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TAXI TRADE HEADS FOR COURT OVER JOBS THREAT
Legal action has been threatened to halt a council plan which it is claimed could put 270 taxi drivers in Aberdeen out of a job.
The city council's licensing committee decided yesterday that the same person who owns a taxi plate should also be the licensed driver who uses the vehicle each day. The decision came after licensing solicitor Donald Macleod ruled that the common practice of hiring taxi plates was illegal.
In Aberdeen, as in some other parts of Scotland, it is common for plate owners to hire them out to drivers. The going rate is said to be about £50 a week. The circumstances of those hiring out plates varies. They may be approaching retirement or suffering ill health, having driven the taxi themselves, or they may wish to share a vehicle.
But a plate-holder need not be a qualified taxi driver. And a plate can be held for life unless the holder is shown to be an unsuitable person. Ray Burgess, joint managing director of Rainbow City Taxis, claimed the move could put 270 drivers "on the dole".
He said: "They passed one man, one plate, which will put the fear of God into drivers, who now think they are doing something completely illegal but, obviously, this will be decided by a court. "The message we have to get across is that this will be challenged, so don't panic - don't think you won't be able to put bread on the table tomorrow or that there will be 270 fewer drivers on the road."
Mr Burgess said he was also angry that the decision had been made even after councillors indicated their failure to understand the full implications of a lengthy and complex list of findings by Mr Macleod.
Licensing convener Raymond Hutcheon played down fears about the impact of the ruling. Mr Hutcheon said: "The trade said they had not challenged Mr Macleod's legal definition up until now because they would only challenge it once we made a policy.
"Therefore, we picked a policy that the councillors wanted and that was unanimously approved. We have not said what the implementation date will be - there is no implementation date as yet. "This now will give the trade time to challenge it, and if they challenge it it's deferred until a sheriff hears it anyway." Mr Macleod said discussions would be held with the police and the procurator fiscal before any deadline for transferring plates was set.
A delegation of taxi trade representatives also reiterated their anger over a letter from Mr Macleod to drivers. It alleged that 25% of Aberdeen's 1,085 taxi and private-hire drivers may have been operating illegally.
The representatives feared the public might have been given the impression the council had no idea who was driving hundreds of taxis, and that many drivers were not vetted. In fact, they said, holders of both plates and licences were rigorously vetted.
The council itself says it is possible to check who is driving every taxi or private-hire vehicle, although the hiring of plates can make the process more laborious. Meanwhile, the prospect of legal action against the council by drivers who have wheelchair-accessible vehicles has been staved off.
About 30% of Aberdeen taxis can take wheelchairs, and drivers of these vehicles are unhappy that more has not been done to make others follow suit. The council will be endeavouring to find out from the Scottish Executive how it plans to enforce disability discrimination laws.
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