Taxi Driver Online

Hackney Carriage and Private Hire vehicle policy

https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/citylife-n ... cle-policy

Newcastle City Council is currently looking to implement a new Hackney Carriage & Private Hire Licensing Policy. Central to this policy remains public safety and one of the objectives is to improve licensed vehicle recognition and visibility in increasing public awareness.

Licensing Authority proposals aim to improve uniformity to its Hackney Carriage fleet by reverting all 700+ vehicles to a base of black and also applying a white wrap to the bonnet to show their unique service in being able to pick up without pre-booking, as well as making them clearly identifiable in the night time economy.

The Authority urges people using “taxis” to first make sure they are getting into cars which are appropriately licensed. They can do this by checking the vehicle licence plate, door markings and the drivers’ identification badge which should be visible at all times.

Only Newcastle City Council licensed Hackney Carriages are legally permitted to pick up from the street without a pre-booking. It is an offence for a Hackney Carriage Driver to refuse a fare that starts and finishes in Newcastle. It is also an offence for a driver not to use the fitted meter or to charge more that the legal tariff of fares displayed in the licensed vehicle.

All journeys in other licensed vehicles must be pre-booked with a licensed private hire operator.

It is also the intention of the new policy to require private hire vehicles to display their associated company for easier customer identification. This will be complimented with further council markings to the front doors of the vehicle to show that prior bookings must be made.

The safety of the travelling public is paramount.

In addition to these measures a proactive enforcement approach will be maintained together with Northumbria Police colleagues to ensure that all vehicles are roadworthy, compliant with licence conditions and appropriately insured and that any contraventions or driver non-compliance is swiftly actioned.

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IDFIMH

But what if vehicles/drivers have multi operators?

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IDFIMH

It is to stamp out that practice as they are cherry picking the jobs.

Ignoring the signage issue, what's the legality of drivers working for multi-operators?

Think some LAs try to stop drivers from working for more than one operator. Is there anything in the legislation about this, and has it been tested in court?

Yes, and previously the operators would have stopped this, because they wouldn't allow multi-operating, and wouldn't allow drivers to cherry pick jobs.

But that's presumably increasingly up in the air.

Oddly enough for years you werent allowed to advertise your company title on the side of a PH vehicle...at least up here.

Have humans suddenly become so stupid in the last year that they now need all these additional clues to vehicle identity when they got by before without it....if theyre so drunk to require this signage then they'll be to drunk to even notice it's there.

Wonderful idea's from the bored councillors who'll expect a struggling trade to cough up for their nonsene.

We're much the same in Fife. Just a smallish plate at the back and a front window plate are the only indications PHVs are licensed. In fact, back in the 1990s all there was was a plate on the back, and a very small one at that.

But get the impression English local authorities are more inclined to allow or encourage PHV advertising and signage than the Scottish ones, but not sure if there's anything in the legislation that might have caused that. Suspect it's more about custom and practice than legislation and law.

But certainly can't imagine the like of this in the average Scottish council area, which is a PHV in Staffordshire:

That has got sweet f*** all to do with civil servants.

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IDFIMH

Maybe not but if you take a booking to provide a vehicle for a certain time it must be provided at that time otherwise you are breaching contract law. In all probability this is the reason civil servants are getting involved as cherry picking leaves someone who was expecting their booked vehicle to turn up in a vulnerable position.

Fair point, but it's the drivers who are cherry picking, not the operators.

The public contract with the operator, and the operator then contracts with the driver.

But the contract between the operator and driver clearly allows the driver to cancel, and thus allows for cherry picking by the latter.

Of course, 20 years ago this wouldn't really have been a problem, because the contracts back then wouldn't allow the driver to cancel or cherry pick (whether the contract was written, or maybe just a verbal agreement or even an implied term of the contract).

And, of course, it's all tied in with the employment status issue.

And indeed underlines what many have always said about employment status even pre-Uber - if you've no choice but to accept any job, then hardly consistent with self-employment

Why does anyone think a driver should only be allowed to work with one firm?

Even PH drivers have rights to be free to decide for themselves what work they choose to take or reject.

If an operator doesn't want drivers to take work from elsewhere, then that's a decision for them, and drivers can accept that rule or tell them to stick it up their arse.

However it is not a decision for councillors or council officials. No law allows them to adopt such a policy.

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IDFIMH

In my local authority you must have an operators license to get on the road , every PH driver has an operators license.

Gets around any unlicensed hirings.

And would sort out the vast amount of cross border working.

However I doubt it would survive judicial scrutiny.

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IDFIMH

Noticed this in the Portsmouth document:


I was assuming the IoL article maybe addressed the legalities of effectively restricting multi-opp working, but couldn't find anything on their website.

But they have republished some of the BBC and i newspaper stuff that's been posted on here, thus it's not about the licensing dimension but the kind of safety-related arguments published in the press. So I assume the stuff Portsmouth is referring to is more about the emotional argument rather than the strict legalities in terms of licensing

There seems to be a bit of a trend developing of matching taxis to the local football clubs colours it will be very interesting if Manchester decide to do that

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