Blueknight wrote:
Gentlemen (and ladies) you don't need to travel to the show. You don't even need to get out of bed; because the Law Commission will be bringing a consultation paper right into your very own homes via the "voodoo magic" widely known as the Internet. It is due to appear on a screen near you sometime in April/May of this year and everyone can have a say. Just be sure that you respond and make sure all your mates do as well.
To bump an old thread, thanks, took your advice, and sent this to the LC.
Questions and answers Taxi LicensingFirst off I have to say that the approach this commission has taken has not been helpful, and has heralded a long period of uncertainty, dismay and opportunistic misbehaviour that I have seldom seen before.
By leading your mission statement with 'The current laws are complex and outdated' you have given a blank playing field to the chancers 'who have taken this to mean they cannot be held to account in modern times.
I don't see why you made these kinds of opening addresses, followed by ill thought out and divisive initial proposals. I am just a one man band with a hackney licence, and I can follow the laws and rules without too much difficulty. What's difficult about 'Any Wheeled Carriage', and 'A private hire booking cannot involve the driver in any way'.
Lets be clear about this, it is the night time trade this is all aimed at.
The reason for this new onslaught is only that local councils don't have the resources to police us, and the police, who do, have a conflict of interest i.e. They want the streets cleared of young people who are vulnerable and a nuisance, often both these things at the same time. They would prefer them to be taken home by any properly licensed vehicle rather than one of the many unlicensed cabs and/or kerb crawlers. This blind eye approach has emboldened opportunistic Private Hire drivers into taking more and more liberties.
The last attempt to do something about night time activities, the extending of licensing hours, is what has left us all trying to grapple with the logistics of getting troublemakers home. Not, let's teach them a lesson they will never forget, but, lets excuse their outrageous behaviour with 'it's the supermarkets fault for making drink too easy to get, so we'll extend the hours so that they will get fed up in dribs and drabs, and go home'. WRONG, they all just stay out later, and are more drunk than before.
Sure enough, the rump of your case about the issues involving licensed vehicles is only, 'lets remove the offence then the problem goes away'.
Question 40Would it be useful for licensing authorities to have the power to issue peak time licences which may only be used at certain times of day as prescribed by the licensing authority? (Page 197)
This is completely unworkable unless there is a restriction on numbers in the first place. In fact, most of your proposals only work if there are restrictions on numbers. If there are no restrictions on numbers then nobody will opt for a 'part time' licence or a PH licence as the freedom to come and go with a full licence will be too strong. If there are restrictions on numbers this may work but what does the vehicle become during off peak times? If it still has it's taxi signage and badge I can see all sorts of problems for the police, the public and enforcement agencies.
The enforcement agencies cannot at the moment deal with the complete disregard of the current legislation by some pushy private hire owner/drivers, so they will stand no chance if temporary/part time licences are issued.
I work in a holiday town in Cornwall with a Hackney Carriage. We are at a disadvantage because the council has told the private hire owner/drivers they can 'park where they like' and accept 'instant bookings' from the phone number on the side of their vehicle. So, they park outside all the best places for fares, go into the pubs to tout, and filter out the good fares, then send the other fares over to the rank, where us poor old hackney drivers have to stop and stay with or vehicle.
Our complaints to the enforcement officers are met with, “It's all going to change once the Law Commission make their recommendations, and they recommend no limits, so what can we do”.
Provisional proposal 54Licensing authorities should no longer have the power to restrict taxi numbers. (Page 213)This all sound good, and has been pushed by successive governments for long enough for all the arguments to be well aired. But, as always, lessons are ignored from where this has happened in the past. The commission cannot be un-aware of areas that have de-limited, and then re-limited. Or areas struggling with the genie that has got out of the bottle. Even whole countries, like Sweden, who bitterly regret going down this path, after twelve years of de-limiting are still suffering the fallout, and rather than giving better control, increased the numbers of taxis beyond any hope of effective control, now making Sweden the rogue taxi overcharging capital of Europe.
I remember the ice cream wars of the sixties, all brought about by a relaxing of licensing. The beatings and burning of vehicles. Horrible. I can see this coming back to my little town. Already we have lost 5 Hackneys to the big towns because of the impotence of the council to control the antics of private hire drivers. There are only three of us left. I have had eggs thrown at me, and have had to stand my ground in the main street when unsuccessfully trying to curb the illegal plying. Tyres have been punctured, and vehicles damaged.
Of the three hackneys all three provide wheelchair accessible vehicles, with no help from the council or anybody else, because we are part of our community. How are we repaid for this incredibly expensive dedication to our community? Clearly told we are un-defendable, dispensable and disposable.
Your commission has created this situation by fumbling and bumbling your slow and tortuous way around what is in essence a simple update. There is nothing in anything you write to praise the dedication of those in the past who have made sacrifices to provide services and vehicles to the very elderly and vulnerable members of society. How do you think disability provision had been handled in the past? By forward think and innovative councils and commissioners? No chance! This was done by Joe Soap Hack, who thought that by pushing the industry to create special vehicles, and suffering the enormous cost of the same, some note would be made in the minds of the legislators of how thoughtful, dependable and reliable our Hackney drivers are, and how they deserve some recognition and help.
The only people to have suffered more than us Hackney Drivers is the poor Private Hire Drivers who do things properly. They stand no chance against this new breed of selfish pushy piranhas.
See, it's not that complicated, the older ones know how to do things properly, why can't you just copy how they do it and make that 'Law'.
Don't get me wrong, I don't like the idea of Hackney plates being 'worth money', but the hoops Hackney Owners usually have to jump through to get one should be worth something, even if it's just being able to legally ply.
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