Taxi Driver Online

Cheltenham taxi drivers fear being forced out of business by new council rules

Taxi drivers in Cheltenham fear they might be forced out of the business by possible changes brought about in the town. A proposed new licensing policy for Cheltenham Borough Council could see all hackney carriage drivers – the ones who can pick up fares from ranks and the streets – instructed to upgrade their cars to wheelchair accessible vehicles and or a purpose-built taxi.

Currently it is only new licence applicants who need to have a car which complies with these regulations and existing holders who have a saloon do not have to upgrade their vehicle when they renew theirs - until now. Drivers claim this proposed change is making their businesses ‘untenable.’

Garry Knight is the spokesman for the Hackney Carriage Drivers’ Association in Cheltenham. He said: “This review is looking at what are called ‘grandfather rights’ – at the moment if you have bought a licence, if you’ve bought into the taxi business, you can carry that licence to another saloon car. “But now anyone who buys a purpose-built vehicle gets their plate for free. That’s just removed value from our businesses, we reckon about £10,000.”

The drivers don’t object to the draft policy instructing them to buy lower-emission vehicles and it will continue with the policy of making drivers buy silver-coloured cars but Mr Knight thinks that the possibility of having ‘grandfather rights’ revoked and all hackney drivers having to buy purpose-built or wheelchair-accessible cars is a step too far. He said: “A silver, wheelchair-accessible car at the European emissions levels the council wants costs about £35,000. So this policy could remove thousands of pounds of value from our businesses and we’ll be expected to buy a car for £35,000.”

Both Mr Knight, and another driver, Malcolm Rogers have critics the borough council’s cabinet member for safety, Councillor Andrew McKinlay. Mr Knight said: “It’s disturbing to hear the councillor say on a radio interview that he wants to conduct a review of the taxi trade, but doesn’t want to listen to the trade’s response

Mr Rogers said he believed the town had a great fleet of taxis and drivers. “Mr McKinlay has said publicly that he wanted to make all drivers have purpose built vehicles, even though it has been proven that many elderly people cannot enter these high vehicles," he said. “He doesn't want to listen to our views, he says he wants to protect the public – we have one of the most up-to-date fleet of cars anywhere in the country, we also have, in my opinion, a very caring fleet of drivers, who have passed criminal checks, medical tests, public awareness tests, and Hackney drivers tests.”

Councillor Andrew McKinlay Cheltenham Borough Council’s cabinet member for safety said the authority is consulting on the proposal to end “Grandfather rights” for taxi drivers. "In effect this means that all taxi drivers will be subject to the same, and most up to date, licensing rules," he said. “I think that many people in Cheltenham would be shocked to find out that not all taxis are subject to the same rules and regulations, and that over 180 of them do not comply with the Equalities Act 2010, and are not wheelchair accessible.

“I think that this is unacceptable, and that all taxis should be accessible to people with disabilities. “In my view this change need not be expensive for current license holders. Suitable second hand vehicles are available for about £7,000. “My proposal is that all taxis are changed to comply with the new regulations either when licence holders change their vehicles, or by 2021, when vehicles will need to have been changed to comply with the new environmental standards.”

Earlier this year taxi drivers staged a noisy protest in the town centre, honking their horns, because they say the council has let too many drivers have a licence and it has cut their profitability.

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IDFIMH

It drives me f***ing mad when some drivers bellyache about other drivers being treated exactly the same as them.

The Councillor was spot on when he said, "In effect this means that all taxi drivers will be subject to the same, and most up to date, licensing rules,"

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IDFIMH

the big problem is if you go to an all WAV fleet the trade will lose a large slice of their customers who will stop using them because they prefer saloons. it would not surprise me if some of the drivers opt to relicense hackney else where and work PH in Cheltenham in order to keep driving a saloon

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

I get that.

However why aren’t those drivers lobbying to have it an open fleet for all?

Instead they sit back and stay quiet about some drivers having to pay fortunes for vehicles when they don’t have too.

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IDFIMH

Why licence as a Hackney elsewhere to work PH in Cheltenham why not just get a Cheltenham PH badge and plate?

That is what I thought.

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Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5

Cabinet agree 100% WAVs by 2021.

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/n ... il-1314427

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IDFIMH

Cheltenham taxi drivers told their cars have to be silver

Taxi drivers have to make their cars silver and wheelchair-accessible by December 2021 in Cheltenham.

The controversial policy was rubber-stumped last night at a borough council meeting after a series of "challenging" meetings between the authority and drivers, who argued it would be too costly to change vehicles within three years.

Taxi drivers have been up in arms because of the cost of changing vehicles by 2021 when the shake-up was announced earlier this year. The regulations were first reported in March, when dozens of taxis protested by circling the Municipal Offices in the Promenade.

After the four meetings between officers and the local taxi association, the council backed down and agreed drivers won't have to make the change until their vehicle needs to be replaced. Council leader Steve Jordan said it was a "long and torturous process" in a cabinet meeting last night.

Speaking after the meeting, Hackney Carriage Association chair Gary Knight said: "This doesn't affect just taxi drivers, it affects the whole population of Cheltenham. "This policy is cataclysmic. It has wiped out £2.6million of the value in our trade just overnight."

In the discussions, cabbies said they would rather change their vehicles to being electric or less polluting rather than wheelchair-accessible.

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IDFIMH

A tad misleading this, because it makes it read like there's been no change on the original policy, but further down the article it says that the WAV/colour requirement will now only apply when the vehicle is replaced, so not entirely true to say "drivers have to make their cars silver and wheelchair-accessible by December 2021".