Taxi Driver Online

Clampdown call as some taxis have five licences on one cab



TAXI chiefs want a limit placed on the number of licences being issued for one vehicle.

Tony Rowe, the spokesperson for taxis on the National Transport Assembly of Ireland said that drivers can apply for five licences that enable them to work in different counties.

However, he said there are concerns that: "There are a lot of bogus and fraudulent licences going around.

"A contributing factor is some drivers have been issued with up to five licenses for the one car," he said.

"This system doesn't apply anywhere else in Europe," said Mr Rowe.

The spokesperson said that a driver can legitimately get a licence for Dublin and also apply for one for other areas like Wexford, Meath or Kildare and end up with a number of licences.

However, he said that the fear is that some licences could fall into the hands of bogus and fraudulent drivers.

"There doesn't seem to be an awareness of this, and this is one of the things we want to highlight," he said.

Mr Rowe said: "The whole licensing system has to be reformed."

There are over 33,000 taxi licences, and the majority of them are working in the greater Dublin area.

SAFETY

"We are calling on the new Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe to act effectively in the interests of the safety of the general public and the safety of the workers in the industry," Mr Rowe said.

The concern is with so many licences in circulation that they could find their way into "less scrupulous hands," he warned.

"You can't use five licences, so why would you want to issue five to one driver. We want to see this loophole being closed."

He described the current system as being "open to abuse."

Mr Rowe said that a tightening up of the system was required,

"We would like to see the new minister being proactive on this issue," he said.

"We would like to see input from the garda carriage office who are absolutely brilliant and instrumental at detecting bogus taxi drivers.

"We are inundated with complaints from taxi drivers and from the general public.

He added a full review "sooner rather than later" on the issuing of licences is required.

http://www.herald.ie/news/clampdown-cal ... 77764.html

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

If you could get 5 different licenses around here - then you would have to have 5 different meters for 5 different tariffs!

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Common sense........is just not that Common.

We can have 4 in the Borders, due to the zones, all under SBC and the metres are all set the same

Metres are always the same, 1000mm. Meters may be different.

Our council specifically bans taxi/PH from having a license from elsewhere, in addition to the ones they issue.

The firms that supply insurance taxi/PH are not best pleased at that.

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IDFIMH

I don't see the problem in drivers having more than one licence if they work for two companies so long as they are insured

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

But they have to display the plates and different signage, and what license gets a particular job, and which council do the punters complain too?

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IDFIMH

That's not the driver's problem! Drive well, provide a good service, and you don't get complaints.

I could work on a company car doing contracts in say Chester if I had a Chester drivers licence and work in my own vehicle on Wirral if I have a drivers license for there as well. There are a lot of companies here that do contract work and you use their vehicle so why shouldn't I be allowed to have a drivers license for both areas if I meet the required standards.

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

Clampdown call as some taxis have five licences on one cab

As I read it, it is the VEHICLE that has 5 plates.

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Grandad,

me too

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

Oh well if that's the case they may as well have an all Ireland license and be done with areas etc or alternatively they could have the same system as us and have one taxi licence that can work anywhere as ph

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