This piece mentions a return run from Poole to Bristol. According to Google that's 70 miles one-way, so 140 return.
Maybe should take some tips from Grandad
Just two electric vehicles in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole's hackney carriage fleethttps://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/ ... age-fleet/JUST two of the fleet of hundreds of Hackney carriage taxis operating across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole are electric-powered, councillors have been told. The figure was revealed by Kevin Diffey, a trade representative, at a meeting of BCP Council’s licensing committee on Wednesday.
He said improvements to the vehicles and to the availability of charging points were needed before they became more common.
Last year the council declared a climate and ecological emergency – pledging to be carbon neutral by 2030.
In December it published a report, outlining 153 measures it will look at to meet the target.
Included in this was to “explore” how taxi licensing could be used to encourage newly-registered taxis to be either electric or hydrogen-powered.
At Wednesday’s meeting, councillor Judy Butt asked Mr Diffey, the chairman of Poole Radio Cabs, how much of the Hackney carriage fleet in the conurbation was electric.
He said there were only two such vehicles operating in the area and that the difficult in operating them was dissuading their roll-out.
“There was an incident not that long ago when a driver [of one of the electric taxis] took someone to Bristol then looked around for somewhere to get it charged so he could come back,” he said.
“Four hours later he managed to find somewhere to charge, a two-hour charge and then he was able to bring his customer back again.
“It’s not so much bad planning but that when you get there you can’t find the right connections and some of them have been vandalised which was the case here.”
He welcomed a suggestion that the council could provide charging points at taxi ranks but said the distance vehicles can travel on a single charge also needed to be improved before they would be more attractive to drivers.
Last year, Rick Lawrence of Bournemouth-based Mobile Radio Cars hit out at the "inadequate" nationwide network of electric vehicle charging points.
He also criticised the speed at which charging points were repaired locally after being vandalised.
Councillor Lewis Allison, cabinet member for communities, said the council was “serious” about achieving the aims set out in its climate emergency declaration.
“Emissions standards are something that all members, including those on the licensing committee, are mindful of,” he said.
“Therefore I'm really pleased that a BCP area-wide taxi licensing policy is currently under development that will take our climate and ecological emergency declaration into account and include the assessment of vehicle specifications and standards."
He said this would apply to any new vehicles it licenses.
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