Taxi Driver Online

Shropshire taxi licence applications rise by 400%


A West Midlands council has said it is being “inundated” with taxi licence applications from drivers living outside their area.

Conservative-controlled Shropshire Council said applications increased by 400% over the last calendar year.

More than 80% of these came from applicants based outside Shropshire, the council said.

Councillor Steve Charmley said: “We are cracking down on that and revoking licences.”

A hackney carriage vehicle licence in Shropshire costs £130 compared to £220 in Birmingham.

Councillor Charmley said: “Because our prices are low compared to the surrounding authorities we seem to be inundated with applications from out of county drivers.”

He said a lot of applications came from taxi drivers in the Birmingham area who say they are operating in Bridgnorth.

Patrick Nolan, a Shropshire based taxi licence consultant, said drivers were taking advantage of a legal ruling in 2010 which ruled that licensed hackney carriage drivers could operate as private hire drivers anywhere in the UK, regardless of where their licence was issued.

Mr Nolan said he feared that if Shropshire Council rules that drivers they licence must pick up most of their business in the county it could end up hurting local drivers.

“At lot of Birmingham based drivers will come back into Shropshire and it will hit trade for drivers who are born, bred and live in Shropshire,” he said.

He said the current licence cost was “a bargain” and wanted to see it raised to £550.

Shropshire council’s Strategic Licensing Committee is due to look at the issue of taxi licences at a meeting on 17 January.

Taxi licences issued in Shropshire Jan – July 2011
A total of 1,468 licence applications were made
284 were for hackney carriage licences
375 were for private hire
809 were for joint drivers

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sh ... e-16544634

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

£130 thats cheap no wonderr they are getting inundated ours has just gone up to £200 and that doesn't include the testing

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

But would anyone really do all that to save £100?

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IDFIMH

Maybe.....

Maybe there's no age limit in Shropshire compared to brum?

Maybe theres no knowledge test in Shropshire compared to brum?

maybe theres no NVQ/BTEC in Shropshire compared to brum?

maybe its cheaper to insure a cab in Shropshire compared to brum?

(delete as appropriate)

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

I wouldn't imagine there's much in the way of quality control on Brum PH that would act as a deterrent.

Mabye it's easier to illegally ply for hire with a Shropshire HC rather than a Brum PH??

I would certainly agree with Sussex that it doesn't seem worth the bother to save £100, and the fees comparison in the paper is wrong as well, since it should be comparing Shropshire HC with Brum PH (rather than Brum HC), which may actually narrow the gap in fees still further.

But that is the mentality of many PH drivers look around for the cheapest cars insurance back street mechanics etc etc in order to cope with the silly cheap prices their boards are quoting and to be honest it isn't going to cost them £100 in fuel to go up the road I would think there would be testing stations council offices etc not far from Brum and with the asian crowd once one does it they all follow

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

Round our way we are getting hammered with Bolsover plates due to the cheapness of badges and tests, badges are £50 per year where as Ashfield's are £130 per year, testing in Bolsover is £125 in Ashfield it's £265.

According to the adc website it's £77 + dvla £5 + crb £26 total £108?

Bolsover £55 + dvla£5 + crb£26 total £86

Bolsover vehicle licence £160 + test according to there web site

Ashfield vehicle licence£343 including test.retest£85 not best value in my opinion,there has to be cheaper garages willing to do these test cheaper.assuming test is £85.343-85=258

Mansfield badge £75 +£5+£26=£106.vehicle £209dont say if it includes test or not

In mansield the hackney and private hire association objected to the 2007 fee increase,and guess what there has not been an increase since 2006 according to the minutes.Nige you need to talk to these people,yours has just been increased again.

Our council puts the fees up every 10 months !! the thing is we have no association or any sort of organuisation the trade is too divided and competitive for that

we pay £95 for badge not including crb or medical plate £200 plus 2 taxi tests a year which at our 1 local authorised garage ifs £59 but if you go up the road to Bourne where there are 2 garages authorised its £45

back in 1991 when I first started in the trade a badge was £10

The main trouble is a lot of the councils talk to each other and compare prices and if one is getting away with higher fees they all want the same however there are a few councils that price the service at what it actually costs not what they think they can charge and thats why there are a few cheaper councils.

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

Fees charged must be reasonable and no more than sufficient in the aggregate, in respect of S70, to cover the Council’s costs in whole or in part.

It has been established in a number of cases before the courts that a Council may not derive a profit or surplus from such licensing activity.

While the question of what is ‘reasonable’ can only be resolved by challenge, it seems clear that ‘costs’ charged to accounts to be recovered by licence fee income must be commensurate with the actual and necessary expenditure of human and material resources.

It follows that the Council must be able to demonstrate that those costs charged directly or by apportionment can be identified as being relevant and proportionate

Although a council has a statutory power to levy a fee this does not give it an absolutely free hand in relation to the scale of the fee that is levied.the impact of any increase upon the livelihood of those affected has to be taken into account,as does the scale of the increase.CONSULTATION must take place with interested parties,whether this is a statutory requirement or not, and results of that consultation must be considered by the council before the decision is made.it is important that any consultation is done fairly and the results considered properly by the council.ANY suggestion that the cosultation is a sham would be grounds for an application for leave to seek a judicial review of the final decision.
the judge in kelly v liverpool said although s53 contains no requirement for consultation, a local authority would be ill-advised not to embark upon some element of consultation with those persons who would be affected by an increase in fees (eg the drivers of BOTH hackney carriages and private hire vehicles).

‘best value’ a comparison the council has carried out in respect of its licensing functions and how it compares with the authorities it may have used as a ‘benchmark’

By virtue of the Local Government Act 1999 the authority is required to carry out such comparison