Taxi Driver Online

Plans to change taxi licensing in Hereford 'would hit trade'

https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/1970 ... hit-trade/

Hereford’s taxi driver shortage could become much worse if proposals to change how they are licensed go ahead, drivers have warned.

“The new rules will decimate the taxi trade,” Hereford Hackney Taxi and Private Hire Association chairman John Jones said.

“There is already an acute shortage of taxi drivers, leading to people having to wait for two hours or more.”

This has meant people missing hospital appointments, or women having to walk home unaccompanied late at night, he said.

Views are currently being sought on a new taxi policy for the county drafted for the council by specialist solicitor James Button.

This proposes refusing to grant licences from next April to cars that were first registered or manufactured more than five years ago, for environmental reasons.

Vehicles over two years old would meanwhile have to meet or exceed “Euro 5” emission standards, while more recent cars would have to meet the most stringent Euro 6 standards.

“I would hazard a guess that about 50% of the fleet are over 10 years old and would need replacing,” Mr Jones said.

The new proposals would also mean existing drivers will have to sit a “geographic knowledge and navigational skills” test, he added.

This is already a requirement of new driver licence applicants, and is a major hurdle for them, he explained. “It has only a 20% pass rate, so would mean we would lose 80% of current taxi drivers.”

Meanwhile many drivers have already left the industry, "due to an accumulation of factors, such as rising costs and an overbearing administration", he added.

"The cost is also prohibitive and the time it takes to get through the many layers of bureaucracy to obtain a licence is far too long."

Drivers have attacked the process of the planned changes as well as their content, Mr Jones added. A meeting scheduled for last week as part of the consultation was turned at short notice into a one-way presentation by Mr Button, he said.

After a call from Mr Jones for his members to boycott this, it “was very well unattended”, Mr Jones said.

He added that he is so far resisting calls from his members for a strike, but explained: “I am trying to negotiate with the council but they aren’t putting any consultation our way.”

A Herefordshire Council spokesperson said: “The aim of the proposed policy is to ensure public safety and safeguarding.

"We will of course do our best to balance this as far as possible with the business interests of the taxi trade.”

The council has now extended the closing date for the consultation into December “to ensure that there is adequate time to carefully consider the implications of this proposed policy”, and plans further meetings with taxi drivers, she added.

So that's 5-years-old *on*, then?

Therefore presumably the Euro standards are irrelevant, because cars of that age are bound to pass them?

So 5-years on doesn't seem particularly onerous in the grand scheme of things, for saloons at least...


Oh, I see. Well maybe that puts things in a different light


So existing badgeholders would have the same topo pass rate as fresh applicants?

Methinks he exaggerates a tad. And surely *all* existing drivers should have topo knowledge similar or better than that of the 20% of new applicants who pass?

And I'd guess the 20% is just the first-time pass rate as well, rather than the proportion who actually get a badge.

That was last night, but looks like the newspaper has changed its online headline to jazz things up a bit, and certainly makes it look like they're on the side of the quoted operator:

And one particularly interesting comment on the website. Who'd have expected this?

Euro 5 came in in 2009....surely it's no great ask to have a vehicle that's under 12 years old.

If 50% of the fleet is over 10 years old then they are going to be replaced soon no matter what. Or they are going to fall apart.

As for Euro 6, that came in 2015, and most vehicles met that standard at least 2 years prior.

So worst-case scenario for this area is that all those vintage cars currently running can be replaced by 6/7-year-old motors.

Three or four grand will get you a 7-year-old Octavia.

_________________
IDFIMH

Not sure if a trade that consists of a fleet that is 50% over the age of 10 years doesn't deserve to be decimated.

_________________
IDFIMH

A vehicle over 10 years of age if well maintained will be in better nick than many newer vehicles that are not well maintained.
Age should not be a factor.

They may well be incredibly maintained, all 50% of them.

But they are still chucking out more s*** from their exhausts than they should be.

And most folks I know like breathing.

_________________
IDFIMH

The Hereford Times has added a photo, but difficult to tell the condition and age of the vehicles. The drivers look quite laid back, though



That Passat nearest the camera must be 2010 or older, though

The car nearest the camera would seem to be a 65 plate or a 60 plate.

_________________
Grandad,

It's a B6 Passat, which was replaced in 2010, so must be a 60-plate.

65-plate would be 2015-16, and pretty sure it's not a B7 Passat with the redesigned grille.

I had a B6 for eight years, and my B7 will be eight-year-old in the spring

Hereford taxis chairman's 'rude' emails blocked in dispute

https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/1978 ... d-dispute/


Image: Rob Davies/Hereford Times

The spokesman for Hereford’s taxi drivers has been blocked from contacting the council in an acrimonious ongoing dispute over proposed changes to the county’s taxi licensing regime.

Hereford Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Association chairman John Jones said that, frustrated by the official consultation on the changes which ended last week, he had tried to email all councillors via their council email addresses instead, but found his email address blocked.

“So I used my secretary’s email instead,” he said. “Councillors have a right to make decisions and those should be informed ones. They need to hear both sides of the argument.”

Mr Jones had earlier fallen foul of the council’s unreasonable behaviour policy as “he would not desist from sending defamatory and rude emails to both staff and the cabinet member”, the council said.

However, it said it had forwarded Mr Jones’ emails to councillors anyway, as “this process does not impact on his right to lobby members”.

Mr Jones said even the extended consultation did not enable drivers to put their concerns across adequately.

“There has to be some debate and negotiation, but they are simply telling us how it’s going to be, and offering to ‘clarify’ that,” he said.

He has set out a list of over 60 concerns over the planned changes, which include tight restrictions on which vehicles can be licensed.

“They want to bring in restrictions on vehicles’ ages straight away in spring,” he said.

“Contracts to provide transport services to the council will handed back in, because 90 per cent of those vehicles won’t pass as they are over 10 years old. When you tender (for council work), they take the lowest bid, so drivers can’t afford to replace them.”

And he said of a 'Knowledge'-style test of routes around the county, due to become a requirement of all new and re-registering drivers: “I’ve had a licence for 38 years, and I wouldn’t pass. This in an age where you have satnav to take you anywhere.”

He said about 50 drivers had intended to protest at a full council meeting at Hereford’s Three Counties Hotel last week, which was cancelled due to the weather and rising Covid-19 cases.

“I am under pressure to hold a strike, which I don’t want to do – that would leave no taxis for those who rely on them,” Mr Jones said. “But it’s inevitable if this goes through.”

Herefordshire Council’s spokesperson said that during two online consultation meetings in November, “the trade were able to ask questions, and did so”. These questions “will be used in the policy review”, he added.

“The council is very aware that the trade is concerned about its viability following the departure of many of its drivers, and will endeavour to find a way forward that will not impact unduly on the trade, although not at the cost of public safety nor safeguarding protection of passengers,” the spokesperson said.

The resulting final version of the revised regulations will have to be approved by full council, likely to be in May.

He's either exaggerating a tad, or the council are asking seriously stupid questions

Had forgotten about this, but recognised the face - this was the same guy who made the excellent point about LOs acting as judge and jury, separation of powers etc

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