Taxi Driver Online

From a recent Gloucester Citizen:

Drivers want action in row over bookings

City taxi drivers are involved in a wrangle with private hire drivers over the pick-up of customers. The taxi drivers are members of the Hackney Carriage Association, are self-employed and can pick up anyone anywhere.

Private hire drivers can only pick up those passengers who have previously booked.

Brian Webb, 54, of Longlevens, a Hackney carriage driver for 20 years, claimed that some private hire drivers were picking up customers who had not booked.

There was concern that if an accident occurred, passengers would not be insured.

If private hire drivers are caught picking up customers who have not booked, they can be prosecuted and fined for driving without a licence.

Gloucester City Council is the licensing authority responsible for both. Its officers have the job of monitoring the activities of drivers and companies.

But members of the drivers' union and the Transport and General Workers' Union Hackney carriages committee say not enough is being done to monitor the situation.

"We have a bad situation in Gloucester where we believe some private hire drivers are doing illegal pick-ups, ranking up and illegally taking flag-downs," said Mr Webb.

"As soon as council officers come out to check, the private hires disappear. We're concerned the council is not doing enough to stop these activities going on. All our members are concerned they are parking up and stopping the trade from getting to the ranks." But Max Linke, proprietor of the private hire firm 1st Associated Taxis, in Coney Hill, claimed the association was being too quick to point the finger.

He said: "Sometimes late at night or over a weekend you'll see a taxi pulling into a bus stop. It may be a person has waited half an hour for a bus and called a private hire firm instead.

"I think the Hackney Carriage Association sometimes assumes every private hire firm is breaking the law. It does go on but it's not something we condone or practise." And Marcus Grodentz, a spokesman for the city council, said some of what was perceived as illegal was above board.

"Jumpin Jaks is a city clubs that operates a pre-booking system before people leave," he said. "The likelihood is they're booked by patrons from inside the club. That's perfectly legal.

"We do pay periodic checks on clubs that operate these systems and we're planning to make visits in the fairly near future."

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Instead of tarring all PH, why don't the good folks from the T&G get real evidence and encourage the council, instead of their usual scare-mongering.

Just running to the local press saying they believe iffy things are happening, will get them nowhere. Get the plate numbers, get photos, try and get details of the customers.

In other words stop yapping, and start doing.

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IDFIMH

We only have about 5 pH out of around 85 cars, so plying for hire is not a problem.

When I started about 6 years ago there were a few complaints, but there was only 40 cars at that time. so the PH never get a chance to ply these days

Glad we dont have the probelm though, theres enough bitching and bickering as it is.

And the moral of this tale is, get rid of PH and there's no illegal plying for hire

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Your starting to sound like a London cabby.

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IDFIMH