Taxi Driver Online

Never heard of this before - heard of threats to take back plates if there's no vehicle made available, but sure there are tons of unused badges around.

Cabbie who made no pick ups in three years is stripped of licence

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/1622 ... f_licence/

A cabbie who did not make a single pick up in three years has had his private hire licence taken off him.

Shahid Tajdin tried to renew his private hire car licence but was flagged for being convicted of driving without insurance.

In July 2016, he drove a vehicle without an insurance policy and was fined £450 and given six penalty points following a trial.

Councillors questioned him about his licence status and it was unearthed he had no car and had never even driven a private hire car.

This is despite Mr Tajdin having a licence for three years, Glasgow City Council’s Licensing and Regulatory Committee heard.

Councillor Graham Campbell asked him: “If you had not turned up to your delivery driver job for three years, do you think they would still employ you?”

The man responded “yes”, with Mr Campbell retorting “Really?!”.

Last Thursday, angry councillors grilled Mr Tajdin for breaking the terms and conditions of his licence.

They require a licence holder to surrender their licence should they not use it for three months.

Martha Wardrop said: “So you’ve never ever been near any taxis, and this is because you have an existing job. Did you not think to hand it back?”

Mr Tajdin tried to convince councillors by claiming he would soon finish at the takeaway he works for.

He explained to them the takeaway was “shortstaffed” and needed him to cover shifts.

Ms Wardrop added: “I just think you’ve treated us very badly for not telling us you’re not using the taxi licence. Waiting three years is just not acceptable.”

Mr Tajdin responded: “Yeah, but I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

Actually, the article could be about taking his *plate* because there was no vehicle being used under the licence. I took the reference to having no car to mean he had a badge but no plate, which seems perfectly normal, but that they'd now revoked his badge because he wasn't driving.

But it's one of those pieces which perhaps doesn't manage to tease out the difference between a plate and badge, and effectively assumes they're one and the same.

But if the article is about revoking his plate because there was no vehicle then that doesn't seem quite so unreasonable.

And councillors using the word taxi when they mean private hire doesn't help much.

There may be some confusion and inconsistency with the use of the terms taxi and HC in England, but under the Scottish legislation a vehicle is either a 'private hire car' or a 'taxi'.

I have a D1 for Hire and reward on my DVLA Drivers license, just because I've not had call to use it in 4 years It does not mean it must be removed, I passed the test and I earned the right to have it and retain it and It'll stay on my license until I request It's removal.

Why should a Taxi/PH drivers License be any different, If your paying for it with the intention of using it at some future point in time what right does someone else have to say NO to you having it.?

Very strange, and struggling to see why?

Some of the foreign lads often spend excess of that when going back to visit their homes and families.

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IDFIMH

I'm not so sure as no one gets a three year vehicle license.

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IDFIMH

But remember your D1 isn't worth anything unless you have the DCPC card to go with it. I'm "looking forward" to doing my 2nd course later this year!

The Scottish legislation requires the surrender of the licence if the activity to which it relates has been "given up".

So obviously the definition of "given up" is key here - not sure if it's peculiar to Glasgow, but obviously there they've decided that three months is the relevant time frame.

Not sure about Glasgow, but certainly many unused badges elsewhere. Whether it's something that's just not enforced, or it's more normally taken the view that not actually working doesn't mean that the activity has been "given up" in licensing terms, I don't know. But the Glasgow councillors obviously took the view that if the driver doesn't actively work for three months then they've given up, and the licence should be surrendered.

Of course, probably a lot fewer plates that aren't 'worked', but on the other hand pretty sure there are some that won't do any 'hire and reward' stuff for three months or more.

When my last car was taken off the road because of the council's age rule, I was without a vehicle for a couple of weeks while my shiny new one was being delivered. Council sent a letter saying my plate would be revoked if I didn't provide a vehicle within a specified period. Think this was done under the 'activity ceased' provision.

So brand new car, a whole heap of debt, didn't know when it would be delivered, no income for who knows how long, and council threatening to revoke plate. No pressure then.

Of course, I was getting ready to argue that even though I didn't have a car it was under order and awaiting delivery, and to that degree I hadn't ceased the licensed activity. Fortunately, there were no delays with the delivery (from Germany), the car was plated without hitch, so I didn't have to argue the case.

But I suppose that if you have a plate without a vehicle and no intention of providing a vehicle then it's reasonable for a council to consider that the licensed activity has ceased.

Equally, having a badge and/or a plated vehicle but not working them seems a lot less clear cut to me, as indeed seems to be the case in many areas, but councillors in Glasgow obviously know better.

Of course, it could be that as elsewhere there are dormant badges in Glasgow that never come to light, but did so in this particular case because of the driver's failure to declare the insurance conviction.

Certainly three year plates in Fife, and I think that's the default under the legislation, but councils can provide licenses for shorter periods.

Pretty sure one year and three year badges and plate options are the norm in Scotland.

I thought the Law Commission thing was all about making three year licenses the norm in England, but was that just for badges?

you need to realise that all licensing conditions are not the same as yours,we operate under totally different legislation,ive just renewed my badge and the ONLY option is for 3 years,its the same for your vehicle licence,you only get a 1 year option on the first issue of your licence or badge,from then on its only 3 years,this was supposedly to speed up licencing procedures but in fact its made it even worse.on average you now wait 8 months from renewal to being isssued with your badge

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i started out with nothing and ive still got most of it left

Telt



Interesting - the legislation says:



One year and three year options have been available in Fife for years, and I thought that was fairly standard in Scotland, but obviously not, but the legislation makes clear that periods of less than three years are simply an option.

Interesting about the administrative backlog. As I said in another thread, in Fife it can take a couple of months for the new plates to be on the vehicles, so lots of out of date plates (and badges) on the go.

I see that in Glasgow the plate includes the licence expiry date.



So if it takes eight months to issue them then it's no surprise that they won't issue one year licences - if that was the case then the plate would be out of date *most* of the time.

Our old Fife plates were undated, so the expiry date wasn't an issue then, and I believe the date on the Dundee plates is the vehicle test date, so again any administrative problems regarding the issue of new/renewed licences aren't so much of a problem.