Taxi Driver Online

Why you could soon see both black AND yellow cabs on Derby streets

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/d ... th-3005115

But it might only be for a short time


Image: Victoria Wilcox/Derby Telegraph

Up to 20 new black environmentally-friendly hackney cabs will soon be plying their trade on Derby's streets - pending a decision on whether all the city's taxis should stay yellow or go back to black.

Both yellow and black cabs will be available to the public alongside each other while the results of a consultation on the future colour are analysed.

A very limited number of the existing 270 licensed hackney carriage vehicles meet the Government's clear air minimum standards of Euro 6 diesel and proprietors will be expected to change their vehicles in the near future at a date to be set by Derby City Council's licensing comittee.

New cabs are already being ordered by around 20 proprietors who want to upgrade their vehicles to Euro 6 and ULEV compliant vehicles. These taxis form part of the city council's taxi and private hire vehicle strategy to introduce newer, better-equipped, cleaner taxi cabs by 2020.

The vehicles are supplied from the manufacturers in black and previously have had to be sprayed yellow at considerable cost to comply with the council's rules and regulations.

But the licensing committee has decided to allow the new cabs to remain black until a final decision is made on the colour to be used in the city.

It is possible that the final colour scheme could result in cabs remaining black but with some yellow branding to aid identification - possibly on the roof, sides and bonnet.

A city council spokesman said: "Our bold draft strategy set out plans to modernise Derby’s taxi fleet, making them safer, greener, and fit for the future.

"After being given the go-ahead to consult on the strategy in January, a three month consultation was held – the results of which are being analysed – to find out what the public and trade thought of the ambitious plans.

"During this time we held six drop-in sessions that were well-attended, and allowed us to share our plans, as well as gather feedback.

"What was extremely encouraging to hear during these sessions was the number of drivers eager to get started. The committee approved the purchase of hackney carriages in the colour black, until such time as consultation results are analysed and a final decision on colour is made.

"All hackneys will still show their Derby City Council license plates, and will still have their taxi signs on the roof.”

Hackney cabs in Derby first became yellow in 2001 following a change of policy by the council to make them more identifiable for customers, including the partially-sighted.

They differ from private hire cars in that they can be hailed on the street.

What a horrible colour.

Imagine spending £30-60,000 on a motor and then doing that to it?

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IDFIMH

Indeed, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's a link between the colour requirement and Derby's reputation for rust bucket HCs.

Of course, as is often said, correlation doesn't necessarily equal causation

UPDATE: Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Strategy 2020

16/07/2019

https://news.derby.gov.uk/update-taxi-a ... tegy-2020/

Derby City Council has taken the decision to delay its Taxi Strategy report, which was due to be heard by Licensing Committee on Wednesday 24th July.

The ambitious strategy focusses on modernising Derby’s taxi and private hire fleet; making them safer, more environmentally friendly, and enhancing customer service and experience, as well as exploring ways to tackle out of town taxis.

The draft Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Strategy (TPH) 2020 will now go to Committee at a later date, giving officers additional time to accurately determine the feasibility of some of the +500 responses heard during the three month consultation.

Richard Antcliff, Director for Public Protection and Streetpride said:

“The TPH strategy offers a long-term solution to Derby’s ageing taxis and high emissions. It’s been encouraging to see so many people understand that and take the time to respond constructively to the consultation.

“We did commit to bring the revised strategy back to Licensing Committee in July, however there were a number of valid points and suggestions raised that we’d like the time to explore further to determine if they’d work for Derby, while keeping the overarching goals of the strategy. [[Safer / cleaner / modern / focussed]]

“Ultimately any changes made now are going to bring about much needed change for the trade and the public alike, so we need to get this spot on.”

A number of suggestions, for example retro-fitting vehicles, were put forward during the consultation, and at several of the six workshops that ran during this period.

Officers are now considering consultation results to determine if there are areas of compromise, before bringing a revised strategy back to Licensing Committee.

Mr Antcliff continued:

“We’ve said from day one that this needed to be a collaborative process, and while we’re never going to please everyone, we hope we can get the balance right.

“Our end goal is to keep the taxi trade alive; to allow drivers to remain operating on a fully commercial basis, and offer customers an excellent and safe experience, at the same time as tackling air quality. And to do that, we have to be bold with our plans."

Surely they can sort the colour out without further delay?

There are no safety and environmental issues to debate there.

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IDFIMH

New Taxi Strategy approved but delayed

https://news.derby.gov.uk/wp-content/up ... 68x423.png


Image: Derby City Council/BBC

At a meeting of the taxi licensing committee last night (Thursday 22nd August) committee members approved the new Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Strategy but only with alterations to two key proposals.

Firstly, the committee requested that the trade are given until January 2025 to meet the condition that all Hackney carriages and private hire vehicles are ‘required to be a minimum of Euro 6 Diesel or ZEC ULEV’ rather than the proposed date of January 2021.

Secondly, the committee also voted to amend the policy on the age limits of vehicles, voting that from 2025 the maximum age of hackney carriages and private hire vehicles should be 15 years rather than the 10 proposed for diesel vehicles and 12 years for ZEC ULEV vehicles. The delay also means that until 2025 Derby remains without any age limit on hackney carriages and private hire vehicles.

The committee did approve a new ‘back to black’ colour scheme for hackney carriages, with a diagonal yellow stripe down the side of each vehicle. Whilst the equalities impact assessment was given due consideration a decision was made that they will not be required to have a yellow bonnet. This policy comes into immediate effect for newly licensed vehicles whilst yellow cabs will have until 2025 to make the change.

A proposal for six month inspections for all vehicles was also rejected. With immediate effect, vehicles under 5 years will only be required to have one inspection per year with six monthly inspections beginning on vehicles over 5 years.

The strategy, first published earlier this year was designed to modernise Derby’s taxi and private hire fleet; making them safer, more environmentally friendly, and enhancing customer service and experience. The original proposals had been through a 12 week consultation period with feedback received from taxi/private hire drivers and operators, trade representatives, residents, local business and statutory bodies, with paper and translated versions of the survey available.

The consultation was completed by over 500 people who chose to share their views with DCC, and over half of respondents – 52.8 per cent – agreed with DCC’s overall vision for the future.

Following the consultation amendments were made to the original plans, including pushing back the implementation date from 2020 to 2021 to allow the trade time to meet the Euro 6 standard.

Mick Barker, Cabinet Member for Governance and Licensing said:

“It’s disappointing especially that the age policy has been weakened and is a backward step for the taxi trade in Derby. We have worked exceptionally hard to produce a strategy which we felt was ambitious but also fair and balanced.

“Too much consideration has been given to the taxi drivers rather than members of the public who supported our proposals. We now need to go back and look at the implications of the decisions made particularly regarding our clean air strategy and the climate emergency.”

“I’m pleased with the outcome on the colour scheme. The new design is very striking and will retain the unique ‘Derby yellow’. We have given much consideration to the views of the disabled and visually impaired and balanced that with the practicalities and cost having new vehicles resprayed yellow.”


Derby cabs yellow to black change criticised

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-d ... e-49446835

A disability charity has criticised a council's plans to change the colour of its taxis back to black after being yellow for nearly 20 years.

Derby City Council says it is making the change to save drivers money on painting and maintaining their cars.

Disability Direct said the changes were a "backwards step" as visually impaired people cannot see the black cabs.

The authority claimed it has "given much consideration" to the views of disabled and visually impaired people.

The new colour scheme for Hackney carriages, with a diagonal yellow stripe down the side, was approved at the taxi licensing committee meeting on Thursday.

The policy will come into immediate effect for newly-licensed vehicles, while yellow cabs will have until 2025 to make the change.

Dean Ormond, who is visually impaired, said: "I will always order a yellow Hackney because I can see the colour."

He said if a black 4x4 pulled up, he might mistake it for a taxi and get in, potentially putting him in danger.

Amo Raju, CEO of Disability Direct, said: "About five or six years ago, Derby was recognised as one of the most accessible cities in Europe for disabled people.

"One of the factors involved in reaching that decision was the yellow taxis in the city."

Mick Barker, from Derby City Council, said: "The new design is very striking and will retain the unique 'Derby yellow'.

"We have given much consideration to the views of the disabled and visually impaired, and balanced that with the practicalities and cost having new vehicles resprayed yellow."

Thursday's meeting discussed the full Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Strategy, which was approved apart from alterations to dates when two of the new rules will be enforced.

Happens all the time in the 99% of UK towns and cities that *don't* have yellow cabs

I think it's a decent colour TBH, every licensing area should have a colour scheme

I think the idea of a boot and bonnet spray makes a bit more sense.

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IDFIMH

Yeah right.

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IDFIMH

Why taxis dubbed 'old bangers' could be on Derby's streets until 2025

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/d ... ld-3252386

This issue has sparked a political row

Twelve-year-old taxis could be on Derby’s streets for another five years after attempts by the city council to get rid of ageing vehicles and clean up their emissions suffered a major setback.

The Conservative-led authority wanted to make it a condition of its new taxi strategy that the city's vehicles should be cleaner and meet the Government's clean air minimum standards by January 2021.

It also wanted to amend the policy on the age limits of vehicles to a maximum age of 10 years for diesel and 12 for what are known as ZEC ULEV vehicles, which are Ultra Low Emission.

That is a switch from having no maximum age.

But, at a meeting of the Conservative-chaired licensing committee, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Brexit Party councillors combined to alter the two key proposals.

This resulted in the trade being given until January 2025 for vehicles to meet cleaner engine standards and meant that the age limit on all vehicles will be 15 years instead.

Currently the majority of vehicles in the street are between 10 and 12 years old.

The Conservatives said they were “hugely disappointed with the Labour, Lib Dem and Brexit councillors", who they say “disregarded and opposed our proposals to improve the quality of Derby’s taxi fleet and deliver cleaner vehicles - something that the public fully supported in the consultation that took place in advance”.

A Tory spokesman said: “In our view, they have chosen to support and force concessions for the taxi trade over the need to increase safety and deliver clean air.”

Labour committee member, councillor Nadine Peatfield, said that the original policy would have “seriously affected the livelihoods of hundreds of taxi drivers”

She said: “A 12-week consultation saw 506 responses to the question of appropriate timescale to introduce age and emission limit and 63.2% of trade responses chose “other”. The majority further commented that five years would be an appropriate timescale.

“Labour councillor Fareed Hussain proposed to amend the age length of new taxis from 10 years to 15 years, explaining that it takes drivers up to seven years to recoup the outlay for the cost of purchasing a new taxi so three years further is not enough to make a living on before having to purchase another new taxi.

“This is a sensible and supportive result for the Derby taxi trade. The last thing Derby needs is to lose its native drivers to more out of towners because Derby’s licensing standards are unachievable and unaffordable.”

Brexit Party leader Councillor Alan Graves said: “My councillors on the committee felt that the timescales were financially constraining on the many taxi drivers and would put many out of work.

“The council should work towards collaboration to achieve targets rather than be gung-ho and forcing people into a situation that could put them on benefits. I find that taking people with you is a better strategy than forcing them into poverty.”

But Lib Dem leader, councillor Ruth Skelton, was not totally happy with the outcome of the meeting.

She said: "I want to put my proposal back on the agenda to get rid of old bangers in the short term."

Ms Skelton said this could be achieved by allowing taxi drivers to have newer vehicles introduced in 2011-12 which met more recent engine emissions standards but still did not hit the low pollution targets the council wants to reach.

Many taxi drivers were pleased with the meeting's outcome having campaigned for a longer transition period.

A spokesman for the Derby Area Taxi Association said: “We had submitted a counter-proposal noting that the taxi trade needs a five year transitional period for the proprietors to move over to the newer vehicles without causing any financial hardship to them and those who have invested in newer vehicles with outstanding finance.

“Derby taxis are not the cause of major pollution in our city. We believe the current administration should be doing far more to our road infrastructure, encourage public transport and alternative transports to tackle air quality in Derby, not use the taxi trade as an example.

“We are still encouraging a cleaner, safer fleet while giving drivers the breathing space required to make these huge financial adjustments.”

The committee did approve a new colour scheme for its 270 hackney carriages, with a diagonal yellow stripe down the side of each vehicle.

This policy comes into immediate effect for newly licensed vehicles whilst yellow cabs will have until 2025 to make the change.


Image: Derby City Council/Derby Telegraph

A proposal for six month inspections for all vehicles was also rejected. With immediate effect, vehicles under five years old will only be required to have one inspection per year with six monthly inspections beginning on vehicles over five years.

The taxi strategy, first published earlier this year was designed to modernise Derby’s taxi and private hire fleet; making them safer, more environmentally friendly, and enhancing customer service and experience.

That's one way to make a case for national taxi standards...

The majority of their licenced fleet is between 10 and 12 years old and they want another 5 years to get ready for it? What have they been doing in the meantime, or are have they just been expecting their cabs to last forever?

Even the LEVC TX at 60k would be around £80 a week over 15 years. These guys will have been claiming the depreciation of their cabs on their tax return, but not putting anything aside to cover what happens when that depreciation figure gets down to zero.

The problem with an all over scheme like that is that it needs setting off with a dash of an alternate such as the checker board stripes on New York cabs otherwise it's too bright

personally i think we should have all hackneys up and down the country the same 3 or 4 colours with the same colour plate and perhaps a different colour door to help visually impaired as they do on the trains

And PH would be any other colour not used for hackneys with no roof signs and again all plates the same colour such as yellow

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

I think all those councillors need to be reminded there is no group voting on licensing matters.

Councillors are there as individuals and should leave their rosettes at the door.

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IDFIMH

never happens and never will

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector