Taxi Driver Online

Latest state of play in Torridge. Taken from the North Devon Gazette.

Council survey into taxi numbers

TORRIDGE District Council is to commission a survey on the demand for taxis in the district before deciding if there is a need for deregulation.

Under existing legislation the council has a choice of how many taxi licences it issues. It can either issue a licence to every applicant who meets the local standard or grant only as many licences as it considers necessary.

The Government believes that the industry should be deregulated and there should be no restriction on the number of licences issued, but for the time being has left the decision to local councils, provided they can justify their decision.

The environmental committee at its meeting last week was told that Hackney Carriage Proprietors feared too many licences would mean some going out of business. It decided to commission a survey to establish whether there was any unmet demand.

Best wishes

JD

I wonder if the survey will check on latent demand and plate prices as per the ministers statement.

I wonder if they will survey all week insted of a Friday and a Saturday night???????????

dont be silly!
surveys dont continue all week, but at least they are not doing it christmas week.

I have always thought the best time to survey taxi demand is on a cold winters night. December 31st springs to mind.

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IDFIMH

When every man and his dog want a cab

well you would but it would not stand up.

nor would surveyors do it.

In answer to your questions, yes latent demand will be checked, Plate values are very low (4000-6000) due to the income that that can be earned in this area. We are in a poor economic area which is very rural, the option to continue to restrict plate numbers is has been requested because the drivers in torridge want to secure there income. Taxi licences were deregulated many years ago in torridge and have since been regulated, with so many cabs in a rural area they just couldnt all make a living.