Taxi Driver Online

Duplicated Plates Could Have Ruined Me - Cabbie

Friday, July 03, 2009

A Gloucestershire taxi driver says a blunder by Cheltenham Borough Council has put his livelihood at risk.

Dial-a-Car driver Andrew Green, from Lynworth, was driving through Cheltenham last week when he saw another cabbie with the licence plate number 307 – the same one as him.

Licence plates, issued by the council, are designed as individual identification numbers for taxi drivers within the borough.

And the 24-year-old, who applied for a private hire licence four months ago, said the duplication could have catastrophic consequences for his career.

Mr Green said: "That number is what customers identify me by. It should be unique to me.

"If someone else is driving around with the same one it puts my livelihood at risk because if something happened – a hit-and-run for instance – and all witnesses saw was the plate number, then I would not have a leg to stand on.

"It's probably a basic administrative error but even so, it's not acceptable.

"I've paid hundreds of pounds to get started, including licensing and other administrative fees, and yet the council can't even seem to get three digits right.

"If I hadn't seen the other car, he'd still be driving around now. I wouldn't be surprised if there are other instances where plates are being duplicated."

Other taxi drivers have criticised the council's licence enforcement officers for not doing their jobs properly.

Gary Knight, 43, a cabbie from Springbank, said: "The enforcement officers are not monitoring the situation closely enough.

"When a driver's plate expires they should recall it straight away. Otherwise it leaves the door open for duplication, and for people to carry on driving illegally.

"There have been cases where people have carried on driving for months after their plates have expired.

"It's up to the licensing authority to enforce it more strictly. If they don't it's the customer who will suffer."

Trevor Gladding, community safety and licensing manager at Cheltenham Borough Council, said: "This was a regrettable error which happened recently and as soon as it was identified we took immediate action.

"Mr Green has kept his licence plate number and the other driver has received a new one."

Source; thisisgloucestershire.co.uk

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Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

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Far be it for me to say but perhaps the licensing need a proper training course before they are allowed to issue plates

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

If the plate did not have an expiry date on it this would not happen.

Once we get our plates they are ours until we hand them back.
Plates should be issued to the owner not the vehicle, then they can be transfered to the next vehicle if the owner buys a new one, and a certificate of compliance issued to display in the vehicle with the licence expiry date on it

Nah most councils including ours issue plates on a 12 monthly basis if you buy a new vehicle you get a new number but if you renew then the number stays the same. One thing about this though is that you can have a ph and a hackney with the same number I wonder if this is in fact what has happened and that there is a PH307 and a hackney 307

Is this really such a problem?

By the sounds of it the mush thinks it's the end of the world.

FFS it was a mistake, even I occasionally make them.

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IDFIMH

Edders, as you said in one of your other posts, the council is loosing money, if they are issuing a new plate every year no wonder

WHAT???

This just cannot be!!!!!

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you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

You and your training courses

I know but I love it when people get together to learn things. Suppose I like the variety of personalities you get in one room and the differing of opinions. That aside I think license officers should be trained at least in the law that they are trying to uphold and inflict on taxi drivers

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

It hasn't ruined him at all, a mistake is a mistake, but there are other considerations to the scenario, especially in current times where not all cab drivers and wannabees play the game, the way to beat it is to set up camera units at the beginning of ranks, then as the car is loaded a pic of the driver is taken and the ANPR can log the time and plate number as it leaves the rank, then an LO reviews the footage car by car to see if the car,plate and driver are all the same as what the license sheet says.

My God!!!

That would catch hundreds out in Brum, especially on Sundays on New Street Station, where it has been suspected for years that fifteenth, eighteenth and forty-second unlicensed cousins of licensed Hackney drivers do a shift whilst the LO's are at home on the sabbath.

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.