Taxi Driver Online

I will have to disagree with the 100% figure - there are places, and yes Plymouth is one, where cross border hirings are not a problem.

In Plymouth it's because of an accident of geography (Sea to the South, River/County border with toll Bridge and toll Ferry to the West, big empty space called Dartmoor to the North and very rural area of villages to the East) and, dare I say, effective action by Licensing Officers on the rare occasions that it has happened.

I would think that the "Zones" in the now Unitary Cornwall suffer little from the problem.

That said, I do realise that it is a big problem, colleagues in Bournemouth certainly suffer from it.

In Plymouth the biggest issue is, I think ('cause I'm still reading and digesting the whole thing), numbers limitation.

So you might consider dropping the 100% to 75% because you should, as the LC have, include London, and they already limit numbers by the efficient expedient of a damn hard to pass "Knowledge".

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Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

I think there's one key issue the LC merely tiptoed over without giving any answer, its a rather important part and that is the cost of licenses.

They are seemingly going to permit/legalise cross border activities, and allow licensing officers to stop all licensed vehicles, this all costs money.

Whilst there are certain maximum standards for private hire, which we can only summise that due to the nature of private hire will have to be minimum standards (by comparison to some rules laid down by some local authorities), the taxi trade will be deregulated.

The LC have failed to grasp the nettle of WAV's, therefore we will have a situation where there are still areas similar to the the likes of Rossendale and suchlike.

Effectively we will still have taxis from one area working as private hire in others, albeit with some type of legal arrangement where licensing can actually stop and check cabs

The Liverpool situation brought this about, so why should Liverpool's (or any areas) licensed trade pay for their officers to stop and check vehicles that are licensed elsewhere?

We will of course remember that Blueline cited the fees for licensing vehicles in North Tyneside and Newcastle as a reason for sending drivers to Berwick.

By not answering, or even attempting to answer this major point, the LC appear to have dropped a major b*llock.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

"From an economic perspective, the trade's probelms are directly linked to this issue, as economic stability in the trade would create a plateau from which the problems of the trade can be solved."

The problem is that the LC and I the government believe in a free market which by it's very nature means financial instability

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

Actually I think the proposal is effectively that taxi standards are at least as stringent as PH, and they also mention something about fees. (I've started reading the impact assessment paper rather than the full consultation.)

They say that if the fees are sorted out and taxi standards are at least as stringent as PH then there will be no need for taxis to act as PHVs in another area. And PH standards will be rock bottom effectively, so taxi standards will either equal them or be more stringent, so there would be no need to do a Berwick, for example, because there would be no obvious advantage in doing so.

And they're not worried about taxi standards, leaving them to LAs, so you would have the current Brighton knowledge applying only to taxis and PH reduced to minimum standards rather than having the current driving and knowledge standards applying to both taxis and PH.

Call it the Doom's-day scenario.

Get it?

The thought hasnt occurred to them to look at the places where the 'out of town' vehicles are plated?

What they think and what will happen are two different things.

They havent addressed fees in the thick document.....they say they have no need to this early on, but surely fees are the only way a council can pay for enforcement.

They similarly havent included ranking, which is in theory part of the license fee for a HC?

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

They want taxi standards and fees to be at least the same as PH, so what would be the incentive to get a taxi licence in one area to work as a PH in another?

Yes, I quite like the use of the word 'should', in the same context they could have used the expression, 'with a bit of luck' and even 'fingers crossed'.

So what they are doing is lowering standards in some areas where there has been problems.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

This could be the best quarter of a million quid he ever paid.....

Left out of the equality act and now this

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

pmsl

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

So did I

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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!

What you forget is that we already know that licensing enforcement officers are generally 'NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE'.

What is needed is a dedicated NATIONAL REGIMENT of Emforcement Officers, with Draconian powers to slay the dragons of illegal plying for hire, cross-border hirings and all the other loop-holes that will be generated by any new Act.

And make no mistake that any new Act WILL generate new loop-holes that those I would describe as shecht in the PH and HC will be only too glad to exploit and be the first to show how ineffective any new legislation will be.

The shame of this whole process which the Law Commission has undertaken, is that they completely miss the point that a good number of people that they are dealing with in the HC and PH trade will gladly bend the law at will when there is a good chance that they will get away with it. And who, what or how do you stop multiple, blatant, wanton transgressions in the dead of night.

The feeling I get from reading the documents produced by the Law Commission is that they [the LC] believe that the majority of PH and HC drivers are fully law abiding citizens when it comes to the laws governing their trade and that we will all be compliant with any new legislation that may or may not be enacted from their efforts.

It seems to me that they believe that any new Act will improve things and create less transgressions. That is a 'Cloud Cuckoo-land' approach and stems from just plain ignorance on the part of the LC in not grasping the renegade armies of PH and HC that they are truly dealing with.

And appearing to propose that any new legislation should legalise those transgressions which have caused the numerous court cases and case law that has evolved in recent years, is in my mind just a malingering copout and truanting of responsibility.

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Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

Good Post BC.

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Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

Your not a bad judge!

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Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

It's called 'chickening out'!

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

25% and still growing.

73 councils limited numbers when I joined TDO. There are now 92 councils limiting numbers.

That in itself tells a story!!

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.