Taxi Driver Online

Says the fella applying for three new taxi plates in a restricted area.

Safety concerns raised over 'outrageous' waits of up to two hours for city taxis

‘Outrageous’ waits of up to two hours for a taxi could be risking lives it is being claimed, amid calls for more vehicles to be allowed on the road.

Stirling Council currently caps taxi vehicle licences at 69, with an extra 10 purely for rural areas. Any applications outwith the cap have to come before the council’s planning and regulation panel.

The authority, however, also has to carry out unmet demand surveys every three years - but the last one was carried out in April 2016.

The panel heard last week that officers hoped to be able to embark on a new survey next month following a delay due to the pandemic.

However, one taxi operator - applying for three further licences - told members that waiting times at the moment were already “outrageous”.

Craig Haire of Stirling Taxis said: “We have had councillors, police, licensing etc all approach us to try to get waiting times down on the rank and the current number of vehicles isn’t cutting it.

“Demand is at an all-time high and we can’t see that changing.

“January was slightly quieter with the restrictions being in place, but October, November and December were outrageous and waiting times were consistently over two hours on the phone and at the rank.

“Now the students have returned and a Wednesday night seems to be when they go out, and on Friday and Saturday nights we simply can’t cope.”

Mr Haire originally lodged the applications in October last year - before nightclubs re-opened - telling licensing officers: “Since the return of the night trade to Stirling I have seen demand for taxis increase dramatically - higher than it has ever been in my 16-year experience in the trade. It is the weekend where the lack of vehicles is most acute.

“Additional vehicles are required to help cut waiting times at the ranks.”

He said the 2016 survey findings “no longer represent the situation we are currently in.”

Panel chair Councillor Alasdair MacPherson said he had particular concerns about student safety and cited the tragic case of David O’Halloran, an 18-year-old who in 2013 was found dead after vanishing on a night out.

Police said the Stirling University student, who was wearing only a T-shirt, shirt and jeans in temperatures of -4C, suffered hypothermia.

Told by licensing officials there was currently no information to evidence unmet demand, Councillor MacPherson said: “That’s not what I’m hearing on the street. I’m hearing of people waiting hours on end for taxis.

“It concerns me given the students are now back. That poor lad David O’Halloran ended up walking home and lost his life. It was a tragic case.

“Surely it should be a concern for this panel that we potentially have students queueing at the ranks, especially on a Wednesday night.”

The panel heard that Stirling Taxis still operated a Safe Taxi scheme which, if quoted, could give students priority.

Licensing officers also said there had been a scheme allowing caretakers to pay the taxi fare for students and later claim it back from them. Night buses, however, were currently not running and they were unaware whether First Bus intended to reintroduce them.

The panel agreed to defer a decision on the three licence applications to give officers an opportunity to carry out the unmet demand survey.

Councillor MacPherson said: “I don’t think the cap is working but I think we owe it to the industry to get further views and information. I have great sympathy with moving approval but I think it’s premature.”

Councillor Graham Houston added: “I think it’s right that we wait for further guidance from the survey and other operators in the business and our electorate.”

Licensing officials said population changes, bus services, the views of organisations including police and the Students Union, would be taken into account in the survey, however there would also be cameras and personnel at taxi ranks and members of the public would also be able to comment.

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IDFIMH

The onus is on the council to prove no unmet demand, not on anyone to prove unmet demand.

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IDFIMH

The usual complaints in the post-lockdown environment but, for a change, no mention of a *driver* shortage.

So I'd guess there are fewer drivers in the trade than pre-lockdown (and I think the offices in Stirling are HC/PH mixed fleets), and thus excess vehicle capacity, so what's this all about?

I'd guess it's maybe more about swapping PH plates for HC plates for the vast majority of the time when there's no unmet demand.

Or mabye this guy is just lucky and has more drivers available than he can provide vehicles for, or maybe he hopes he'd get a few more drivers from other firms if he had a few more HC plates.

But since it's such a small and specific number of plates he's applying for (three), I'd guess it's more about his particular interests rather than the the trade and passengers as a whole.

And that in the grand scheme granting him the plates would make zero difference to anything else in the article.

Stirling taxi licences cap lifted as councillors agree measure in effort to meet customer demand

A cap on taxi licences for certain types of vehicles has been lifted by Stirling councillors.

At a meeting last week, Stirling Council’s planning and regulation panel voted to remove the cap on licences for electric, hybrid and wheelchair accessible vehicles to help meet customer demand.

The panel also decided all taxis can now operate across the Stirling Council area. Previously, 11 of the 82 licences available were restricted to operating outside Stirling city, mostly in rural areas.

Conservative councillor Rachel Nunn, however, was backed on her suggestion that the impact this could have on Stirling’s rural communities should be monitored. She also raised her wish that accessible vehicles of more than five years old be allowed to be purchased by those seeking licences from both a cost and environmental perspective.

However, officials said while “a good point” it was important to be conscious that taxis clocked up more miles than other vehicles and were also subject to stringent and more frequent testing, so this would require more consideration.

Rural impact was also raised by Labour councillor Gerry McGarvey, with licensing officers acknowledging that there were at times “competing pressures” over taxis in the city centre of a type which didn’t apply to those in the more rural wards.

The decisions were taken after consultation with taxi drivers, operators and Police Scotland and follow the recommendations from a Stirling Taxi Unmet Demand Survey.

The council appointed the Licensed Vehicles Survey and Assessment (LVSA) to undertake the survey, which concluded there was a significant unmet demand for taxis in Stirling city centre.

Council officers will also undertake a feasibility study on the introduction of a new, night-time taxi rank in the centre.

The LVSA report suggested a new rank on Dumbarton Road, near Port Street, as the preferred option - but alternative locations on Corn Exchange Road and Baker Street could also be considered.

There are currently 82 taxi vehicle licences issued by the council, 11 of which are restricted to operating outside Stirling city. The consultants said this had, in effect, resulted in a de facto zone restriction system for taxi licences operating in Stirling.

The LVSA also found, however, that there was no unmet demand in terms of licences for private hire vehicles, of which there are 108 in the Stirling area.

The council currently licenses 17 accessible vehicles as taxis and 12 as private hire. There is currently a condition attached to 11 of the taxi licence vehicles stipulating that these must be wheelchair accessible vehicles, however, no similar conditions are attached to private hire vehicles.

A report considered by panel members said 17 individuals were on the waiting list to be allocated a taxi licence.

All panel members agreed with removing the cap on taxi licences for the specified vehicle types, other than Councillor Douglas Dodds, who asked for his dissent to be recorded.

He wanted an original recommendation to keep the cap, but increase it by six vehicles, to be approved.

Stirling Council agreed earlier this month to consult over plans to increase typical fares by around 14 per cent to reflect inflationary pressures and other costs.

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IDFIMH

Are they really saying that PH should remain restricted but hackneys de-restricted?

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IDFIMH

Don't know if this has been misreported (this is a Daily Record article rather than an official report, or whatever), but not sure what 'de facto' is meant to mean here. If anything, the phrase should be 'de jure', surely?

(I seem to recall that from the last time 'de facto' was used on here, Edders is well versed in Latin, so at least he'll get what I mean )


Not sure about this either. But if PH licences are to be capped, the test in Scotland is about 'overprovision' rather than unmet demand