Taxi Driver Online

Taxi sting

A 'STING' operation to weed out rogue private hire taxi drivers and protect passengers has been held in Chorley. Council officials launched an investigation with the police to find how many private hire taxi drivers would flout licensing laws and take passengers without a prior booking.

Now an undisclosed 'small minority' of the borough's 213 private hire taxi drivers could face prosecution. During the one day operation neighbourhood wardens acted as test passengers, flagging down private hire vehicles.

Under licensing laws, only hackney carriages can pick up fares by being flagged down or by waiting at a taxi rank. Private hire vehicles can only operate through a prior booking. Coun Ralph Snape, executive member for licensing, said: "A small minority of private hire drivers were prepared to take passengers without a booking. These drivers have been reported and a decision will be made on whether they will be prosecuted."

The council grants licences for both hackney carriages and private hire vehicles, but only after both the driver and the vehicle have been rigorously tested and vetted. Coun Snape added: "Problems often arise because people are not aware of the difference between a hackney carriage and a private hire vehicle, or what to look for when distinguishing a licensed vehicle."

A partner of Yellow Cabs, whose drivers were not found to be breaking the rules, said: "The private hire drivers who are picking up like that shouldn't be doing it and they are giving others a bad name."

Officers said there are checks people can make before getting into a taxi as Christmas approaches. Hackney carriages are generally white saloon cars with illuminated 'taxi' signs on the roof except for two London-style 'black cabs' and one Peugeot Euro Cab capable of taking wheelchair passengers. Drivers wear identification badges, including a photograph and licence number, and operate an electronic metered payment system.
Private hire vehicles do not necessarily include an electronic metered payment system and prices may vary.

All licensed vehicles are required by law to display a licence plate on the back of the vehicle, which will include a number. Coun Snape added: "I heartily applaud any attempt to keep people safe and this includes our taxi drivers and all passengers travelling in licensed vehicles."

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IDFIMH

Now everyone can be certain what they're getting into

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

Confusing or what!

We're the same here, Our Hacks are London cabs, euro cabs, or a saloon car which is either black or white only, and the plates are white with a black border.
PH are anything at all excl London cabs and we cant have a black or white coloured car. And PH cant have any roof sign's, and our plated are yellow with a blue border.

Oh, but the black colour was only added to the Hack list last year and was taken off the PH list, but there are already black PH on the road so they can carry on using them but no more can be added.

Now THAT'S Confusing ha ha

Our LO swaps with Liverpools LO to try to flag down PH's. And every month or so the LO, Police and the Dep't of Work and Pensions set up a couple of road blocks to pull Taxi's for checks. But their so strict here with 2 tests a year etc they dont often find anything wrong. And we dont have any illegal cabs around, but it's only a smallish town anyway (300k ish).

Maybe all this mess could be partly sorted out if they made an offence that could lead to customers getting charged for getting into non-licensed vehicles.

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IDFIMH

We can loan you a few thousand from London if you like?

DOWN HERE IN SUNNY BRIGHTON OUR HACKS ALL HAVE AQUA-MARINE BOOTS AND BONNETS, THIS CAME ABOUT AS A RESULT OF THE HACK UNIONS COMPLAINING TO THE COUNCIL THAT THE PUBLIC COULD NOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HACKS AND PH. THEY WANTED THE ROOFSIGNS OF THE PH. THE COUNCIL WERE TOLD BY THEIR LEGAL TEAM THAT THIS HAD ALREADY BEEN TO COURT, WITH A NEGATIVE RESULT FOR THE HACKS. THEREFORE IT WOULD BE BETTER TO CHANGE THE HACKS. THE TROUBLE WITH BOTH HACKS AND PH IN BRIGHTON IS THE FACT THAT SOLIDARITY WAS REMOVED FROM THEIR DICTIONARY.

But at least you Brighton guys work side by side in the same offices - all very cosy

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

FOUR BIG COMPANIES, TWO HACK ASSOCIATIONS, TWO PRIVATE HIRE COMPANIES, ALL HAVE MIX OF HACKS AND PH, COZY? I DON'T THINK, YOU ONLY HAVE TO LOOK AT SOME OF CGULLS POSTS TO SEE THE DIVIDE.

Would it be possible for you to push your 'Caps Lock' button once before your next posting?

Ta.

Ok,

the problem is with the old boys driving the hacks.
once they are dead the trade should join up.

I agree, what is needed is the unity of both Hacks and PH, but we both know
that the hacks individually or their union reps (both unions) will never sit around the table with the ph to discuss joint related issues because of the on going numbers issue.
Its a shame because the local authority would find it difficult to ignore a joint representation from both groups. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, and if you can't make it drink and it decides not to drink the horse will cease to exist.