Taxi Driver Online

No you are assuming!!!

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Legal and proud

Loads a love from BERTIE !!

I'm not sure that's the case.

If every limo driver and operator had to go through the 'fit and proper' process I doubt the % that passed would be high.

That's why they like the law nice and grey (in their opinion).

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IDFIMH

Found this on the Autocar site.


DVLA to clean up UK's limo business

Got a party or event coming up? Hiring a stretched limousine for the occasion? Then local police and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency would urge you to exercise care.

After a spate of crashes, gaffes and other trouble, the police is stepping up Operation Dakota, a fancy name for what is essentially a plan to clean up the act of the myriad unlicensed drivers of stretched limousines in the UK.

The operation began in Manchester at the end of last year, but is now spreading accross the national police network.

It's necessary because, right now, all you need to set up a stretched limousine business is a driving licence. The DVLA is planning new laws which will mandate limo drivers to take a special test, to register with the local council, and to have their limousine subjected to a rigourous test every year, in the same way that taxi drivers are regulated. However, until those rules are passed, it's falling to the police to clean up the UK's limousines.

Most stretch limos are imported from America, and often don’t conform to European safety regulations. Local councils have proposed licences which would entail a criminal record check, local knowledge test and a driver medical, as well as rigorous bi-annual MOTs. So if you're in the stretched limo business and that doesn't sound too appealing, now might be time to think about a change of career. Or of location.

Funnily enough though, it doesn't look like the life of a limo driver is much easier on the other side of the pond, particularly in San Francisco. The Ford Excursion-based stretch limo pictured got beached at the junction of Connecticut and 18th streets in the Potrero Hill area of the city. Perhaps running a limo business in the city of forty hills isn’t the best idea.

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IDFIMH

The sham is a piece of legal fiction and if it ever went before the courts then those taking part in the sham would soon find that out.

No limo operator has ever been taken to court over sham Wedding contracts, or the seven day contract rule and the reason for that is that those entrusted with enforcing the law are fragmented and oblivious to the law. That is why no one would get off their backside and prosecute pink ladies.

We need a special hire or reward prosecution unit who know what they are doing and new enforcement laws to go with it.

However, as long as we have the so called National Taxi association, the T&G, the NTTG and GMBU saying lets tinker around the edges then the Taxi trade deserves all it gets.

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

My god you have found a right bit of old news. Operation Dakota has indeed been in operation since last year. It was operation Dakota that caught out company's like Oasis. We have been backing this operation for months. The Excursion picture, although not shown here has been in circulation and laughed at by us all for months. It is very funny.
Try and find something new.

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Grandad,

Well I suggest you ring up Autocar and tell them.

As for the Limo trade supporting any clamp-downs.

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IDFIMH

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Oi ! get back to work

Neil Barlow, head of VOSA traffic enforcement policy said: “Although we are more than aware that the majority of limousine operators conduct their business in a safe fashion, VOSA will continue to crackdown on the reckless minority who put the public at risk in this way.

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Legal and proud

Loads a love from BERTIE !!

I see he stopped short of mentioning the word "legal".

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

I give up you will clearly read in to it in a negative way no matter what was said or not said

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Legal and proud

Loads a love from BERTIE !!

Don't give up lol I'm sure Mr Barlow meant the majority of limos were legal but it would be interesting to know how many limos are actually licensed by local councils and how many limos there are offering a hire or reward service in the UK?

Perhaps Mr Barlow or the DfT can supply us with these figures and then we can make our own minds up as to whether or not the majority of limos are operating legally?

The licensed limo website which I previously posted said there are less than 40 vehicles in the UK licensed as PSV, would that be factually corrrect? It has also been published on here by one of you limo operators that around 180 licensing authorities in the UK refuse to license limos. Therefore it should be quite a simple task to obtain the accurate information as to number of limos licensed by the existing hundred and and odd licensing authorities.

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

I suppose it would depend on how old the information on this particular website is. But I can assure you that it is far more than that. I would guess that this information would be available from VOSA in regards to PSV. It could be a nice little project for you to actually find out some real information from VOSA regards to limos. You could even ask Mr Barlow for his opinion regarding self drive.

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Grandad,

I hope to find out how many are licensed as psv and private hire but in general terms my only interest is in the illegal operation of hire or reward, regardless of whether the vehicles are limousines.

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

From what I see I would say 10-20% of the eight-seaters or less are legal, and maybe 5% of the eight to 16 seaters.

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IDFIMH

Any chance of any kind of information to back up this claim, or are these figures that you have plucked out of thin air, again.

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Grandad,