Taxi Driver Online

Official Staffordshire Police news release alert

Headline and some of the wording here a tad misleading, I think. 'Illegal' taxis and drivers suggests unplated cars and unbadged drivers, but I suspect here they just mean cars and drivers that have, er, done something illegal

But good to read that the various agencies are all working closely in partnership with each other. Never read that before in a press release of this kind (highlighted in purple).

More seriously, there's a slightly unusual 'fair competition' slant to this, and the mention of 'disruption' to the workings of the market, which is a tad different from the normal focus on safety and illegality (highlighted in red).


Illegal taxi drivers disrupted in successful operation

https://www.staffordshire.police.uk/new ... operation/

Nearly ten illegal taxis have been reported for prosecution after we completed a successful operation in North Staffordshire.

Local officers from the Roads Policing Unit (RPU) teamed up with Stafford Borough Council, Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council and the DVSA to target illegal taxi plying in Stone on 26 November.

We went out on patrol to check if taxis were operating lawfully. We checked things like:

• Vehicles and drivers were insured
 
• Fares were sensible

• Drivers were not using their mobile phones on the road

• Speeding

The DVSA also checked for issues such as:

• Roadworthiness

• Correct driving licence entitlement

We observed them through the night, resulting in eight taxis being reported for various motor offences.

Four of those were prohibited from operating by the DVSA. They had tyres, seatbelt and lighting issues and will not be back on the road until the defects are rectified.

PC Martin Randle, who took part in the operation, said: “Illegal taxis serve as a disruption to residents and businesses – especially in rural areas where there is a reduced public service in the evening and there are less transport options for vulnerable members of the community.

“We’ve worked closely with our partners to target those responsible and stop them from influencing the supply and demand of taxi hire within the region.

“Operations like this will be vital moving forward to stop those responsible and ensure the public have access to legal and fair taxi services in all areas of Staffordshire.”

Mark Winnington, Cabinet member for Environment at Stafford Borough Council, said: “This is a good example of working with our partners to protect businesses and for the safety of residents.

“It is important that those who ply for trade in our borough have been properly licensed by Stafford Borough Council and undergone all the relevant checks to ensure passengers will be safe.”

Dave Collings, Head of Enforcement Delivery at DVSA, said: “We’re really pleased to be working in partnership with Staffordshire police helping to keep vehicles in the local community safe.

“Taxi drivers are entrusted by their fare paying passengers to provide safe and roadworthy vehicles to get them to their destination.

“In the future, we will plan other operations to target those who undermine road safety and help to protect fair competition within this industry.”

What's that supposed to mean, precisely? A fare is either legal or it isn't. It's not really up to police or LOs to decide whether fares are sensible.


Next police will be lecturing us about supply and demand equilibrium and elasticities etc

This is the photo Staffs Police issued with the press release. That Passat looks like it's seen better days, and it's a B6, so must be nearly a teenager, and could be a lot older

This has come up before. There is a large venue in Stone that does a lot of xmas parties and weddings and the stoke on Trent PH's often go out there and rank up as it's a small town with the bulk of the fares available going back to the 5 towns.

Fortunately the police and licensing authorities are well aware of this and the local licensed trade much annoyed about this, although I would imagine this is a once a year operation so those caught on the night were just unlucky to try it on the wrong night.

We have in the past had a similar situation with the Haycock hotel where we would get half a dozen or so bookings from a wedding or a summer ball only to have no pick ups on half of them because the Peterborough PH's all rank up there and grab our fares back to Stamford.

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

Yes, I recall the thread, and it started about cars being targetted for stopping on zig-zags and, er, ended up down a huge rabbit hole

Which is why I'm not linking to the thread or bumping it

This is what I said at the time

Sensible to whom?

I get the checks on vehicle safety, and I get the checks on drivers to see if they are licensed, but fares are not down to the police.

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IDFIMH

This is the press release issued by Stafford Borough Council.

Can't be bothered going through it all with a fine tooth comb, but a quick skim suggests there's a couple of obvious changes, at least for us anoraks

First, the point about 'fares being sensible' has been changed to 'appropriate fares were being charged'. Which is consistent with what we were saying about it not being the business of police or council to check fares were 'sensible', but 'appropriate' of course is consistent with them being simply legally charged fares.

The misleading 'illegal taxi drivers' thing is still being used, but there's a specific mention of plying for hire here, which is consistent with what Edders was saying about Stone, and is of course more consistent with what council LOs might be saying, as opposed to the more vague stuff in the Staffs Police press release.


Illegal taxi drivers disrupted in successful operation in Stone

https://www.staffordbc.gov.uk/news/ille ... tion-stone

Eight illegal taxi drivers have been reported for prosecution after a successful operation in Stone. 

Local police officers from the Roads Policing Unit (RPU) teamed up with Stafford Borough Council, Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) to target taxi drivers plying for hire illegally in the town. 

Checks on a number of taxis included: 

• Vehicles and drivers were insured 
• Appropriate fares were being charged 
• Drivers were not using their mobile phones on the road and 
• Roadworthiness

The drivers were observed through the night, and it resulted in in eight cabbies being reported for various motor offences. Four of those were prohibited from operating by the DVSA because of tyres, seatbelt and lighting issues - and would not be allowed back on the road until the defects are rectified. 

Mark Winnington, Cabinet Member for Environment at Stafford Borough Council, said: “This is a good example of working with our partners to protect businesses and for the safety of residents. 

“It is important that those who ply for trade in our borough have been properly licensed by Stafford Borough Council and undergone all the relevant checks to ensure passengers will be safe.” 

PC Martin Randle, who took part in the operation, said: “Illegal taxis serve as a disruption to residents and businesses – especially in rural areas where there is a reduced public service in the evening and there are less transport options for vulnerable members of the community. 

“We’ve worked closely with our partners to target those responsible and stop them from influencing the supply and demand of taxi hire within the region. 

“Operations like this will be vital moving forward to stop those responsible and ensure the public have access to legal and fair taxi services in all areas of Staffordshire.” 

Dave Collings, Head of Enforcement Delivery at DVSA, said: “We’re really pleased to be working in partnership with Staffordshire police helping to keep vehicles in the local community safe. 

“Taxi drivers are entrusted by their fare paying passengers to provide safe and roadworthy vehicles to get them to their destination. 

“In the future, we will plan other operations to target those who undermine road safety and help to protect fair competition within this industry.”

So I suspect the 'illegal taxi drivers' referred to by both Staffs Police and Stafford Borough Council is referring to illegal plying for hire and to the extent that it suggests completely fake or bogus drivers, then it's a tad misleading. But at least the council specifically uses the term 'plying for hire'.


By contrast, Staffs Police used the words 'illegal taxi plying', which suggests to me the completely fake/bogus type (particularly combined with the 'illegal taxi drivers' in the headline) and not plated cars illegally plying for hire.


So 'illegal taxi plying' may not seem a huge difference from 'taxi drivers plying for hire illegally' in the town.

But at the very least, the former is ambiguous, but the latter clarifies the meaning more precisely. And obviously Stafford Council thinks it makes a difference, because that's presumably why they've used the different wording

Still not happy even with that.

Maybe authorised fares or agreed fares.

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IDFIMH