Taxi Driver Online

Something not quite right about this, at least from my perspective as a grass roots driver rather than as someone who 'hires' other drivers, whether as a vehicle owner or as a despatch operation

But if you were a visitor from another country, say, then you could be forgiven for thinking that it's the council who employ the drivers in 'jobs', rather than the reality of private businesses taking on self-employed drivers

And, as I said last time round, how did *the council* come up with the precise figure of 50 new drivers required?

And we're used to reading 'advertorial' from cab firms regarding this kind of stuff, but this looks like advertorial for the council


Torbay still needs more taxi drivers - and right now it's cheap to apply

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-ne ... xi-6070391

Cost of application fees for a taxi licence slashed from £349 to £50 for the first 50 people who came forward - but still there are gaps

Torbay Council’s campaign to make up for the shortfall in taxi drivers in the Bay has started to return results – but more drivers are still needed.

In July the council slashed the cost of application fees for a taxi licence from £349 to £50 for the first 50 people who came forward. It formed part of a bid to make up for the increased demand for taxis as restrictions eased and the number of drivers fell.

The council has so far recruited 18 of its target of 50 drivers, with 12 other applications at various stages of the application process. The licence fee discount is first-come first-served and is due to expire on December 31.

A Torbay Council spokesperson said: “Recruiting 50 new drivers has always been an aspirational target. Where elements of the process are managed by Torbay Council, we are endeavouring to expedite matters, where feasible.

“We are conscious the shortage of drivers is an issue which impacts nationally, and we are keeping the situation under review.”

Cllr Christine Carter, cabinet member for corporate and community services, praised the results so far. “This is really positive news for local people and Torbay visitors alike, all due to the successful response to the reduced fee initiative,” she said.

“To have 18 new taxi licenses allocated to drivers now working across the Bay in just three months is a great result.”

Leader of the opposition, Cllr Dave Thomas, is also in favour of the scheme, and said: “I’m surprised the numbers weren’t a lot greater to be honest.

“There is a need for more taxi drivers. I thought those 50 spaces would have been swamped immediately. Clearly, that’s not been the case but there’s still time for people to get involved.

“There’s a lot of jobs available in the industry. The sooner they can be filled, the better for everybody.”

Sure they're 'jobs' that need to be 'filled' rather than the council licensing drivers for self-employment?

And, I mean, if there was a shortage of cabs in the likes of Torbay at the summer peak, what's it going to be like for the rest of the year, never mind into January and the following couple of months

In the summer months there is always demand on the nightime economy in these seaside resorts but this year
it has been an exception due to no fly restrictions . Things are back to normal usual big operators moaning, smaller
companies took up some of the flack .

In my opinion the main reason of shortage of drivers is because alot of them didnt register with HMRC therefore wouldnt
receive furlough payments so had to find other work instead .

Good point and another one to add to the list.

Obviousy at the time of the SEISS grants many were making the (self-evident) point that lots of drivers would be ineligible because they didn't declare their income. But personally I hadn't really considered that in terms of the post-lockdown aftermath.

And where cars tend to be double-shifted, a common arrangement seems to be rental drivers doing nights, and the owner-drivers doing days.

So come lockdown, no night work and the rental drivers tended to be, er, less eligible for the SEISS grants, so effectively disappeared and haven't come back.

Yeah easiest thing in the world to get a doctor to do a taxi medical.

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IDFIMH

Correct.

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IDFIMH

I nearly passed out on Friday, My wife rang the doctors to see about her taxi medical and she has a face to face appointment for early December. That was when she wanted the appointment. However the doctor will not be conducting the eye sight test, that still has to be done at the opticians.

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Grandad,

To go back to the original thread topic.

How is this "Subsidy" funded?

If was an existing Driver in Torbay I would be far from pleased if my Licence Fees were being used for this.

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Chris The Fish

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

Indeed, Chris. Kind of thing I'd be asking lots of questions about and lodging FOI requests if there was any real point, but why bother?

I would hope it comes out of the council's general budget but suspect it's out of the licensing budget.

I suppose the council could say that once licensed the drivers will continue to pay licensing fees, a common business practice.

But I doubt the legislation allows for some drivers to subsidise other drivers.

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IDFIMH