Eventually getting around to reading the outcome from the magistrates court I think I can see what the council are aiming at.
The job was booked by auto booking, not an app booking. The firm use the 'nearest car' to fulfill the booking, be that a MK car or one from the sticks.
Normally that's quite straight forward as the system can see who's nearest take the booking and dispatch via the operator's license for the same area as the car.
Now for what it's worth I think that's illegal, but it appears the District Judge wasn't convinced.
But I'm not sure that's the point MK council were getting at.
When the booking was taken there wasn't a car near to dispatch it to straight away. So in effect what happened was the firm took the booking and then put the job on hold until a car became available.
But that booking on hold has got to have been accepted by an operator's license somewhere, so if the booking is eventually dispatched to a car that isn't licensed in that licensing area, and no record of it being passed onto a different operating area, before the job is dispatched to the car that actually did the job, then clearly questions need to be asked.
Which is maybe why it's been in the High Court today.
For the record I believe if the above scenerio is correct, the council are going to win. But then again I'm slightly biased.
