Taxi Driver Online

One of our drivers has a son with Downs Syndrome. Most of the students that attend his school are taken to school by taxi. These taxis always have 2 or 3 students, sometimes more, and an escort. In an attempt to save money the County Council has written to our driver and all the other parents from the school to ask them to think about taking their own children to school for which the County Council will pay a mileage allowance, in the case of our driver this would be £3,000 per year. The responsibility for getting the student to school would then fall on the parent which means that if their car breaks down it is the parents job to get alternative transport and pay for it themselves. Now I have no major concerns in parents taking their own children to school or to a certain extent, the parents being "paid" to take them but I can see that it wont take long for the County Council to suggest that maybe one parent could take extra students with them for which an additional allowance will be paid Thus making them unlicensed private hire vehicles.
Any thoughts?

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Grandad,

Another thick council choc a block with thick council officials.

If the parents car is a licensed taxi/ph being driven by a licensed taxi/ph driver then everything is ticker tee boo.

However for anyone else it's not.

The most a parent could get is (from memory) 40p a mile, similar to hospital transport. Else the person driving will be making a profit and that then makes them come under the 1847 and 1976 acts.

The officials are compounding their stipidity by also saying 'if you take another kid we will give you more'. That is clear evidence of profit making as the running costs of the vehicle are the same with one child or a boot full of them.

Send the council a f.o.i asking them what legal opinions they have received that their proposals are legal under licensing laws.

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IDFIMH

Also ask that council who will be administering the DBS checks for the unrelated children in the cars, and who will be checking that the children have the required child seats.

Both the above will be required as the jobs will be regular journeys and both covered under the DBS and seat belt legal regulations.

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IDFIMH

It has not yet been suggested by the County Council that parents should take other students. I was saying that in my opinion, that will be the next move.

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Grandad,

The £3,000 figure quoted was for the transport of my drivers son. The distance from home to school is 10 miles so that is 40 miles total per day. There are 190 school days in the academic year so that is a total mileage of 7600 multiply this by 40 pence per mile and you get £3040.

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Grandad,

Given that councils of all types (paris to county) now have staff dedicated to the purpose of avoiding spending, it wont be much of a leap from 1 parent/1 kid to car sharing to mini-uber parent share riding and an app....

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Insurance is the first thing that jumps out at you...

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

last i heard they only paid loaded miles as once empty parents were free to shop, dance, skip.....

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Sounds that this could be the fore runner of asking people to change to the ILA which means accessing and paying for any and all services provided.

asking folk to pay for services?


out-fecking-rageous!

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

It comes up from time to time cos, let's face it, it's a way to save significant money.

However under existing licensing laws a parent/volunteer, can't get more than their travel costs, so why on earth would they do it?

Also quite often the brothers and sisters of special needs kids don't often go to the same school, so the practicalities of parents actually being able to do it even if they wanted to are at best slim.

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IDFIMH

so, what most parents have to do on a daily basis without getting 3 grand for doing it ???

you have no idea whatsoever that this would happen & im sure the bloke concerned could quite simply refuse

good on the council i say , on my run,one of the lazy parents actually follows us in the morning & drives past her sons school to drop her daughter off at a school a bit further up the road, follows us home on a evening also, absolutely shocking imho, another of my runs parents have just got a 60 plate expert during the holidays & still come to the door in there nightwear while i take there kids to school , don't work, fooking parasites honestly, & tbf if the bloke can take his own kid to school why wont he? even without a 3 grand carrot?? millions of parents do it every day , owt for nowt these lot

why would you need paying to take your own child to school ? have these fookers no shame at all??

& why not ? these fookers get massive amounts of money per month for the kids, mobility allowance, disability allowance etc, & cant get there kids to school? 20 mins in the morning & 20 mins evening? i know im talking myself out of work here but like i said, these people have no shame at all, disgusting fookers, annoys me to fook this topic

& how am i supposed to guess what the topic is about with a title like "Interesting implications" then , you daft tw£t , still never contributed to the argument though & the circumstances are, hes a taxi driver that cant take 20/30 mins off on a morning /evening to drop /pick up his own kid from school in a nutshell, would rather have someone else do it for nothing while he grafts & gets mobility allowance?, disability allowance? for the kid, ask him , greed!! greed !! & owt for nowt & more greed!!, & certainly no pride !! tbh if this was me, well i wouldnt even tell anyone as i would be to embarrassed