Taxi Driver Online

The latest news from Martin Allen is that his enquiries are going "in the right direction".

http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/d ... cid=344973

gives the definition of what "commercial" operation is, and although this case defines the commercial carriage of goods, a covering letter from the EU Commissioner says that this principle can also be applied to the commercial carriage of passengers.

There's also other items Martin has discussed with me and has asked me to say nothing more at the moment.

Martin Allen has just sent me a text saying he's got a meeting with the EU Transport Minister in Brussels on Monday 16th June 2014 to put the CT case to him.

I wish him well.

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IDFIMH

Maybe on this issue the EU might get it right ..........................at last

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All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE

The EU already have it right; it's the UK government who have it wrong. There's nowhere near the amount of CT groups in any EU countries. Drive over 8 seats and you need PCV entitlement/DCPC etc whether or not for hire and reward.

I wish him well. Like I mentioned further up the thread, "he's spending his own money to save his trade yet others will benefit from it."

Martin had his meeting with the EU Transport minister and others this week. Whilst I can't report everything he said, the gist of the meeting is that the EU bods thought Martin was joking when he told them the scale of the s19 problem; over 140,000 community bus permits issued, 97,000 psv licences issued, making the CT business bigger nationally than the licenced PSV fleet! He was also alarmed to know that all these are being driven, (taking money from passengers for money commercial gain), by drivers who don not have the correct licences and have not done the DCPC training. There were concerns that the "not for profit" idea is a way for operators to avoid paying tax...

The outcome is that the EU will write to the government asking how they reached their interpretation of EU Regulations, many of which are clearly defined and have legal case histories to back them up. HMG will then have until August to reply, after which the EU will expect compliance. Failing that, the matter will go to the EU Court in Luxembourg. With the amount of case law already in place, HMG are on to a loser.

Hopefully this will put paid to all the "voluntary transport" schemes including hospital cars which do all of us out of business.

I've just had an email from Martin Allen explaining a bit more about his recent meeting with the EU; here's an extract from his newsletter:

The BCA visited the European Commission Transport Department on the 16th June 20014, Present at the meeting was myself BCA member Derek Hemstock and BCA member Karen Magill from Federation of Passenger Transport Northern Ireland.

Discussed was the EC Regulation 1071/2009 - EC Regulation 2003/59 and the EC Regulation 2006/126, The main focus was around the 1071 Regulation, BCA asked the Commission to clarify their interpretation of the exemption of non-commercial, The Commission pointed us to the Judgment of the European Court of Justice in Case C-317/12 that further clarifies what should be understood as non-commercial carriage, Please look at the case and take note of section 24, In the assessment and the court ruling of what constitutes non-commercial carriage, (a) the driver makes the journey only for his own purposes ? (b) That no payment is made for the carriage per se?.

BCA explained that the UK authorities have exempted the Community Transport sector from this Regulation because non-for-profit equals non-commercial, the Commission confirmed that profit or non-for profit is not a major factor, If payment is being made its commercial, Concerns were raised by the Commission over drivers being paid without the D1E entitlement and no drivers CPC, For legal reasons BCA cannot add any further comments.

I bet all this will be sorted in our favour................

Just weeks before we leave the EU.

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IDFIMH

also posted new thread but...

and hes a BSc, whats his wage i wonder?

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

The guy will be doing it out of the goodness of his heart, All the CIC and Charity group managers serve their community for no personal gain as do their drivers..God bless our British benevolent spirit.

I don't know if I mentioned it before but as starters Hull CT has lost all its government funding from September. Kent CC has a meeting about CT in a couple of weeks, I'm going .

And HM Government has until August 4th to answer the EU's questions set a few weeks ago after Martin Allen's representations. So far they haven't replied and haven't asked for an extension of time to reply.

As for CT groups asking for drivers, there'll be more of that in the near future as they realise they can no longer use their free minibus drivers to carry fare-paying passengers whether the passengers are ordinary public or members of the CT group. If any money changes hands, it's deemed "commercial operation" and must be licenced. Simples.

If the stuck to the principles of Welfare transport no-one would mind

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

id like to know how he got all the email addy's for every council contractor, it would have to have come FROM the county and they must know he cant cover his contracts, besides, if he bid low to get them what will a licensed PH or hack get off him...

county should put them back out to tender

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

My Arse....the Organisation itself might not make a profit on paper but the Managers and organisers take big fat wages that would red face even a politician.

I have a family member who used a Similar not for Profit "Care and Support" charity for a 4 days Respite care in a Caravan...and for that they asked for about £1100 for her break. The Caravan only had two paying "Clients" so it was £2200 for 4 days they made, the Caravan was a bog standard camp caravan and only one Staff worker/Manager at any given time to look after the kids.

So..If the operation was strictly NON Profit then the Managers of it must have been creaming off the money before it became profit...

It's one almighty scam, The sooner the Government see through these so called groups little ruse the better.