Taxi Driver Online

South Gloucestershire Uber drivers to be banned from displaying word 'taxi'

Uber and Ola drivers will be banned from displaying the word “taxi” anywhere on their cars under new plans to protect public safety in South Gloucestershire.

The proposal is among a raft of new signage rules for private-hire vehicles (PHVs) and Hackney carriages recommended by a police officer who acts as a taxi compliance officer for South Gloucestershire Council.

PHVs must be booked using services such as Uber and Ola, whereas Hackney carriages can be hailed from the pavement without a booking.

Yet, according to PC Patrick Quinton: “After 40 years of regulation, the public generally do not know the difference between the two.”

PHVs and Hackney carriages that are licensed in South Gloucestershire can look “almost identical”, PC Quinton told a council regulatory committee on January 30.

“The purpose of signage is primarily for public safety,” he said. “But anyone can stick an Uber or OLA door sign on a car and it’s unlikely most of the public would suspect it’s not a licensed vehicle.”

PC Quinton has recommended that PHVs must have a rear licence plate that is permanently attached, rather than stuck on with magnets or tied on with bits of string, and a front windscreen sticker bearing the PHV number, registration mark, council logo and expiry date.

“No other external signage should be allowed, including any roof signs or the word “Taxi” used in any form on the vehicle even as part of the operator name,” he wrote in his report.

Drivers would not be prohibited from displaying Uber and Ola signs on their car doors, but their size, number and location would be limited.

Hackney carriages would have to bear large stickers showing the word “TAXI” and the car number on their bonnet and the two front doors.

Like PHVs, they would also have to have a permanently fixed rear licence plate under the proposals.

Tightening up the external signage rules would make a bigger distinction between PHVs and Hackney carriages and reduce the issue of PHVs illegally standing for hire, PC Quinton told the committee.

Permanent rear licence plates would also make it harder for them to be stolen and used to “impersonate” a licensed vehicle, he said.

The committee approved the recommendations set out by PC Quinton, along with a host of other proposals affecting PHVs and Hackney carriages.

The industry will have a chance to comment on most of the proposals, which include a freeze on Hackney carriage fares next year, before a final decision is made.

New technical specifications for wheelchair-accessible vehicles (WAVs) were agreed following a 12-week consultation, although a decision on the date for their implementation was deferred until March.

The council will publish a public list of WAVs, including information about the size and weight of the wheelchair that can be accommodated and the type of vehicle licensed with contact details.

The list will be subject to an appeals process following a consultation in which PHV drivers raised concerns about publishing their private details.

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IDFIMH

Interesting that a PC is spending so much time dealing with the taxi/PH trade. However in respect of the above comment, not only do the public not know the difference, they care even less.

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IDFIMH

why only them why not ALL PH

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

It will be all PH, not just app PH.

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IDFIMH

Not sure if it's still the case, but when I got my badge in Dundee there was a PC who administered the knowledge test etc, and who I think was on some kind of semi-permanent secondment from Tayside Police (as it was called back then.)

Presumably the council paid for his services out of the licensing pot, or something like that.

Indeed, and attempting to emphasise the difference in South Glocs is maybe a case of locking the stable door etc, and just a drop in the national HC/PH ocean (to mix metaphors ).

And sounds like they're simply tightening things up (literally, in the case of the display of plates) to reflect practice in other areas. And, of course, prohibiting the display of the word 'taxi' on PHVs is trite law (to use a lawyer's expression )

And portraying the HC/PH divide like this isn't the best way to emphasise the difference:


So we've went full circle from the more normal portrayal of Uber and Ola as a breed apart from the conventional PH trade, to now effectively representing the whole of the PH sector