Taxi Driver Online

Taxis for disabled ruled out by Carlisle council red tape - claim



A taxi firm owner says he’s being forced to reject 100 requests a week for transport from disabled people because of heavy handed rules.

Tony Young, of Carlisle Drivers, said there is a shortage of wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVs) – and he wants rules relaxed to ease the problem.

He wants licensing chiefs at Carlisle City Council to change the age restrictions put on vehicles, particularly WAVs, so his firm and others can keep up with demand. The policy was introduced in 2007.

He explained that for an appropriate vehicle under three years old, drivers would have to pay in the region of £12,000 or more, something many of his self-employed staff cannot afford.

He would like to see the limit changed to a seven-year-old maximum.

Mr Young said: “There’s a shortage of this type of vehicle in the city. If they relax the rules I hope it would enable drivers to buy vehicles for £8,000 as opposed to double that.

“We have to reject up to 100 calls for this type of work every week because of availability.

“It’s meant to be the Great Border City and you can’t get a WAV on request.”

He said these types of vehicles were also used by people with prams and push chairs.

Mr Young, who has been in the taxi firm business for 26 years, owns one WAV himself and 22 of his drivers have them. His is the largest taxi and private hire operator in Carlisle.

The council said that as the policy for the WAVs was being introduced, all taxi owners were asked for their preferred maximum vehicle age limit on initial licensing.

Of those who replied 41 per cent wanted one year; 22 per cent wanted three; nine per cent wanted five and 16 per cent wanted no minimum age policy.

Wayne Casey, chairman of Carlisle Taxi Association, said in a letter to the city council he didn’t want the policy to put drivers out of the trade.

“In short, we believe the authority could allow existing licensees a degree of discretion according to their circumstances,” he said.

Councillors on the city’s regulatory panel will discuss the matter at a meeting on Wednesday.

source: http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/taxis ... -1.1187550

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

wise words

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

#JeSuisTony

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

So this company have access to 23 WAVS and they have to turn down 100 calls a week. That is about 4 jobs per car. I smell something bovine.

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Grandad,

Carlisle has lost about one quarter of its WAV fleet in 7 years

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

How many WAVs are there in Carlisle and what is the population? I think our population is just under half that of Carlisle and we have 2 WAV hackneys in the town and they are not called upon very often. We are the biggest company in the town and we get asked for a wheelchair vehicle about once every 3 months.

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Grandad,

population of the district is around 100,000

the policy, well intentioned as it was, has created a situation where the fleet size of WAV's has decreased - the people who are being let down are the wheelchair bound.....interestingly they've invited another prop to the meeting who has around half a dozen WAV's, and he's been buying saloon HC plates as fast as he can.

Would be a real shame if the council licensed rear loaders lolz

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

We get around 40 calls a day for WAV's. Not from wheelchair users but parents who are too lazy to take their kid out of the fold down buggy. I've even turned up to jobs (in a saloon) where the mothers stood there with a pram saying 'I asked for a black-cab' and after I tell them I can order one but it'll take a few minutes to get here they sigh and reply 'can I not just stick it in the boot ? '

Just waiting for an accident because the buggys never strapped down properly in a WAV by the parent/driver.

Actual calls from users who HAVE to have a WAV because they can't get out of their chair and into a vehicle - no more than 5 a week.
Number of calls from the elderly and disabled (non wheelchair users and those who can get out of the chair) who can't get in a WAV because they're either minibuses or black cabs and need a saloon - hundreds !

So the 99.99% of disabled passengers in my area need a vehicle that is NOT a WAV

Do you tell your customers on the phone they're liars?

thought not - as customers go - they all are - but invariably they should be supplied with what they want?

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

Even if what they want is illegal?

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Grandad,

I never knew you ran that type of establishment

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

I don't but others round here do.

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Grandad,

No, they actually tell us they want a WAV for a pram/buggy/pushchair - and if that's what they want that's what we send. It even comes across the datahead as 'pram job needed xx area'.

Half our fleet is WAV yet we hardly do any true wheelchair jobs (those that can't get out of the chair), the vast majority of disabled - including wheelchair users - prefer a saloon because they find them easier to get in and out of.

Carlisle firm's challenge to wheelchair cabs age limit fails



A taxi firm operator has failed in his bid to persuade council chiefs to relax their rules and allow older wheelchair-friendly cabs to take to the roads.

Tony Young said he was being forced to turn down hundreds of requests a week for transport from disabled people and others needing larger vehicles because of the age-limit on wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVs).

Carlisle City Council policy is that the ones they grant licences to must be no more than three-years-old and insist this contributes to maintaining the standard of the fleet the city boasts.

Mr Young, who runs Carlisle Drivers – the largest taxi and private hire operator in the city, said there was a shortage of the vehicles and he believed the council’s age limit rule should be relaxed to seven.

But members of the council’s regulatory panel have thrown out his bid following support for their existing hackney carriage policy from Radio Taxis, another city firm, and others.

Mr Young was also told there was nothing stopping him buying a number of WAVs and running them as private hire vehicles, which the council has no control over.

Stuart Davidson, of Radio Taxis, said: “It is currently the policy of our firm to buy new or ex-demonstration vehicles. It is cheaper and cleaner to run new vehicles compared to older ones.

“Our vehicles normally do around 45,000 to 50,000 miles a year so taking that into account and if you bought an older vehicle it could’ve covered something like 300,000 miles.

“Why would you want the fleet to go backwards? The fleet in Carlisle is getting better and better, the standard of the fleet is fantastic. We think we’ve got one of the best fleets in the country here in Carlisle.”

Councillor John Bell chairs the city council’s regulatory panel. He said: “If we were to extend the age it would reduce the standard of the vehicles and standards for our passengers.

“We’ve got a reasonable standard of cars in Carlisle. Our officers know the vehicles and their history.

“There’s a saying that you can buy someone else’s problems when it gets to six or seven years old, and there’s an element of truth in that. You don’t know the history.”

The issue was debated on Wednesday when the regulatory panel considered Mr Young’s application to have a six-year-old vehicle licensed as a wheelchair accessible taxi.

Carlisle Taxi Association, which represents many cab drivers from across the area, said it believed there was a case for existing drivers to be given discretion by the panel in the future.

The association said drivers approaching retirement age could face a quandary because it can be difficult for them to obtain the finance they need to purchase a new vehicle.

source: http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/carli ... -1.1188580

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

Total b*llocks

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