Taxi Driver Online

Barrow cabbies celebrate 'victory for common sense' after council's U-turn over car colour restrictions

http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/barrow/Ba ... 8db819f-ds

Barrow Borough Council had proposed limiting hackney vehicles to the colour white and private hire cabs to any other colour

TAXI drivers have welcomed the scrapping of controversial plans to force them to buy new cars to suit a colour scheme.

Barrow Borough Council has been conducting a consultation ahead of adopting a new regulatory policy which will apply to all 365 licensed hackney carriage and private hire drivers.

Private hire vehicles must be pre-booked and cannot ply for hire while hackney cabs can be 'flagged down' in the street or collect fares from official ranks.

The proposed changes had stated the exterior colour of all 157 hackney carriages must be white while private hire vehicles must be any colour other than white.

Drivers had warned limiting the colour of cars would "force cabbies out of work". The 'white-only' rule for hackney cabs is already in operation in Carlisle.

Although existing licensed drivers in Barrow would be given a 'grandfather rules' grace period of a number of years before they would be forced to buy a new car of a different colour many feared it would price them out of the business.

Bob Mullen, from the Furness Taxi Trade Association, had said when the changes were first proposed that "it’s like forcing every shop in town to paint the frontage the exact same colour".

However, in response to the outpouring of anger from Barrow's taxi drivers, Barrow Borough Council has made a U-turn.

Under the revised changes, instead of distinguishing between private hire and hackney cabs through the car's colour customers will be able to identify a hackney cab from their lit-up roof sign.

Following the initial consultation, the licensing team met with the taxi trade along with the chair of the Licensing Regulatory Committee, Councillor Tony Callister and took onboard their concerns about vehicle colour.

Cllr Callister said the “council feel this was a positive way forward” to move the policy on, in order to introduce new and updated vehicle specifications with the aim of improving the safety and quality of all licensed vehicles.

Mr Mullen, a taxi driver of 14 years, welcomed the council's U-turn.

"It is a bit of a victory; a victory for common sense," he said.

"Any private hire vehicles which have roof signs will have to take them off so that hackney cabs will be identified by their roof sign. That's what we've been suggesting for the last five or six years."

One matter where a national rule on this would be appropriate.

Although he's not mentioned in the article, on the newspaper's website there's a photo of Mr Wayne Casey of the NTA(?), so presumably he had a hand in the matter - well played that man

How many drivers do we actually think will go out of business if they insist on white cabs?

My guess is sweet f*** all.

_________________
IDFIMH

Never liked him.

_________________
IDFIMH

Easy to see why the confusion arises, though. Look at the photo below, and although the roofsigns are slightly obscured, the Merc is a PH, while the Vauxhall is an HC.

Of course, looking at other photos the PH roofsign reads the name of the firm, while the HC's sign simply says 'TAXI'.

There's a red logo on the side as well, and the PH ones read '24 Hour Private Hire', while the HCs read '24 Hour Taxi'. On the other hand, even the PHs seem to have a 'Text-a-Taxi' logo on the bonnet

So while the cars may by in large comply with the technicalities of the legislation, as far as the public are concerned there's arguably little or no difference appearance-wise.

(Would have included the photos in the post, but when I tried it they were absolutely ginormous, so probably better to visit the site directly if any anorak wants to view them.)

http://www.acacia43.com/communities/9/0 ... 640177.jpg

http://www.acacia43.com/cars/4547377256

When you consider the likes of the two tone schemes in Leeds and Brighton, the luminous teal blue in Guildford and the blue in Bristol, all white doesn't seem particularly onerous.

Isn't there a court ruling, where the judge said the same thing , that a hack has a top light and PH don't, this was if I remember also about the colour

Stockport M.B.C. -v- Eyles

That's my guess too, white is the main colour now, they were also given grandfather rights for a number of years. That trade rep sounds a right cock.

Do not think the private hire operators along with those wedding car operators will be happy,they will not be able to provide a white vehicle.

Well looks like roofsigns will be staying on Barrow PHs after all.

Unfortunately there's nothing except the headline about the colour code, so by the looks of it they're not reverting to the original plan to make HCs white.

So it's back to square one - no colour code and PH allowed roofsigns?


Controversial proposals to restrict the colour and use of roof signs on cabs have been scrapped

http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/17007878. ... -scrapped/

A NEW policy for taxi drivers in Barrow and Furness is expected to come into force next year.

The policy will affect drivers with existing licenses and anyone making a new application to the council for a taxi licence.

The council has not previously had a policy which sets an “acceptable standard” for taxis across the area.

The policy sets out the council’s procedures for applications and explains the responsibilities taxi drivers need to meet to comply with.

It also includes a requirement on taxi drivers to operate “smoke free” vehicles, including the prohibition of e-cigarettes or vaporisers.

Town hall executive director Phil Huck said: “This policy covers both Hackney Carriage vehicles which are those taxis allowed to park on ranks and be hailed from the street, and Private Hire, which have to be pre-booked. There are slightly different regulations for both of those around signage and so on.”

An earlier draft of the policy had proposed that roof signs needed to be removed from Private Hire vehicles but after consultation, this idea was scrapped.

The 52-page final draft document went before the borough council’s executive committee on Wednesday.

It now has to be adopted by the full council before coming into effect from 31st January 2019.

Councils have no powers to limit the number of licensed private hire vehicles which are those taxis have to be pre-booked, but plans to cap the number of Hackney Carriage vehicles operating in the borough to 120.

please stop posting pics of Guildford hackneys I've just thrown my breakfast up all over the keyboard

_________________
Taxis Are Public Transport too

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

I like that colour, its a one that isn't going to be copied.

Weddings are exempt from licensing so a weeing car operator can use whatever vehicle he likes.

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

Won't get many bookings if the the car smells of wee!

_________________
Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related