Taxi Driver Online

This is a slightly odd piece, and is a kind of hybrid of two classic trade article genres; combining the Wolves thing, and the stopchecks

And, maybe as a consequence of combinging the two, it makes it sound like the Wolves LOs have been drafted in to deal with some kind of emergency invasion, whereas I suspect the reality is a bit more routine, from the Wolves perspective at least.

Anyway, I think a lot of this has been dealt with in previous threads about Cheshire stopchecks, but without so much of the Wolves angle - again, although it's not stated here, this may be related to the recent Casey audit etc.

And while for a spell it was difficult to read a Wolves-related article without a misleading mention of the 2015 Act, it's a while since I've seen that specifically stated. But it does here


Cheshire towns being swarmed by taxi drivers from Wolverhampton as police crack down

https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/news/ch ... i-31932590

Cheshire Police have been working with West Midland's authorities to stop out-of-town taxis descending on Cheshire

So many taxis operating in Macclesfield are under a Wolverhampton licence that the West Midland’s authority was brought in as part of a police operation. Officers spent a Friday and Saturday inspecting cabs that were operating in Macclesfield and Poynton.

They were at taxi hubs such as train stations and ranks to carry out safety checks and make sure that identifications and other documentation was valid. Over the weekend of June 13 and 14, 25 out of 60 cabs checked were issued with traffic offence reports.

Police worked with Cheshire East Council and also Wolverhampton Council who were able to run checks on drivers registered there.

Complaints have previously been made about drivers licensed to the Midlands authority in Macclesfield, making it harder for locally registered drivers to pick up business. Inspector Zoe Bowden spoke on the subject at a meeting of Macclesfield Town Council.

She said: “We found a lot of Macclesfield taxis were licensed in Wolverhampton so for the last operation we brought Wolverhampton licensing down. We got Wolverhampton to check their conditions, we have a full footprint of the people who are operating in our community.”

Until 2015, drivers and their vehicles had to be licensed within the local authority they would be working in.

It was reported in 2023 that lower fees and faster processing times meant that Wolverhampton Council was being inundated with licence applications from outside the area. At the time the authority described its licensing process as ‘efficient, yet rigorous’.

The operation - named Operation Withdraw - took place on April 25 and 26.

It issued traffic offence reports for a variety of offences including having tyres below the legal tread depth, driving without due care and attention, using a pedestrianised zone as a cut through, misuse of hazard lights and a driver not wearing a seatbelt.

Afterwards Inspector Nick Rogers said: “The aim of this operation is to provide reassurance to those using taxis in the Macclesfield and surrounding areas, that they are safe to use and roadworthy with enforcement action being taken where appropriate.

“It was really reassuring to see that so many of the taxis that operate in our towns were compliant with the appropriate legislation, with the few found to be in breach being swiftly dealt with.

“Our officers will continue to support the legitimate taxi drivers in and around Macclesfield with this operation. In fact, we expect we will use this tactic in other Cheshire East areas now that we have seen its benefits in keeping people safe.“

So the article initially makes it sound like it's all about Wolves cars, and then the stats. It makes it sound like 25 out of 60 Wolves cars were issued with 'traffic offence reports'. But I'd guess that's actually over the whole lot, and not specifically Wolves cars.

And obviously 25 out of 60 sounds a lot, but a lot of it sounds quite piffling, like ignoring a traffic restriction, and using hazard warning lights. Heaven forfend

And if 25 out of 60 were all Wolves cars, that kind of puts into perspective of the usual Wolverhampton Council social media stuff - nearly always a clean bill of health