Taxi Driver Online

Almost half of taxis checked fail to come up to standard


BALD tyres and broken lights are just some of faults found with a number of “dangerous” taxis during spot checks in Worcester.

Three drivers were immediately issued with fixed penalty points and were taken off the road while 10 other drivers have also been pulled up for the poor state of their vehicles.

However, one driver whose vehicle was in a particularly bad state escaped receiving any fixed penalty points – because an inspection was carried out just minutes after police officers had departed from the scene of Worcester City Council’s latest enforcement exercise.

At the council’s licensing committee Andy Fox, senior licensing officer, said: “West Mercia Police finished at 10pm and the last vehicle probably came in immediately after that time.

“As a result the vehicle was not subject to penalty points which it would certainly have received.”

That driver’s vehicle was temporarily taken off the road, however, and they will now have to face the licensing committee along with will all of the other drivers served with prohibition notices during the council’s second exercise of the year.

That was carried out in conjunction with West Mercia Police and the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) on November 20.

The committee heard that although 13 (46.4 per cent) of the 28 vehicles checked at taxi ranks at The Cross and Foregate Street between 5.30pm and 10pm were found to have faults, a large number of those had been specifally targeted.

Councillor Marc Bayliss, who took part in the enforcement evening, said he got to see “the best and the worst of the trade” and added it was “very worrying” to see some of the defects found.

“One vehicle had the lights out on both the front and back,” he said. “It should have been obvious to anybody and should’ve been recognised before driving.”

Councillor David Clark, committee chairman, said: “This is deeply disappointing.”

Councillor Simon Cronin agreed but said the results were not representative of the whole of Worcester’s taxi fleet – which consists of about 220 vehicles – because the majority of those caught had been specifically targeted by officers.

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