Taxi Driver Online

Wolverhampton taxi drivers will be prosecuted for not offering contactless payments

Black cab drivers in Wolverhampton who don't offer contactless card payments as an option - or try to add a surcharge to the fare - will face legal action, the city's licensing boss has warned. The council approved the compulsory requirement of the facility for contactless card payments within all Hackney carriage vehicles on January 19 this year.

Athough most proprietors and drivers had already complied with the move, licensing manager Greg Bickerdike said a few were yet to provide a machine to allow customers to pay by contactless methods. Mr Bickerdike said the council had received several complaints from customers stating that this service was not offered, or that attempts had been made to impose a surcharge for using debit or credit cards.

In a report to the council's regulatory committee, he said: "It is proposed that the Hackney carriage vehicle licence conditions be updated. This will facilitate enforcement against non-compliant proprietors.

"It is unlawful to impose surcharges on customers for using consumer credit cards, debit or charge cards, electronic payment services such as PayPal or similar non-card methods such as mobile phones. Customers should not be charged any more than the amount which is displayed on the meter or the agreed fare.

"The pre-agreed fare cannot include any additional charge for using a debit or credit card payment. This does not apply to transactions using a corporate or business credit card.

"As all Hackney carriages licensed by Wolverhampton are wheelchair accessible, this leads to a higher proportion of disabled people using them. Disabled people are vulnerable to contagious diseases and the requirement for contactless payments was introduced on the recommendation of Public Health," he added.

The council is also set to approve a consultation on hackney carriage and private hire licensing requirements and guidelines. Mr Bickerdike said the Department for Transport (DfT) last consulted on 'best practice guidance’ between March and June this year. The latest consultation will also take into account the licensing function for South Staffordshire Council, which is delegated to Wolverhampton.

In a further report, he added: "The council has a duty to protect the general public from harm when using Hackney carriage or private hire vehicles. In order to do this, the council must satisfy itself that all drivers and operators are 'fit and proper' persons.

"Proprietors, drivers and operators are required to provide a written framework which allows employees and councillors to make fair and consistent decisions when assessing the suitability of licence applicants. Guidelines are also applicable for existing drivers or firms if they breach conditions, are convicted/cautioned for relevant offences or behave in a manner that is inconsistent with what is expected from a licence holder," added the report. The regulatory committee will discuss approval of both matters next Thursday.

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IDFIMH

As long as they can fill in a form, and pay the license fee, then as far as Wolverhampton is concerned they are fit and proper.

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IDFIMH

Looks like Colchester are looking to mandate card readers as well.

https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/223 ... -payments/

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IDFIMH

Think this may be illegal, many drivers do not have a bank account and making this mandatory is removing the principle that it is the business who decides how a person pays for the service provided.

Pretty sure it isn’t illegal.
Don’t think there are ‘many’ without bank accounts. There maybe the odd one, in which case they can use SumUp which has its own account and debit card.

And just how do these “many drivers” who do not have a bank account pay their bills?
HMRC, etc?

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Former taxi driver

And, for a start, don't many councils not only disallow cash now, and won't even accept cheques for licensing stuff?

City of Lincoln Council, for one.

But to get real, as the kids used to say, taxi drivers who dislike card payments do so because?

Because they like cash, like all dodgy workmen do.

No income tax, no VAT, eh delboys?

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Former taxi driver

Big fan of mandating card readers.

The hackney trade has lost and continues to lose, huge amounts of work to the apps companies.

Seeing punters walk away from ranks because no bugger will take a card is just madness. Yet a regular occurrence.

But hackney drivers using the card issue to cherry pick work, or more to the point refuse local jobs, is the main reason why the local trade down here supported its implementation.

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IDFIMH

Its also mandatoryin my L A. As someone said it cuts out the cherry picking on the ranks .
The ones that dont agree with it are the usual suspects , work all the hours and still moaning
they havent earned enough .

It’s just in the process of being mandated here in Chester ( but not in the other two zones in the CWAC area) as well as a condition requiring any problems with a non-working card reader to be reported within 24hrs to the council and then the driver has 10 days to arrange a repair/replacement. There are quite a few drivers saying they’re not going to comply, there might be a few cabs up for sale soon then.

Not mandatory here yet, but find it hard to believe there's any drivers who don't have a card reader. Particularly with the students here, it's not like it was three or four years ago when I'd maybe miss the odd student run, but would normally just get a cash run within a few minutes.

Now any driver here would miss out on a lot of work, and you'd need to tell everybody that got in that you don't take cards, because a lot of them just assume you do, and don't ask. So it would all just be a big hassle accepting cash only.

Of course, when punters do ask in advance there's an element of cherrypicking by drivers claiming they don't have a card reader.

Others seem to set a minimum fare, or add some kind of charge

One punter recently told me a driver said he didn't take cash these days, but again that would be very awkward in a practical sense, even assuming it was legal, and it was undoubtedly the driver cherry picking, thus the obverse of the 'no-card-reader' style of brooming unwanted jobs.

Colchester taxi drivers warn compulsory card payment plans remove protection from drunk students running off without paying


Taxi drivers in an Essex town could be forced to accept card payments despite warnings cash safeguards against drunk students running off without paying. Colchester Borough Council’s licensing committee has approved a six-week consultation for plans to require drivers to fit their vehicles with means to accept electronic payments in addition to cash.

According to a council report, the authority has received complaints about taxis not being able to take card, and these have become more frequent since the coronavirus pandemic.

But at a meeting last night (September 28) drivers warned cash-only payments can safeguard against “runners”, and raised issues about network blackspots and the cost of payment devices to drivers, expected to be in the region of £100 according to the report.

Local taxi driver for 44 years Dave Daniel said at the meeting he asks customers for cash payments in advance to stop passengers running off without paying.

He said: “The majority of passengers we transport are drunk out of their brains or drugged up or both. There are an increasing number of passengers who have no intention of paying to get home.”

Mr Daniel, who works mostly in the High Street at night, continued to say he picked up two young men this week without taking cash in advance, who pretended to be sick in a bid to open the door of the cab and avoid paying. He said: “Taxi drivers are very poorly paid and I think it is unreasonable to expect them to have all the latest technology.”

Two other taxi drivers at the meeting expressed support for making an option to pay by card compulsory, but said there were often network problems with card readers, which have difficulty connecting in areas of low signal.

According to a council report, the cost of payment devices is expected to be £100 each, with a charge of 1.6 per cent of the fare made for each transaction.

Mayor of Colchester Tim Young (Labour, Greenstead) questioned whether cheaper devices were available, saying ones for less than £20 had been purchased by the council before. He also said pre-payment could be done by card.

He said: “It’s just the way of the world and the way things are going. I think it will in the long run be safer, I think there are safeguards we can put in place.”

Jon Ruder, the council's licensing and food safety manager, said if people came forward with other methods of payment during the consultation then they would be considered. He also acknowledged issues with people not paying but said it was a police matter, describing it as “theft”.

Councillor Roger Mannion (Con, Tiptree) said: “I’m a little bit concerned about the reluctance of the drivers to take machines and it does seem to be that there is some reluctance. I would have thought that it’s safer not to have to carry bags and bags of cash, particularly on the night runs."

He also said if people left cabs prematurely, then having a card in the system could help drivers ensure they received payment. The plans will now go to consultation with the local taxi trade, before returning to the committee for approval.

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IDFIMH

Well we will ignore the legalities of that comment if the job was local, but what's stopping him from taking card in advance?

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IDFIMH

Comes to something when licensing councillors have to point out the blindingly obvious to drivers.

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IDFIMH