Taxi Driver Online

Cabbies threaten to stage a strike


BURY’S black cab drivers could stage a boycott and take their vehicles off the road in a dispute with the council.

The warning comes from a drivers’ leader who says relations between cabbies and Bury Council are at rock bottom.

Mr Charles Oakes, chairman of Bolton and Bury Hackney Drivers Association (BBHDA), confronted councillors at a meeting of Bury Executive last week. He told them: “The relationship between our members and the council, the council’s licensing committee members and council officers is at an all-time low.”

At the centre of the row is the MOT testing procedure.

The borough’s 160 registered black cabs each have to be serviced twice a year at an MOT centre in Bradley Fold.

BBHDA wants drivers to be able to take their cabs to private garages so they have more choice.

But the council needs the majority of black-cab licence holders to support that idea for it to be pushed through.

Of the 160 licence holders, 80 are BBHDA members. About 45 of the others, claims Mr Oakes, do not drive black cabs.

Mr Oakes explained: “When they become taxi drivers, they aren’t sure if they will be Hackney carriage drivers or private-hire drivers so they get licences for both.

“Once they start in private-hire vehicles, they don’t take part in black-cab-related consultations. That needs looking at.”

A similar issue over MOT testing arose in Bolton in 2007 and, after lobbying from BBHDA, Bolton Council allowed three private garages to do tests.

Mr Oakes said: “We want the same change in Bury and we’ve hit a brick wall.

“We are asking the council if it is prepared to use the Good Relations Programme mediators to resolve these issues.

“If there is no progress in the next few months, there will be no alternative but for us to withdraw our services from the roads.”

Bury’s licensing committee chairman, Cllr Matt Bailey, said: “This is a hot topic at the moment.

“Mr Oakes is quite right to raise his concerns and there are ways it can get resolved.

“It’s clearly an issue and something that needs sorting out.

“I would like to resolve the issue.

“The idea of having more than one MOT station in principle is not a bad one. Officers are looking into the possibilities of it.”

http://www.prestwichandwhitefieldguide.co.uk/news/burynews/9369292.Cabbies_threaten_to_stage_a_strike/

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

so many faces as Bury twon hall clock, and as a the chair of the licencing panel.

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C. Oakes


The Hackney Association Ltd
bbha@btinternet.com

Come on Charles.....its not often you see the words "quite right" and "Mr Oakes" in the same sentence.

CC

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

Why?

If drivers/owners still want to go to the same testing station they can, can't see Charlie objecting to that.

But if drivers/owners wish to go elsewhere, then they should be able to.

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IDFIMH

So are the 160 licences plates or badges?

In view of Charles's latter comments it must be badges, in which case isn't the council asking the wrong people?

Cardiff Hackneys "at the moment" can go to any MOT station within the City. 1st of all you have to pick up a form outlining a list of checks that the MOT station must adhere to that they would not normally have to do.

I think we used to pay around (I could stand corrected) £60 for the original MOT done by C.C council bus depot, with a back log of around 4/6 weeks.

Now you do it at a time to suit you and a price of £40.

The council depot have lost so much work because of it and have been trying to find holes in other MOT stations to bring us all back! Apparently one vehicle was spot checked ( do not ask me why or how) and doubt was cast on the MOT that the driver had, (so I guess that it makes them all bad) .

Having said that; Your council are casting doubt and dispersions on the whole of the MOT process/stations/industry if they do not trust them to do the job - that cannot be right.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Isn't any old MOT station open to abuse though, like a Dr who says you are fit when you can't see the end of the bonnet, and yes I've seen it done before.

The councils own stations can be dodgy as well. A long time ago I failed a pit test on roll bar bushes, so I went straight to my mechanic who said there was nothing wrong with them. Straight back to the depot who said unless they were changed it would not pass. I then went to another MOT station who also said there was nothing wrong, just to be sure I even went to a Ford main dealer and got a written statement stating that the bushes were fine.

Despite all this the council still said that 'in their opinion' the bushes were a fail and no certificate would be given until they were fixed. This is the same LA that said one of my tyres was below the legal limit, based on looking at it. Fortunately I carry a depth gauge in case I get stopped by plod (because they never measure the depth, but will issue a ticket based on the officers opinion that the tread is below 1.6mm) and this proved there was 4mm of tread on the tyre. Yet they still argued it looked less and suggested the gauge might be wrong !

the one thing we have never said is that we did not want to remove the council testing station.

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C. Oakes


The Hackney Association Ltd
bbha@btinternet.com

the one thing we have never said is that we wanted to remove the council testing station.

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C. Oakes


The Hackney Association Ltd
bbha@btinternet.com

we have a choice of about 8 BUT only 1 is in Stamford so if you want to use another you either have to drive 12 miles to a neighbouring town or 25 miles to grotsville !

There is quite a variation in price too from £45 cheapest to £59 most expensive which is the one in Stamford


The thing is with though is that "strikes" by cabbies don't get the message through to councillors just annoy your customers as I've always said a convoy of taxis causing havoc around the council offices just before a council meeting gets you NOTICED by councillors especially if the newspapers or radio or even TV are about or a nice rolling roadblock on a local motorway mind you to do that you'd have to reach 30mph which is impossible on the M60/62 isn't it ?

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