Taxi Driver Online

a few years ago the council charged me £100 to transfer ownership of a car from one driver to me for this I got a nice white sticker placed over my log book with hand written name and address on it

When I asked for justification of this particular fee from council I got back thats the fee its written on list of charges

under an FOI I asked for a breakdown of fees all I got back was a print out of the fees for vehicle and driver renewal this is the only breakdown they possess


can't work out how to share screen shot of fees and can't copy it as its a pdf

typical council

your FOI needs to ask alternative questions such as how many minutes work was involved in processing the paperwork

councils are very good at hiding the fact they make money out of fees they are not supposed to

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Only certain fees are supposedly "protected" and I don't think transferring a vehicle is one of them. In other words they can charge what they can get away with.
I spent 5 years trying to convince our Council that the method they were using to calculate fees was wrong.

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Grandad,

if I could work out how to load the breakdown of fees it lists these on some

though I think they have now started to remove times

thank you

below is what Canterbury city council laughable class as full audited accounts for the taxi licensing dept


2012/13 Actuals 2011/12 Actuals 2010/11 Actuals

Expenditure 174,577 76,852 73,703
Income (157,017) (144,650) (144,624)
Total 17,561 67,797 70,921



I kid you not this is what i got back when I asked for 3 years copies of full audited accounts for the taxi dept

when I questioned it the reply was this is all we have to show and all we keep
we do operate the taxi license dept separate from neighbourhood services there fore we cannot break the figure down
as its part of a bigger dept.

So they are saying it takes five hours to license a driver?

How many drivers does you council license?

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IDFIMH

Well from the figures above they can't even add up, and in 2011/12 and 2010/11 they made a huge profit and why is there a huge increase in expenditure in 2012/13 ? And where's 2014, 2015,

waiting on late figures but 2015/16 was 518 drivers in total

468 vehicles

these are the figures I asked for back in 2014 when i first started on this road. I stopped 2 years ago because the ombudsman found in favour of the council. I recently learnt they usually do. I had to concentrate on my business more than dealing with council but at a recent meeting the head of neighbourhood services spoke down to us by insisting he knew what was best for us drivers which has incensed me no end so I now intend to pursue this assuming my instincts are correct and what they are doing is wrong..
the breakdown of fees alone is laughable let alone the accounts published

You are lucky that the ombudsman even looked at it. They don't usually have the time or resources to do it.
The district auditor is a better alternative route.

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Grandad,

thats where I now intend to take it

I have been to the Ombudsman and FOI. Commissioner who on each occasion found in favour of me.

Here you go one that did.
Middlesbrough Council forced to apologise to Boro Taxis


A COUNCIL has been forced to apologise to one of the North-East’s biggest taxi companies after failing to properly administer taxi licences.

Middlesbrough Council has been reprimanded by the Local Government Ombudsman for not keeping adequate records about licence fees and for not providing crucial information on drivers to Boro Taxis.

It was investigated after a member of staff made a complaint.

Ombudsman Jane Martin said that Christine Bell, Boro Taxis' company secretary, was “understandably concerned” that she might be paying too much for her taxi licences.

She said: “The council will conduct a review of its fees and apologise to ‘Ms C’.

“The key point is the council cannot show the fees are appropriate to cover the cost of performing the service as it cannot show how it calculated the fees.

“The council is at fault for not keeping adequate records.”

The Ombudsman also ruled that the council’s practices with regard to licence renewal and updating a register of private hire driver details were “ineffective”.

But she added: “Although ‘Ms C’ is trying to ensure the efficient running of her company the council has no duty to provide ‘Ms C’ the information she wants in the form she used to request it.
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“The council will apologise to ‘Ms C’ for her anxiety and frustration.”

Ms Bell lodged a complaint after she discovered through a Freedom of Information request that the council could not demonstrate how it calculated its licence fees.

She said: “Local authorities have a duty to residents and businesses to conduct their operations in a fair, accountable and transparent way and Middlesbrough Council has failed to do this.

“Its poor handling of my legitimate concerns is appalling.”

Mohammed Bashir, owner of Boro Taxis, was also involved in a long-running battle with the council three years ago after a disagreement over access to the Morrisons supermarket at Berwick Hills.

A spokesman for Middlesbrough Council said: “We accept the Ombudsman's findings and can confirm that an independent review of taxi licensing fee structures is under way.

“This will be carried out in consultation with local operators and the final recommendations implemented in 2015/16.

“We are always keen to rectify any errors we find in our systems so are grateful to the complainant with regards to these issues and will be writing to apologise.”

The council has changed it procedures to ensure the register is updated regularly and has given assurances that information about driver suspensions will be passed on to operators where relevant.

The Ombudsman was satisfied with these actions and said the Council has improved its practices.