Taxi Driver Online

HI, as we all know, annual vehicle testing varies up and down the country. Some areas only require a standard MOT each year, some require a" mechanical examination" carried out by the council, and some a mixture of both. I woukd be interested to know, if any of the councils who perform their own annual tests, have any kind of appeals process in place. If you take your car for an MOT, and you dont agree with the outcome, then you can appeal, but not with my local council Taxi test. I'm looking into the legality of not having some kind of appeals process in place. Would be interested to know if any councils have this in place. Thanks.

There should be an appeal process, no matter where you get your vehicle tested.

Maybe it never gets to that stage as most drivers will just get their motors fixed to the required standard rather than wait months for any appeal process to conclude.

Down here we have a number of different council approved testing stations which allows a driver to retest elsewhere if they are not happy with the original tester.

If you are looking to take this matter further, I would look to go down the Local Government Ombudsman route.

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IDFIMH

Thanks for the reply Sussex. The reason I ask is this:
Ive been a Licensed HC and PH driver in my town for 32 years. For some time now, we have had a system of one council mechanical test each year, followed by a normal VOSA MOT 6 months after. Up until about 10 years ago, the council test was done at the local bus depot. The test was tough, but the testing staff seemed fair and reasonable. We then had a big influx of "overseas" drivers (some would say this was, allegedly, because we had a licensing officer "selling" licences through the back door), and the bribary started ay the bus depot test centre. The council got wind of this, and took the tests away from the bus depot, and set up their own facility at the local council fleet services depot. since they took over, the test has become, in my opinion, unreasonable. We have three outcomes when presenting a vehiclr for test. 1) A full years certificare 2) A 28 day certificate for minor advisory type stuff 3) A stop notice for anything deemed dangerous.
To illustrate how unfair the test can be, about 5 years ago, I had a "stop" notice put on my vehicle for having "only" 4mm of tread on my front tyres. So the council took away my right to earn a living, even though my vehicle was totally legal in the eyes of the law. To add insult to injury on that occasion, I went straight to my tyre fitters, who service lots of Taxis. In their waiting area, was a copy of an email sent from the council saying " Just to confirm, when vehicles are presented for test, tyres should have at least 3mm of tread".
What makes it more stressfull for us is the fact we have a three and a half year rule on new vehicles. The council test appointment is normally about three weeks before your annual vehicle license expires. So if there is a problem, you have about three weeks to sort it out, or your vehicle is out of license, and if it is over three and a half years old, you will have to replace it.
I had a small issue recently with my test, which made me think there should be some sort of appeals process with our council test. What do others think ?

in our area taxi testing is done at MOT testing stations with about 12 to choose from spread across all four towns . Some are more lenient than others but system seems to work ok because they are government registered MOT testing stations they are easy enough to get booked into and tested and things like tyres are advisory not a stop so the only thing they would remove a plate for would be if there was something wrong which in their opinion was dangerous and would be considered so on an MOT

I used to get some of my vehicles serviced at the same garage as did the testing so would book it in for both at the same time

I would agree with Sussex there should be some sort of appeal process. I once had an occassion when a vehicle was serviced by one garage (not registered for taxi testing because it was in Rutland) and then failed on test. I took it back and the garage owner was furious (he was a qualified MOT tester) and then spent ten minutes on the phone arguing with the the test station owner ! I did end up having to replace a couple of parts though I suppose you could class that as a failed appeal

In my experience though once a testing station has decided to fail something on a vehicle any challenge to that is questioning their integrity and they dig their heel in because if they changed their mind it might imply a lack of competence

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

I would think all testing stations should be registered with the (DVSA), you don’t say which council this is so it’s not possible to check.
You can complain to the DVSA If your vehicle has failed but you believe it should have passed, you must report this to the DVSA within 14 working days of the test.
They can’t legally remove your plate if it fails the test.
Best practice guidance which councils quote to us on a regular basis states there should be at least 2 testing stations
All vehicles have to be tested in the area they are licensed

What best practice actually says couldn’t find it on here

Number Of Testing Stations. There is sometimes criticism that local authorities provide only one testing centre for their area (which may be geographically extensive). So it is good practice for local authorities to consider having more than one testing station. There could be an advantage in contracting out the testing work, and to different garages. In that way the licensing authority can benefit from competition in costs. (The Vehicle Operators and Standards Agency – VOSA – may be able to assist where there are local difficulties in provision of testing stations.)

I would ask the council when they are going to follow the best practice as outlined by MCF.

Find out who the licensing councillors are and ask for a meeting with them, hopefully one of them will be in a ward that you or a colleague live in.

I suspect councillors are unaware of the difficulties you and your colleagues are facing, so make them aware in a nice and pleasant manner.

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IDFIMH

"compliance" (Ho fecking ho) and MOT together, done same time £35 at an MOT centre....

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Sorry for delay in posting back, had some issues to deal with.
I'm licensed with Bournemouth council, now BCP council. A couple of years ago, they merged Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole councils together. Since then, we have had new policy after new policy, I think to try and make us one happy family, Ive just renewed my vehicle licence, and been a real ballache from start to finish. Im now starting to think, "hang on, this cant be fair".
Up until the council merger, we had one place to go for council test. Since the merger, we now have two, one in Bournemouth and one in Poole. We dont get to choose, we get an email about six weeks before the appointment, telling us where to go, and what time and date to be there.
The appointment is about three weeks before the licence expires, once we get the certificate, we can then apply to renew the vehicle licence.
This is a stressful time for us because we have a 3 and a half year rule on new vehicles coming on. On all the emails we get regarding renewing the licence it says " any late applications will be treated as a new application, so if your vehicle is over 3.5 years old, it will not be renewed. So even if we had some kind of appeals process, the 3 weeks between testing and the licence expiring wouldnt be long enough to sort out any appeal. Sometimes its stressful enough just to get the parts, and get booked in at a garage, and then booked in at the council again. This doesnt seem right to me.

Also, last year the council introduced a new policy saying " from now on, all vehicles will have to come off once they reach 15 years old". OK, I thought, this is reasonable enough.
Shortly after this policy was announced, the council then said " From 2024, all PH and HC vehicles will need to be at least Euro 6 compliant".
As I understand it, euro 6 cars were first coming in around 2015, so this policy would seem to contradict the earlier 15 year policy. You cannot have a 15 year old car, as it wont be euro 6.
This policy seems to be the last straw for many drivers. Some of my mates who have been in the trade for decades, are now thinking of leaving. Like many areas, maybe because of a combination of Covid and Brexit, we are desperately short of drivers now, so if there is a large exodus of drivers in a year or so, we wont have enough drivers to serve the community. To bring out a new policy like this, when its so hard to find suitable used vehicles, and even new vehicles are taking 3 or 4 months to be delivered, is somewhat stupid IMHO. Who wants to borrow £25k for a new vehicle under the current financial situation, especially when there is nothing wrong with your existing vehicle.
Especially when the council has no plans to update there own fleet of vehicles, as highlighted in this local paper article

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/ ... cp-mayors/

where councilor Mike Greene said " It makes no financial sense to replace a vehicle before the end of its life".
I also think that any environmental benefit of this policy, would be outweighed by the impact of having dozens of cars scrapped if they cannot be sold on. We all know how difficult it is to sell an ex taxi. Especially as our HC vehicles are painted yellow, with a big white rflective stripe down the sides.

Well that's just f***ing ridiculous.

So if you live in Poole you get a booking for Bournemouth and vice-versa.

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IDFIMH

It's not, but it won't change unless drivers do something about it.

Email your chairman of licensing and ask for a meeting, or attend one of his surgeries.

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IDFIMH

A lot to reply to, from memory and I’m getting pretty old though, you can test your vehicle 4 weeks before expiry.
Councils don’t normally just bring things in they have to consult.
3 councils merging, so if they have merged you can stand on any rank in the BCP ?
I’m down in wool this Friday for a rest, if I get time I will have a further look.
Your main problem seems to be not getting licensed within the expiry of the licence, so have a read of
EXETER CITY COUNCIL v SANDLE [2011] On here somewher

At the moment, HC vehicles still have to stick to their own "zones", but I think in time, this will change. Before the merger, all 3 councils had different livery schemes, but now all new HC;s in BCP area have to be white with a blue stripe. So I think in time all HC;s will be able to use all ranks. Thanks for the heads up on the Exeter Council case, I will look it up. I;m still curious to know if other areas that have council tests, have an appeals process, just so I know it is possible under council testing.
One interesting new development, BCP council are sending out emails to drivers, informing us that there will be a survey on licensing services. I havent had an email yet myself though.

Councils have to put council testing out to tender, Derby have 3 test centres I believe and there all independent. All testing stations have to be DVSA. Hatchpond Road is a DVSA and if your not happy with your test you can appeal. If you wish to appeal against refusal to issue a test certificate for your vehicle:

ask for a form (VT17) - obtainable from this testing station or the DVSA website
send the form to the DVSA customer service centre within 14 days of the refusal notice issue date
if your appeal is successful, the fee or, if appropriate, part of it will be returned to you
do not have your vehicle repaired before your appeal is considered. This is because any change to your vehicle may affect the outcome of the appeal.

So you can appeal against any part of the vehicle test that is covered by the DVSA and me being me I would complain about 3mm tyres.