Taxi Driver Online

Most of this was covered before as an add-on to the Glasgow PH cap thread, but more interesting than that is the councillor's (brief) comments in response to the petition

Edinburgh Council accused of 'staggering hypocrisy' as petition launched calling for cap on private hire licences

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/ ... -1-5003472

Cab drivers in the Capital are calling on the council to cap the number of private hire licences given out in order to help reduce congestion and reduce harmful emissions.

The petition from the Edinburgh Cab Section of the Unite union accuses Edinburgh Council's of "staggering" hypocrisy as numbers of private hire licences given out continues to increase.

It also calls for an over-provision survey to take place in order to ascertain whether there are too many private hire licences.

There are around 2,500 private hire vehicles and around 1,500 traditional black cabs.

Glasgow City Council were the first local authority to introduce a cap on private hire licences in April this year with the aim to ensure work was not spread too thinly across the city.

Council bosses in the Capital state they are waiting for guidelines from the government as to whether they can act.

Cab section chairman Scott Blair said the union's concerns were about rising congestion in the city which they believe can only be tackled effectively if private hire numbers are reduced or capped.

He said: "There are at least 1,800 cars added to the streets of Edinburgh which is a huge amount when we are already have over-congestion.

"We do want a cap but we are not asking the council to set a cap at whatever level we want, it has to be independent but we do want it looked at. The council are wanting to clean up the air and we want to help them with that as well.

"It is for our health benefit to keep emissions down as well. The streets are our office."

Licensing convener Catherine Fullerton said there was not a way of calculating the maximum or minimum number of private hire vehicles and until that changed, a decision will not be made.

She said: "Our Licensing Service is responsible for the licensing of both taxi and private hire vehicles. All vehicles are tested annually for mechanical road worthiness, pollutants and safety standards in accordance with our Licence conditions and Emissions and Age Policy.

“To date there has been no means under which a maximum or minimum number of private hire vehicles could be calculated therefore when this has been established a decision will be made.”

Well who'd have thunk that

Interesting comment from member of the public, for a change, and also a member of the public who seems to know what they're talking about


Another interesting exchange:



Suspect exaggerating slightly, but certainly grain of truth in the Hybrids v Smelly Old Oil Burners point

Cap on number of private hire taxis and cars - including Uber - to be investigated in Edinburgh

The City of Edinburgh Council has unanimously agreed to instruct officials to investigate whether there is over-provision of private hire vehicles.

The move comes after Glasgow became the first local authority in Scotland to introduce a cap on private hire car and taxi licenses in April 2019.

Edinburgh Greens tweeted at 11.26am this morning that: "Green councillor @susan4leithwalk today secured council backing to investigate capping of the number of private hire cars in city."

The call for change comes after union reps from the taxi trade raised concerns of passengers being picked up illegally.

According to the Addendum shared by local democracy reporter David Bol on Twitter, the report on the number of private hire taxis and cars should include "information regarding current means of inspection and enforcement undertaken by The City of Edinburgh Council and Police Scotland ."

In April 2019 Glasgow introduced an upper limit of 1,420 and and a lower limit of 1,278 taxis - at the time time they agreed an upper limit of 3,759 and lower limit of 3,383 for private hire cars.

Private taxi companies such as Uber have come under scrutiny in Edinburgh recently for their high charges

_________________
IDFIMH

member of the public or someone in the trade masquerading as such ?

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