Taxi Driver Online

Nothing particularly exciting here, and of course not so many reports like this in the last couple of years, for obvious reasons.

But for a council in a big city like Sunderland, and with 556 HCD badges and 487 PHD badges in issue (according to the report), there doesn't look like a whole lot to see here

All in a day's work for the trade, I'd say

Except of course if drivers are abusing LOs doing their job. But if they genuinely are, makes you wonder why there aren't more serious things going on than portrayed here


Sunderland taxi drivers clashing with enforcement officers on list of complaints

https://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/pol ... ts-4011693

Dozens of complaints were made about Wearside’s taxi drivers last year, according to a new report published by council licensing chiefs.

Sunderland City Council’s Licensing and Regulatory Committee, on January 30, looked at new data linked to hackney carriage and private hire licensing matters.

The annual report monitored licensing performance and activity across the city between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022.

Over the year, 346 new licensing applications were considered in total, including 67 hackney carriage drivers licences and 82 private hire drivers licences.

Other licences included vehicle licences, operators licences and transfer of ownership licences, as well as 971 renewal applications.

As part of the annual report, details were published about complaints related to licensed drivers in Sunderland.

A total of 40 complaints were submitted over the year, with around two thirds of complaints seeing some form of formal action.

Around 13 complaints were related to behaviour or attitude, with one example including “three separate instances of three drivers being abusive towards civil enforcement officers when carrying out their duties, while the taxi drivers were waiting on taxi ranks”.

Another example listed in the report included a “driver sounding his horn and gesticulating to the complainant”.

Around 14 complaints were linked to driving ability or skill, ranging from “erratic driving” and a driver parking across two parking bays, to drivers “performing a U-turn” or “pulling out in front of [a] complainant”.

A total of nine complaints were linked to fare / card payments, including claims one driver would not accept card payments, as well as four complaints about refusal of fare or not accepting bookings.

Some examples of refused fares were linked to alleged customer behaviour, including one case where a driver “refused to take three customers as they were being aggressive and shouting at each other before attempting to get into the vehicle”.

Of the complaints across 2022, a total of 12 complaints saw “no further action”, due to insufficient information to investigate further or “no evidence of any wrongdoing”.

However, a total of 23 verbal warnings and five written warnings were given out, with “information recorded on the respective driver’s file”.

Only one case was linked to a “badge and licence [being] surrendered”.

In 2022, a total of five licensed drivers went before councillors on the Licensing and Regulatory Committee, which meets at City Hall.

This led to three written warnings being issued, including two “severe warnings” and one three-month suspension of a private hire driving licence.

The most serious ruling saw one “non-immediate revocation” of licences to drive hackney carriage and private hire vehicles.

The introduction of the Licensing and Regulatory Committee’s annual report links in with Government guidance and the Department for Transport’s ‘statutory taxi standards’ document.

A report presented to councillors this week added one of the “key lessons learned is that it is vital to review policies and reflect changes in the industry both locally and nationally”.

Future annual reports from Sunderland City Council will detail previous figures to help monitor changes and trends going forward.

The report for 2022 can be found on Sunderland City Council’s website here: https://committees.sunderland.gov.uk/co ... tings.aspx

Don't know if this link will work, but this is the actual report (rather than the roundabout link above):

https://committees.sunderland.gov.uk/co ... Ff55vVA%3d

Some of the other complaints in the report. As I said, all in day's work


That's never happened before


...and neither has that


Although it was 3am rather than the usual 3pm, and they took a two-mile detour to get munchies from the Shell garage


No further detail, but I'd guess readers aren't compulsory in Sunderland.


Possibly an honest mistake keying in the figures if it's a basic card reader. Pretty sure I've done that myself and not noticed, because have seen a couple on my Zettle account with an odd penny at the end, which wouldn't appear on a metered fare, or with added tip. But it would just be a couple of pence, and not a couple of zeros added accidentally


In which case, most students here would be refused

And that's it, by the looks of it. As I said, doesn't seem much for a city with over 1,000 drivers, over a whole year

Incidentally, the committee's one revocation was unsuccessfully appealed to the magistrates' court

What’s a transfer of ownership licence, and why would anyone need one?

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Former taxi driver

Those numbers make Sunderland look like paradise compared to B&H.

I suspect the number of people who have had their licenses revoked in B&H during 2022 would be in double figures, and that's not including warnings or suspensions.

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IDFIMH

Not surprised complaints are on the rise in Sunderland - by the standards of last year's report, they must be the most angelic in the country

On the other hand, it's all pretty small beer. Some of this stuff, though

It goes from the totally banal, to very anoraky licensing stuff near the end that looks like it's aimed at licensing solicitors or similar, as opposed to readers of Chronicle Live


Complaints about Sunderland taxi drivers on the rise

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/no ... e-28640257

The latest annual report from Sunderland City Council's Licensing and Regulatory Committee has revealed a rise in complaints about licensed drivers in the city

There's been an increase in complaints made about taxi drivers in Sunderland, an annual report said. Sunderland City Council's Licensing and Regulatory Committee looked at information linked to taxi licensing in the city.

The report looked at how it did over a year and showed the council's attempts to share facts about licensed drivers. This includes how many new licenses have been applied for, who now owns licenses and when they need to be renewed, as well as complaints about drivers.

The council put out the second annual report, which lets people see how things have changed. The council said there had been a 32.5 per cent rise in complaints about drivers since last year, going from 40 to 53. About half (29) of the complaints last year led to some kind of formal action, such as verbal warnings or advice, written warnings or even going to a licensing hearing, while the other 19 didn't have anything done about them.

There were "ongoing investigations" into five complaints when the report came out. The complaints came from passengers, other drivers, or other places.The yearly licensing report, shared at a recent Sunderland City Council's Licensing and Regulatory Committee meeting, gave details of the types of complaints about licensed drivers.

About a quarter of the 2023 complaints were about behaviour or attitude, with one example being a driver "sounding his horn and gesticulating to the complainant".

Other examples in the report included a driver "being abusive towards a civil enforcement officer when carrying out their duties, while the taxi driver was illegally parking" and a driver who "wouldn't drop off at the door".

The number of complaints about behaviour or attitude in 2023 fell slightly compared to the previous year.

However, around 17 complaints in 2023 were about "driving ability/skills", which was an increase from the previous year, going up from 14 to 17.

Examples ranged from "erratic driving" and a driver "performing a U-turn and then becoming abusive when challenged", to a driver "driving through bus gates" and a driver "pulling out in front of [a] complainant".

Around 15 complaints were about fare/card payments, which were nearly double the number of complaints compared to the previous year.

Examples in the report included a complaint that one driver "couldn't accept card payments", as well as complaints about a customer being "charged a different fare than usual" and a bank account being "debited at a higher amount than the fare displayed".

Additionally, about a dozen complaints were related to drivers refusing fares or not accepting bookings, which was three times more than the previous year.

Some examples from the annual report included "drivers refusing WAV (wheelchair accessible vehicle) bookings" and "drivers refusing passengers who want to pay by card".

A few complaints were also about the condition of vehicles, with one case linked to "damaged seat coverings" and another to a "vehicle's general cleanliness".

In 2023, three complaints about licensed drivers were considered by the Licensing and Regulatory Committee, compared to five cases the previous year.

The recent annual report stated that hearings for these three drivers in 2023 resulted in three written warnings, and two non-immediate suspensions of private hire vehicle licences.

These suspensions lasted three months and included a referral to the driver improvement scheme, along with written warnings.

There were no cases in 2023 where the committee decided on the "non-immediate revocation of licences to drive hackney carriage and private hire vehicles", compared to one case in 2022.

However, there were three cases in 2023 where senior council officers considered the "immediate suspension, or revocation of licences to drive hackney carriage and/or private hire vehicles", compared to none in 2022.

According to the council's yearly report, all three cases were decided under 'delegated powers', resulting in "the immediate revocation" of licences for "the grounds of public safety" reasons. The 2023 annual report was discussed by the Licensing and Regulatory Committee on January 29, 2024. The introduction of these reports aligns with government guidance and the Department for Transport's 'statutory taxi standards' document.

A report given to councillors last year highlighted that it's crucial to review policies and reflect changes in the industry both locally and nationally. Future annual reports from Sunderland City Council aim to detail previous figures to help monitor changes and trends going forward. The next annual report, looking at data for 2024, is expected to be considered at a meeting of the Licensing and Regulatory Committee in January, 2025. Annual licensing reports can be found on Sunderland City Council's website.

Awful standard of driving in Sunderland, obviously. I mean, it must be at least a week since I've done anything like that


Bet they can't stop talking about stuff like that in the streets of Sunderland



Can't be bothered looking it all up, but some of the wording this year in the Chronicle's report is identical to that in the council's report last year, including the three complaints about fares and payments above.

They're quite generic complaints, and quite low-level, so that the same wording should be used in both years is hardy surprising. Funny thing, though, is that they're made to sound like individual complaints, but are probably just examples of many complaints received. Which is maybe why it all sounds like there's not that many complaints in Sunderland, but in fact there's a lot more than portrayed.

(Although, to be fair, the Chronicle's article does say they're examples of complaints. And my responses to those examples are just the same as last year's responses above )

a way for councils to make money out of taxi/ph sales !

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

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