Taxi Driver Online

BC... I wouldn't blame anybody for thinking that I am extremely cynical in my views on this subject, personally I have been through all this before, nationally and locally.
In my opinion, we have what I would call a safe act to play with , and the reason they will play with this is simply to manoeuvre for vote's for the next election.

We all know that the Hackney and private hire trade has evolved over the years and is still evolving... what is needed is a living book of rules.. that can be added to or taken away from as the years go by.

We already have our present laws, which in my opinion are totally abused by licensing officers cross the country..ie Berwick... the LO there in my opinion was employed by Berwick to work for Berwick, which should have been to make sure of a first class service in Berwick.. he could have stopped the abuse by simply bringing in a knowledge test, from the outside looking in he was more interested in putting together a system that worked in the interests of other individuals from outside of Berwick, he obviously had his own reasons as to why. and then we have licensing officers using CCTV to monitor a hackney rank, which resulted in a number of drivers being suspended for a month. which in reality should have simply been a fine. This is abuse of power.

No were in what is being presented is it being said that licensing officers need to be brought up to a national standard, police officers are trained before they are let loose on the streets, so if we have a new taxi Act the ability to interpret it will still be with what I consider the problem... licensing officers.. untrained. or just plain thick.

will it be a new taxi act or go down the RRO, well the RRO way is for non-contentious issues... which this certainly is not.....

A one Tear taxi system as you so rightly have said would have to take into account the disability Act, would that mean all vehicles being wheelchair acceptable, or a proportion , how do you reach a proportion or more importantly, how would you put together something that would actually work.

So what are we left with now. advisers that will be springing out of the woodwork to sit on committees so that they can claim kudos in their other businesses, and MPs that will be sitting in the middle with no knowledge of the hackney and private hire trade except what they hear from the trade representatives who can't actually agree with themselves,
or are simply there to create bigger businesses for themselves, the small independents whether they be hackney or private hire could well be coming to an end,.... if they have their way.
And then we have the Ministry for Transport, best-practice guidelines are always totally limp at best.. and when approached refer you to the local courts.... so why are these people there... that's a department that could well and truly be dispensed with.
Have a nice day.

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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!