Taxi Driver Online

Changes to private hire regulation go live in June



Changes to private hire regulation are being introduced from Monday 27 June 2016. They affect all private hire drivers, operators and private hire vehicle licence holders, as well as all applicants for a private hire driver, operator or vehicle licence.

The changes to the private hire regulations come into effect on Monday 27 June 2016. Where existing licensees require time to prepare for more significant changes, they will be expected to comply from the date indicated in the information below.

These changes are being introduced to raise standards in London’s private hire industry, improving safety and convenience for customers.

All licensed drivers and operators must be familiar with the changes which are explained in full at the link below…

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/taxis-and-p ... egulations

source: http://www.thechauffeur.com/changes-to- ... e-in-june/

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

So that is....all PH drivers under TFL Jurasdiction and not all PH everywhere in the UK.

WOW! That is going to upset some folks.

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Grandad,

We have asked our L/A to implement these conditions on numerous occasions but objections from the private hire with support from licensing officers have stopped it.

I am not surprised. Implementing all that would require some people to actually do some work.

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Grandad,

''Private hire operators must ensure that passengers are able to speak (verbally) to someone at their operating centre if they want to make a complaint or discuss any other matter about their booking. That service must be available at all times during the operator's hours of business and at all times during a passenger's journey.''

What this means for you:

As part of the booking process customers must be provided with information on how they can speak to the operator during the journey.
As part of the pre-licensing inspection of your operating centre(s), the compliance team will need to ensure that a mechanism is in place for passengers to speak to the operator:


This is really interesting...Uber don't have this facility as their operation is via an app based in Amsterdam...so how will they respond ?....Great IF they are required to have someone answering the phones 24/7 !
It will bring them to the level expected of other operators in the UK...

It would be better if these new rules applied across the UK and not just London !

How could this work for the one man band driver/operator? There are plenty of them around that could be driving a customer to Heathrow at 04.00. Who is the customer supposed to talk to in a case such as this?

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Grandad,

Drivers can fulfil the requirement to carry insurance details by placing them in the glovebox of their vehicle or, alternatively, insurance details may be displayed within the vehicle. However it is not acceptable for the driver to provide these details verbally - for example, via a call to the insurance company.

that's all very well but that would enable a dishonest passenger to acquire the insurance details of the vehicle through theft and cause problems


All new applicants and existing private hire drivers renewing their licence who are not from a majority English speaking country will be required to meet a new English language requirement from 1 October 2016. Applicants will be required to present a valid English language certificate with a B1 level of English on the Common European Framework (CEFR) as part of their new or renewal licence application.

there will be a roaring trade in fake certificates after June then plenty of flash hammed's out there waiting to make a killing on that one

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

The operator must provide a passenger booking confirmation before the passenger's journey starts. The operator will be expected to request passenger contact information and offer to provide a booking confirmation for all bookings.

All operators must (at a minimum) be able to provide a booking confirmation to passengers via email, text (SMS and MMS) message and phone (regardless of what booking channels the operator offers). The booking confirmation must contain, as a minimum:

The vehicle registration mark
The first name of the driver
The driver's private hire licence number
Where the passenger can receive it, a photo of driver.

I think TFL want to make it impossible for small operators to function by the sounds of this

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

All operators will be required to email us details of the drivers and vehicles they have used to fulfil bookings, or have had available to them to fulfil bookings.

Not for every single booking surely ?

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

Sounds like the Big boys with all their Big boy booking systems have been lobbying TFL in a bid to kill off the small guy and to carve up that market for themselves, have you got time to stop and confirm by E Message every client you collect with all the details above as a PH operator especially as you just told the guy 2 minutes ago that you'd collect them.?

That should get rid of several thousand of them.

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IDFIMH

presuming TFL actually pass on details - and on current form - that's unlikely

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