.

Tory opposition leader Cllr Vivien Pengelly said she would 'call in' for scrutiny the decision to seek a new survey.

She added: "We have in our manifesto that we would deregulate Hackney carriages. There are not enough of them."

Exeter City Council this week granted a Hackney driver a black cab licence even though it has a cap of 59 vehicles. But a spokeswoman denied a precedent and said: "The Plymouth case does not have an implication for other authorities."

Interesting, there are 19 seats up for grabs on Thursday and the Labour party only have a 7 seat majority.

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IDFIMH

Ah wot a shame, the conservatives didn't get enough seats.
TOUGH LUCK Preece, you'll have 2 try a bit harder!!!!!!!

Labour lost overall control of Plymouth so their position is precarious to say the least. However there is and was no telling what would have happened under the Tories because in those councils that still regulate numbers there is more or less an equal split between Labour and Tory. I wouldn't have put money on the Tories changing the present policy in Plymouth.

When the next local elections take place there is every chance that Labour could find themselves as the second largest party all it would take is a two seat swing to conservative.

The parties stand at Labour 28 conservative 25 Libdem 3

Labour majority wiped out in Plymouth Can be read at the following link.

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/


Regards

JD

Don't know the chap personally, but I doubt he has put too much on the council voluntarily changing policy.

I think his eggs are firmly in the High Court's basket.

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IDFIMH

i apoligise now for my grammar

well theres a rumor going round that our infamous john preece has just purchased 18 hackney plates taking his total to 19 is this a good thing short time may be as they will all be working from his office but long term could this create a unmet demand as so he reckons at the moment but by creating this himself on the other hand after paying 200.000 for arguments sake for his first plate and then approx 800.000 for the blokes buisiness and plates and property (obviosly for the czechs he imports ) this guy makes a mokery of true taxi drivers who know where they are going of course he wants these rather than you what would you rather take 160 of an english guy or approx 500 of a czech guy and the train station has already mentiond they want taxifast to run its rank and he needs thirty to do so thats why the new tender is only for a short term to allow him time to get this many what this guy wants is to drive us all out of buisiness and have the lot for himself cant buy out other firms so he is drowning out the city in foriegn drivers maybe our council should be ordering a few of his cabs to see how well his czech friends really know thier knowledge come on monopolies and commisions board put a stop to him before we are all made bust please

I think he's finally realised that his case is floundering and fighting it through the courts is getting him no where.

In all honesty the man is a complete dick, he stated from the start he wanted these vehicles to run a taxi-bus service, IMHO this is the only reason PCC is fighting him so hard, they don't want any impact on their precious citybus.

There's no way PCC would be fighting this hard if it was just going to impact HC drivers, not in a million years.