Taxi Driver Online

Found this on my travels last night - it's almost nine years old, but rings a very loud bell, but I can't find it on here. I mean, the word 'salting' isn't one that appears much in articles, so should be easy enough to find via the search if it was on here

But, anyway, this one's sensationalist as well, because this is covers a five year period, Glasgow cars are tested twice a year. And there were 5,000 of them at the time of this article.

Thus hardly a surprise that 'thousands' failed over the five years, even if the pass rate was quite good.

But we don't know, because the pass rate isn't stated, maybe because simply stating that 'thousands' failed makes the trade look worse than the %age rate.

But anyone else work out the actual pass rate from this? The numbers just don't make sense to me


Thousands of taxis and private hire cabs fail their twice yearly inspections over last five years

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/147 ... ive-years/

9th October 2016

THOUSANDS of taxis and private hire cabs have failed their twice yearly inspections over the past five years.

A Freedom of Information request revealed that between April 1 2011 and March 31 this year, a total of 12,200 vehicles failed to pass a city council inspection first time.

A spokesman for Glasgow Taxi Association pointed out taxis and private hires are tested to a much higher standard than a MOT on an ordinary car.

He said: “Unlike an MOT testing centre, they won’t offer to pop a bulb in or carry out the most minor of adjustments. These will be recorded as fails.

“Some of the failures will be for bizarre things like a door opening sign not working, a heater switch not operating on higher speed setting, the catch on the disabled ramp not securing properly, electric step failure etc.

“Another major reason is the five year rule. A Glasgow operator does not have access to the used taxi market the way virtually every other local authority operators do.

“The five year rule means any taxi older than this cannot be licensed by Glasgow City Council unless it was licensed by them in the previous 12 months.

“For example, a GTA member sourced an immaculate 8-year-old taxi from the London market to replace his 20-year-old taxi but the city council’s five year rule prohibits it.

“Many of the failures are due to body corrosion because of the much harsher winters and heavier salting of the roads but used cabs from the London market don’t suffer corrosion to the extent we do.

“Many operators would choose to update their vehicles but are denied access to the UK wide used taxi market - a situation peculiar to Glasgow.”

Stephen Flynn, vice chairman of Glasgow Taxis said it was difficult to fully understand and comment on the figures without a detailed breakdown.

He added: “However it is part of the local council licensing regulations that all Glasgow taxis require to pass these inspections or, if failing them, to correct those areas which are highlighted.

“One of the strongest elements of our offering is that all of our vehicles and drivers are fully vetted. Glasgow Taxis agrees with and fully understands the importance of such checks and balances with a view to public safety and confidence, especially in the current climate.”.

He added: “The council get £32.50 retest fee for failures if they are mechanical or emissions.”

A city council spokesman agreed taxi and private hire car inspections set a standard for vehicles well above the ordinary MOT test. He added: “Vehicles can also be inspected on multiple occasions over the course of the year.

“With almost 5000 licensed vehicles in Glasgow, it is estimated we have undertaken around 100,000 inspections in the past five years.

“The vast majority of issues with vehicles are quickly resolved but where there are more serious concerns, a licence can be suspended or ultimately revoked.

“Ensuring passenger safety is always the priority for the testing and licensing regime."

So, roughly speaking, if there are 5,000 cars tested twice yearly, then that's 50,000 tests over the five years? So that means roughly one quarter failed the inspection first time?

Or the pass rate is in the mid-70s% range?

That's the bit I can't understand - doesn't that mean around four inspections per plate per annum, when they're actually inspected twice per annum?

Of course, maybe the most obvious explanation for that is that the council is counting retests and substitutions, but four inspections per plate per annum still sounds far too much.

But maybe that's also consistent with the council's defensive stance to the numbers - the press is trying to make it all sound bad, while the council is defensive generally, and exaggerating the test figures somehow to get to 100,000 total inspections over the five years, and thus makes a few thousand failures sound not so bad as compared to the press headline.

So basically the council here trying to portray things in the best possible light. Unlike another council I could mention, particularly with regard to a particular part of its authority area

no doubt you'll say my maths is wrong again but I make that over a 14 year period which is 140000 tests which is an 8.7% fail rate approximately.

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

Edders, sometimes I think you just read the thread titles, rather than the articles themselves. But I don't think you've even read the thread title here

(And I included the date of the article because it was quite old, and also said how old the article was at the very top of the thread )

(Although other than the period covered by the tests, at least we seem to agree on the methodology )