Taxi Driver Online

Fewer wheelchair accessible taxis on city streets as drivers hand back plates

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/c ... y-33310454

Some drivers of wheelchair accessible taxis in Cambridge have handed back their licenced plates. Cambridge City Council is hoping that increasing the maximum age for an accessible taxi will prevent more from “disappearing” from the city’s streets.

Councillors agreed on Monday (January 26) to increase the age limit for wheelchair accessible taxis the city council licences from 11 years to 12 years. The meeting heard that the availability of electric wheelchair accessible taxis had “not quite got where it needs to be” and that it was important to keep existing wheelchair accessible taxis available.

The city council limits the number of licenced plates it issues for hackney carriage taxis. This limit was set at 321 in 2015, but a demand survey undertaken last year said there were only 270 hackney carriage taxis licenced plates issued by the authority. It has since dropped again to 257.

Councillors heard that there appeared to be “no demand for those spare wheelchair accessible plates” as they had been “sitting there some while”. The report said while the demand survey showed there was no significant unmet demand for wheelchair accessible taxis, this could change if more drivers hand back their plates.

The meeting heard that the city could lose another 19 wheelchair accessible taxis this year, due to the rule that limits the age of taxis to 11 years old. Officers recommended that the age limit should be increased to 12 years to keep as many of the existing wheelchair accessible taxis on Cambridge’s streets.

Councillor Immy Blackburn-Horgan (Liberal Democrat) asked whether a licence fee exemption could be considered for wheelchair accessible taxis to encourage drivers to stay. Officers explained that this proposal would require funding from the city council’s budget to subsidise the cost reducing licensing fees, which cover the administration costs of the service.

Officers also said they were not sure how much this incentive would work, as they explained that drivers are not purchasing wheelchair accessible vehicles due to the cost. They added that reducing the licensing fee may not change this situation.

Councillor Rosy Moore (Labour) said she was “very concerned about air quality” in the city, but said due to the issues around the availability of wheelchair accessible taxis she would be in favour of increasing the age limit to 12 years.

She said: “If we lose 19 wheelchair accessible vehicles in the next year, some of them might buy new vehicles, but if they don’t that will have a real detrimental impact on residents that need wheelchair accessible vehicles.”

At the meeting councillors also agreed to lower the limit for how many hackney carriage taxis the city council issued licenced plates for from 321 to 270. Officers said the survey had shown there was no significant unmet demand in the city. They added that the taxi ranks in the city had actually seen an increase in demand, which was still being met by fewer taxis.

One of the people who worked on the demand survey said: “There is increased demand and increased service, that means that you have a cracking hackney carriage trade doing a cracking job meeting a higher demand in a more efficient way.”

Officers said taxi drivers who had responded to the consultation were in favour of a limit for the number of taxis issued licences by the city council.

Councillor Tim Bick (Liberal Democrat) questioned if there was a need for the limit, highlighting that the number of licences issued had already dropped from the 270 in operation during the survey. Officers said keeping a limit would give “assurances to the taxis trade” that the city council was supporting them.

A member of the demand survey team said a limit offered drivers stability and helped make them feel able to invest in vehicles. They added that in other areas when a limit had been lifted the number of taxis had reduced more quickly as people felt that the taxi “did not have as much value as it does when there is a limit”.

Councillor Russ McPherson (Labour) said he believed it was important for the city council to "maintain the confidence of the fleet” and raised concerns that having no limit could lead to drivers “decamping” to other authorities.

Cllr Bick said he was still “sceptical” of the limit, but suggested that if the city council kept a limit in place they should keep a gap to enable the authority to respond to any potential increase in demand. A majority of councillors ultimately agreed to keep a limit, but to lower the limit to 270 licenced plates.

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IDFIMH

The answer to the trade's prayers.

Exactly what are the council going to do this time next year? 12-13?

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IDFIMH

No great rush to plate WAV EVs? Who'd have guessed that?


Cracking HC trade doing a cracking job?

Absolutely no evidence of bias there. And I thought these surveys were supposed to be independent?


Turkeys, Christmas, blah, blah...

Absolutely no evidence of capture in the consultation at all


Ditto


Invest in plates, more like, rather than vehicles

Then there's the good old 'more taxis mean less taxis' argument - while since I've heard that one


That's that 'more taxis mean less taxis' thing.

While since I've heard that one. Oh, wait, that was the same point made in the previous paragraphs. But at least that's the first time in 30 years I've heard the more taxis mean less taxis because of drivers going elsewhere argument

Anyway, reading that felt like a real blast from the past

And the age rule thing reminds me of our own WAV carrot in Fife last year - wasn't it a two-year extension for WAVs from 10 to 12 years, and the WAVs then had to be available 24/7. Or something like that

Don't know how many took up that kind offer. But if I had to put money on it, my guess would be 0