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Huge rise in Sheffield taxi drivers travelling to London
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Author:  captain cab [ Tue Mar 14, 2017 8:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Huge rise in Sheffield taxi drivers travelling to London

Huge rise in Sheffield taxi drivers travelling to London to get licences

A big spike in the number of Sheffield drivers travelling to London to obtain taxi licences has sparked further concern over
regulations.

Figures supplied to The Star by the GMB union show in the last six months - the number of drivers with a Sheffield postcode that holds a Transport for London taxi licence has risen from 53 to 177 - a massive 330 per cent increase.

In September 2016, The Star revealed over 700 taxi drivers that reside in Sheffield were handed licences from councils as far as Wales and Lancashire - over 400 of which came from the town of Rossendale near Blackburn.

GMB rep and Sheffield licenced taxi driver Ibrar Hussain has been campaigning on this issue calling for stricter regulation on cross-border taxi licencing.

He said: "There is a lack of enforcement or no enforcement at all as to who's driving these vehicles. Are they fit and proper? Are the vehicles safe to drive? Why live in Sheffield, but get licence from TfL?

Mr Hussain has been joined by senior council figures and Sheffield MPs on lobbying the Government to change the law . Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh said the figures were 'troubling'.

At present, a driver who lives in Sheffield can approach Transport for London for a private hire vehicle licence and come back to Sheffield to operate in the city with a number of firms.

Because the driver is licensed elsewhere in the country, Sheffield Council has limited powers to take enforcement action if needed.

Sheffield Heeley MP Louise Haigh said: “Sheffield Council prides itself on its strict licensing and rigorous training conditions which help keep taxi users in our city safe. But the change in the law is riding roughshod over these protections meaning drivers from across the country can get a licence from areas with different standards and requirements and still operate in Sheffield.

"We have been warning the Government about this for months and these troubling new figures show it is now time to take action. Sheffield Council should decide who can and can’t operate a taxi in our city, not some council hundreds of miles away who haven’t the first idea about what protections Sheffield needs.”

Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield said he has been warning the Government about this since 2014.

He said: "I warned the Government that this would happen back in 2014 when they proposed the new rules, and I’ve pressed the case with Ministers since then.

"Allowing drivers to register anywhere in the country undermines Sheffield Council’s tough approach to regulation, putting passengers at risk. The Government is putting ideology ahead of common sense on the deregulation of taxi licensing.”

Read more at: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/huge-rise ... -1-8437916

Author:  toots [ Wed Mar 15, 2017 9:43 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Huge rise in Sheffield taxi drivers travelling to London

Quote:
At present, a driver who lives in Sheffield can approach Transport for London for a private hire vehicle licence and come back to Sheffield to operate in the city with a number of firms.


Apart from with Uber how do ph drivers do that?

Author:  grandad [ Wed Mar 15, 2017 10:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Huge rise in Sheffield taxi drivers travelling to London

toots wrote:
Quote:
At present, a driver who lives in Sheffield can approach Transport for London for a private hire vehicle licence and come back to Sheffield to operate in the city with a number of firms.


Apart from with Uber how do ph drivers do that?

I suppose that the simple answer is that they can't because jobs have to go through the driver's operator. However The Council are saying that they can't check who is accepting the job because they are outside of the Council area. I would have thought that the Council could check with their own operators who they were sub contracting to and take action against them if they were not following the rules.

Author:  edders23 [ Wed Mar 15, 2017 4:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Huge rise in Sheffield taxi drivers travelling to London

Under the sub contracting rules is it legal for PH to operate exclusively outside their operating area. I think this is ripe for someone to "test" the law by bringing a case against an operator whose cars are working in an area for which they have no license. I am certain the law was not intended to be used in this way

Author:  grandad [ Wed Mar 15, 2017 5:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Huge rise in Sheffield taxi drivers travelling to London

edders23 wrote:
Under the sub contracting rules is it legal for PH to operate exclusively outside their operating area. I think this is ripe for someone to "test" the law by bringing a case against an operator whose cars are working in an area for which they have no license. I am certain the law was not intended to be used in this way

This is not what the council are saying here. They are saying that the drivers are being licensed in London and working for Sheffield based operators which is not permitted. The Sheffiel operator can only sub contract to another operator and not direct to a driver.

Author:  edders23 [ Wed Mar 15, 2017 6:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Huge rise in Sheffield taxi drivers travelling to London

grandad wrote:
edders23 wrote:
Under the sub contracting rules is it legal for PH to operate exclusively outside their operating area. I think this is ripe for someone to "test" the law by bringing a case against an operator whose cars are working in an area for which they have no license. I am certain the law was not intended to be used in this way

This is not what the council are saying here. They are saying that the drivers are being licensed in London and working for Sheffield based operators which is not permitted. The Sheffield operator can only sub contract to another operator and not direct to a driver.



but are the driver claiming to be 1 man band PH operators from London accepting subcontract work from Sheffield ?

Author:  grandad [ Wed Mar 15, 2017 7:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Huge rise in Sheffield taxi drivers travelling to London

edders23 wrote:
grandad wrote:
edders23 wrote:
Under the sub contracting rules is it legal for PH to operate exclusively outside their operating area. I think this is ripe for someone to "test" the law by bringing a case against an operator whose cars are working in an area for which they have no license. I am certain the law was not intended to be used in this way

This is not what the council are saying here. They are saying that the drivers are being licensed in London and working for Sheffield based operators which is not permitted. The Sheffield operator can only sub contract to another operator and not direct to a driver.



but are the driver claiming to be 1 man band PH operators from London accepting subcontract work from Sheffield ?

They can claim what they like but they must be able to prove they have an operators license. If the sub contracting operator hasn't checked this then he could lose his own operators license.

Author:  heathcote [ Wed Mar 15, 2017 9:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Huge rise in Sheffield taxi drivers travelling to London

grandad wrote:
edders23 wrote:
Under the sub contracting rules is it legal for PH to operate exclusively outside their operating area. I think this is ripe for someone to "test" the law by bringing a case against an operator whose cars are working in an area for which they have no license. I am certain the law was not intended to be used in this way

This is not what the council are saying here. They are saying that the drivers are being licensed in London and working for Sheffield based operators which is not permitted. The Sheffiel operator can only sub contract to another operator and not direct to a driver.



grandad agree with you,this is where out of town hackney carriages fall foul of the subcontracting rules,a private hire operator can only subcontract to another private hire operator,it is about time licensing officials started implementing the law the way it is written,after all it was private hire operators who pushed for this.

Author:  trotskys twin [ Thu Mar 16, 2017 12:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Huge rise in Sheffield taxi drivers travelling to London

SMALL OPERATORS LICENSE ALLOWS FOR UP TO 3 DRIVERS EASY TO GET VIA TFL :D

Author:  MR T [ Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Huge rise in Sheffield taxi drivers travelling to London

heathcote wrote:
grandad wrote:
edders23 wrote:
Under the sub contracting rules is it legal for PH to operate exclusively outside their operating area. I think this is ripe for someone to "test" the law by bringing a case against an operator whose cars are working in an area for which they have no license. I am certain the law was not intended to be used in this way

This is not what the council are saying here. They are saying that the drivers are being licensed in London and working for Sheffield based operators which is not permitted. The Sheffiel operator can only sub contract to another operator and not direct to a driver.



grandad agree with you,this is where out of town hackney carriages fall foul of the subcontracting rules,a private hire operator can only subcontract to another private hire operator,it is about time licensing officials started implementing the law the way it is written,after all it was private hire operators who pushed for this.

Your forgetting about Apps

Author:  grandad [ Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Huge rise in Sheffield taxi drivers travelling to London

MR T wrote:
Your forgetting about Apps

I do believe that Toots did mention that app earlier.

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