Taxi Driver Online

This is a post on the Leicestershire Police Facebook page.

Which isn't particularly glowing from the trade's perspective. But it would be interesting to know how many, or if all the 21 cars checked were Wolves-plated. I mean, no local cars at all checked? Nothing to suggest local LOs were involved at all, but who knows?

Also, it's not clear whether the stats apply only to the trade, or other vehicles they were checking. But the specific list of faults and offences seems to be only about plated vehicles, and three of the bulleted points in the list below specifically refer to the plated vehicles. But the third bullet point could refer to vehicles generally, but who knows?

Another thing is maybe that although the reference is simply to 'taxis', if it's only Wolves cars checked then they're presumably all PHVs. But, again, who knows?

(And presumably the eight cars that weren't 'escorted' for checks were in quite good condition. And presumably the 21 actually escorted for checks were subject to fairly thorough inspections - now try that with the general public )

https://www.facebook.com/leicspolice/po ... 1TuKuVj87l

Officers from our Roads Policing Unit (RPU) have carried out a road safety operation on the roads around East Midlands Airport checking the road worthiness of cars, particularly taxis.

Working with officers from the airport policing team they stopped 29 vehicles identifying a number of offences. They were joined by staff from the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Taxi Licencing Department and escorted 21 vehicles to be checked by vehicle examiners.

• Six drivers were given ‘delayed suspensions’ which means they have a certain period of time to fix vehicle defects or risk losing their taxi licence.

• Two immediate licence suspensions were issued (these being due to driving vehicles with defective tyres in a dangerous condition).

• Six drivers were reported for traffic offences, including no insurance and illegal tyres.

• A prohibition notice was issued on 1 taxi due to it being in an unroadworthy condition.

PC Adam Sparrow from the RPU said; “The aim of the operation was to ensure that people going to the airport for their summer holiday arrive safely. From an operational point of view it was a great success and we had lots of positive comments from passengers and the other agencies we worked with.

However, it is disappointing that we found taxis that were unroadworthy risking the safety of their passengers, not something you expect when you get in a taxi. We will be carrying out another operation in the near future and would urge taxi drivers to ensure their vehicles are 100% roadworthy.”

And maybe it's just me, but does this press portrayal make it seem a bit worse than it actually was? Particularly, as per usual, with the headline portraying 'multiple unroadworthy' vehicles.

And the highlighted paragraph in particular seems to portray the delayed suspensions as meaning the vehicles were 'unroadworthy', which I think is overegging things a bit.

Maybe not the worst example of this kind of framing, but it certainly ups the ante a bit.



Multiple 'unroadworthy' taxis discovered in Leicestershire safety checks near East Midlands Airport

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news ... s-10405801

Officers said the vehicles were putting passengers' safety at risk

Multiple "unroadworthy" taxis have been found during police safety checks. Officers have hit out at the "disappointing" discoveries, which they said put passengers' safety at risk.

The checks on vehicles' road worthiness were conducted by Leicestershire Police’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU) in the area around East Midlands Airport, with a particular focus on cabs. Working alongside the airport’s policing team, officers stopped 29 vehicles, while staff from the City of Wolverhampton Council’s taxi licensing department - from which many taxis which operate in Leicestershire gain their credentials - escorted 21 vehicles to be checked by examiners.

The RPU revealed it found a number of taxis which were “unroadworthy” and were “risking the safety of their passengers”. According to police, six drivers were given delayed suspensions, meaning that they have a certain period of time to fix vehicle defects or risk losing their taxi licences.

Two immediate licence suspensions were issued due to vehicles operating with defective tyres, which were in a dangerous condition. Another six drivers were reported for traffic offences, which included not having insurance and having illegal tyres on their cabs. A prohibition notice was also issued on one taxi due to it being in an unroadworthy condition.

Pc Adam Sparrow, from the RPU, said: “The aim of the operation was to ensure that people going to the airport for their summer holiday arrive safely.

“From an operational point of view it was a great success and we had lots of positive comments from passengers and the other agencies we worked with. However, it is disappointing that we found taxis that were unroadworthy risking the safety of their passengers, not something you expect when you get in a taxi.”

He said police would be carrying out more checks. Pc Sparrow said: “We will be carrying out another operation in the near future and would urge taxi drivers to ensure their vehicles are 100 per cent roadworthy.”

The TaxiPoint version is maybe a bit more straight bat as well, and frames this from the trade perspective in terms of the cross-border angle...


Cross-border taxi and private hire checks at East Midlands Airport delivers ‘disappointing’ results

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/cross ... ng-results

Whilst the police can stop any vehicles, Wolves LOs can only check details of vehicles/drivers that they license. Unless a specific council has given them authority to do so.

So I suspect they were all Wolves vehicles.

However, if someone wants to find fault, then they will IMO.

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IDFIMH