Not sure if the headline below is the best way to describe what's going on, but it is quite complex
Cambridge taxi drivers can ditch diesel for hybrid cars as council relaxes emissions policy
https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/c ... h-24343119
Taxi drivers said they were grateful for the change, but argued more needed to be done.
Taxi drivers in Cambridge will be able to use standard hybrid cars after Cambridge City Council agreed to relax its emission policy. The city council has been working to increase the uptake of ultra-low and zero emission vehicles by taxi drivers.
The move is part of work to reduce polluting emissions and improve air quality in the city. Under the city council’s current policy, vehicles classed as ultra-low emission include, plug-in hybrid vehicles, and extended range electric vehicles. Zero emission vehicles include electric only vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles for example hydrogen.
However, a report presented to a meeting of the city council’s Licensing Committee yesterday (Monday, June 28) said that ultra-low and zero emission vehicles are becoming hard to buy.
The report said: “In October 2016 members amended the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Policy to include a commitment to implement changes to increase the uptake of Ultra-Low and Zero emission vehicles, such as hybrid and electric.
“However, due to Brexit and the pandemic and now with the crisis in Ukraine, the availability of such vehicles are becoming more difficult to obtain.
“There is also a waiting period of up to a year to purchase these types of vehicles and therefore there is a need to build in flexibility into the policy to allow standard hybrids with emissions of less than 120g/km of CO2.”
Some taxi drivers from the city spoke at the meeting in support of the plans to relax the emission requirements, highlighting the problems they have been facing.
One driver highlighted how the cost of his vehicle had risen over the last few years, explaining that the car he bought in 2019 cost him £28,000, and that the cost has now risen to £36,000.
Ahmed Karaahmed, the chairman of Cambridge City Licensed Taxis, said the taxi trade had faced “a lot of challenges” over the last few years.
He said: “A few years back the council agreed that all city licensed vehicles should be electric or low emission, along with silver livery and un-tinted windows policy.
“All those changes doubled the vehicle cost for taxi drivers, it made it very difficult to find suitable vehicles on the market, it narrowed our choices.
“Of course after all of those new policies the world entered the pandemic and the taxi trade collapsed, our vehicles were parked in front of our houses for over a year.
“After the pandemic working conditions were just about to improve and now the country is going into a recession. Energy and fuel prices are soaring, diesel and petrol trading prices are already about £2 a litre. This is hitting the taxi trade very badly. I don’t know how long the taxi trade can survive in these difficult conditions.”
Mr Karaahmed said he was grateful that including standard hybrid vehicles in the licensing policy was being brought before the committee councillors.
However, he added that this was not enough and asked for the requirement for silver livery and the tinted window policy to also be reviewed, explaining that many electric vehicles are manufactured with tinted windows.
A city council officer explained that the silver livery was previously agreed at the request and with the taxi trade to identify hackney carriages in the city and said this would not be reviewed at the moment.
She added that licensing cases would be reviewed on an individual basis, but said the requirement not to have tinted windows was for passenger safety. However, she said this could be looked at when the CCTV in taxis is introduced.
When put to a vote, the committee councillors unanimously agreed to the policy change. The change is due to be reviewed in 2024. The chair of the committee, Councillor Russ McPherson said the taxi trade in the city was “extremely important”.