Taxi Driver Online

Taxi permits halved amid 'licence shopping' claim

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8j16y9y05o

The number of taxi drivers licensed in Newcastle-under-Lyme has dropped by 47% - a decrease the council put down to having tighter rules than other local authorities.

Taxi licensing laws allow drivers to gain licences with other councils but still operate in their home area.

Members of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council's public protection committee claimed the system meant authorities were effectively being "punished" for having higher standards.

The council is working on its response to a government consultation on overhauling the national licensing framework, which could see an end to "licence shopping".

The number of private hire and Hackney carriage drivers registered with the borough council has fallen from 1020 to 546 since a new council licensing system was introduced in 2019.

Licensing lead Matthew Burton told the committee that the borough council, in its response to the consultation, would be calling for national standards to apply to all authorities.

He said: "There are some local authorities that have very high standards and some that have very low standards, and many in between. There is a lack of consistency.

"What that means is that individuals are able to 'licence shop', and find the licensing authority that they may be able to get a licence from, when they might not be able to from their home authority.

Mr Burton said the committee had been told multiple times that the area's "comprehensive" policy has meant licence holders leave the authority, and new applicants wouldn't apply because its standards are too high.

He said there is also a need to update licensing rules to make the system less vulnerable to organised crime, with taxi drivers being implicated in child sexual exploitation and county lines gangs in various parts of the country.

The committee voted to approve an updated taxi licensing policy, which will come into effect in January.

Following a consultation, the council has dropped a proposal to remove door livery from taxis, after it was decided that this would make it too difficult to identify licensed vehicles.

Councillor Rupert Adcock added: "We effectively have a [national] system that punishes local authorities that have higher safety standards and rewards those with lower standards, and that's just not right.

"In our response to the consultation we should set out the minimum standards that we want."

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IDFIMH

Interesting that both HC and PH driver numbers seem to have dropped.

Had a look at the council website but can't see anything about vehicle licence numbers.

According to the DfT's stats they only issue a dual HC/PH badge, Mr XH558, so it's basically misreported in the article, which makes it sound like they're separate badges, and both have reduced:


Can't be bothered looking back several years, but between 2023 and 2024 it looks like both HC and PH vehicles have reduced in rough proportion, so it looks like an even spread between the two codes.

Which is maybe surprising, because the vast majority of HCs would seem to be saloons, and thus were presumably restricted in number, because otherwise they'd very probably ALL be HCs

Of course, we're a bit past the days now when HC numbers would never go below the quota number, but I'm still surprised that they have reduced in a largely saloon HC fleet, unless there's some huge factor not evident from the basic numbers. (Apart from the Wolves angle, obviously, which tend to affect mainly PHV numbers...)

So instead they'll have more Wolves-plated cars, which don't have door livery at all

I seem to recall a couple of post pandemic articles about the wider potteries area which suggested that the night time economy had dramatically reduced so there will be fewer drivers needed

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

For what it's worth, this is largely the same article by the same (shared) Local Government Reporting Service (LDRS) reporter, but on the Stoke Sentinel's site rather than the BBC one above

And which contains a clearer explanation of the driver numbers, and also the longer-term trend in vehicle numbers. Also a few additional councillor quotes and the like, although nothing particularly earth-shattering.

(I think the BBC tends to edit those LDRS articles to make them a bit shorter, while the local press outlets tend to go with the full versions. Thus I'd guess the BBC version was maybe edited with regard to the driver numbers (and the vehicle numbers omitted completely) and thus the fact that only dual badges are issued was lost in the translation somewhere )

But the vehicle numbers quoted in the second paragraph are certainly stark, and show that the decline is pretty even across the two codes - about 35/36%

And the driver number reduction is significantly higher than that - almost halved - suggesting more singled cars, and less double-shifting. Or something like that.

And the driver/vehicle ratio for local cars has reduced substantially from around 1.3 to less than 1.1


North Staffordshire cabbies taking advantage of taxi licence loophole

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/st ... p-10440774

Newcastle Borough Council is calling for the government to introduce national standards for taxi licensing

The number of taxi drivers licensed in Newcastle has nearly halved in five years due to 'licence shopping', councillors have been told. Newcastle Borough Council introduced its current taxi licensing policy in 2019, and since then the number of drivers registered with authority has fallen from 1,020 to 546 - a 47 per cent drop.

The number of private hire vehicles licensed by the council has fallen from 600 to 385, while the number of Hackney carriages has gone down from 194 to 127. Members of the public protection committee were told that the decrease in licences issued by the borough council was due to it having tighter rules than other authorities in the area.

Under the current licensing system, drivers are able to gain licences at other councils but still operate in their home area. The borough council is drawing up its response to the government's consultation on overhauling the national licensing framework, which could see an end to this sort of licence shopping.

Committee members believe the current system means authorities are effectively being 'punished' for having higher standards. Licensing lead Matthew Burton told the committee that the borough council, in its response to the consultation, would be calling for national standards to apply to all authorities.

He said: "There are some local authorities that have very high standards and some that have very low standards, and many in between. There is a lack of consistency.

"What that means is that individuals are able to 'licence shop', and find the licensing authority that they may be able to get a licence from, when they might not be able to from their home authority. We implemented a comprehensive, fit-for-purpose taxi policy in 2019.

"We've been told on multiple occasions that licence holders leave the authority and new applicants won't apply because our standards are too high. Those are standards that have been approved by the committee and we stand by them, but unfortunately applicants go to other authorities, get licences and come back here.

"We've decreased nearly 47 per cent in terms of drivers, which really is a significant amount, when other authorities are having such large increases."

Mr Burton said there is also a need to update licensing rules to make the system less vulnerable to organised crime, with taxi drivers being implicated in child sexual exploitation and county lines gangs in various parts of the country.

Committee chair Joan Whieldon believes the borough council is right to have high standards that protect the public. She said: "While we have the legislation, each authority is able to interpret it in their own way, and you have some that interpret it tightly, and offer greater protection to their residents and visitors, and those who are quite slack and do it so they get more taxi drivers.

"What we try to do, as a committee and as a council, is protect our residents without there being a detriment to our taxi drivers, which is quite a hard line to follow. I think it's best to have a good reputation for our taxi drivers, rather than a bad one, which I do know that some neighbouring authorities do have."

Councillor Rupert Adcock said: "We effectively have a system that punishes local authorities that have higher safety standards and rewards those with lower standards, and that's just not right. In our response to the consultation we should set out the minimum standards that we want."

The public protection committee also voted to approve an updated taxi licensing policy, which will come into effect in January. Following a consultation, the council has dropped a proposal to remove door livery from taxis, after it was decided that this would make it too difficult to identify licensed vehicles.

The new licensing policy includes updated rules relating to vehicle criteria and an amendment to the knowledge test.

I suppose the Sentinel's take is potentially misleading in another way, because it refers to the driver numbers using the generic t-word, thus potentially confusing unless you're aware that they only issue dual HC/PHV badges.

But I suppose that the average reader of both pieces won't really bother about the fine detail in that way, and to that extent it's not really relevant to them, unlike the anoraks on here