Taxi Driver Online

Our council pave produced a draft policy that is going out for consultation. There is a link on the following site for anyone who want to take a look and offer a comment or two. http://www.melton.gov.uk/environment_an ... nsing.aspx

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Grandad,

Yeh, had a quick look through:

reg 4.1 should surely read "PH or taxi licence", not just driving licence.

Why till have a vehicle age? All new vehicles should meet the emission reg for years to come, and I note there's a grandfather right for existing licenced vehicles anyway. Suitability should be on vehicle condition, not just age alone. They then go on to accept vintage vehicles....

Mention of petrol/electric hybrid, no mention of diesel/electric hybrid.

No mention of appeals to the council licencing committee, just the magistrates court appeal.

Vehicle spec mentions minimum engine capacity of 1250cc; hybrids often have a lower cc than that, and electric cars have no cc at all.

Why prevent a ph car carrying the word "hire" on it? After all, my company has the words "Private Hire" on the side and back, along with the company name.

Booking of ph must be made at an operator premise; what about the one-man operator who often takes hi booking on the road by mobile phone and doe not have manned premises?

Mention of VOSA, VOSA is now obsolete.

Pedantic maybe, but pedantism often carries great weight in a court of law.

I like the bit about executive car having to have an initial price tag of £45,000 and then theysay you can have an E class merc. They start at around £32,000 and one that is already say 3 years old would have cost even less than that.

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Grandad,

Ah but the one that is 3 years old and already on the system has grandad (or grandfather rights).

I'd suggest any mention of price of a new car is a moot point as prices vary so much over the years. My Range Rover was £47k new in 2002, but is now about £65k new. Would that count as an executive car?

Save me ripping the pi** out of stuff you want to keep, can you give me an idea of what you dislike?

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IDFIMH

It makes more sense to wait for the law review, instead of wasting time and money, it's only a few months away

2.3​Maximum age of vehicles

In the interests of the public, to improve reliability, safety, air quality and the overall standards of vehicles licensed by the Council, vehicles on first licensing by Melton Borough Council will be less than 6 years old. Vehicles can continue to be licensed until they are ten years old so as long as they continue to meet the specifications in Appendix A. Purpose built vehicles, that is, London style taxi cabs which have been approved by the public carriage office and vehicles which have been specially manufactured or professionally adapted to carry a wheelchair can be licensed until they are 12 years old if they continue to meet the specifications in Appendix A.

Should they not be the same? There's no sensible reason they should not be.

2.11​Applications

A vehicle licence expires 12 calendar months from the date of issue. Any application for renewal should be made prior to the licence expiry date. Failure to renew prior to the expiry of your licence will result in the vehicle being unable to be used as a hackney carriage or private hire vehicle until such time as a new application has been made and a licence granted and issued. Such applications must comply with taxi policy requirements to licence a new vehicle.

Other than in exceptional circumstances, if a vehicle licence is allowed to expire the full application process must be repeated.


May I refer you to EXETER CITY COUNCIL v SANDLE [2011], the judge is clearly saying that it can be licensed after the date.

4.2​Record Keeping

Operators are required to keep records of each booking, including the name of the passenger, the start and the destination of the journey, the name of the driver and the number of the vehicle. This would enable checks to be made in the event of the need to investigate an incident or for enforcement.

These days, there are still passengers who are reluctant to give their name for a booking, and you can’t force them. They quote best practice in this document, best practice states records should be kept for 6 months, not sure what yours is? If it's not 6 months you should be quoting it.

4.3​Licence Duration

A private hire operator’s licence will be granted for a period of two years. However the Council have the power to grant a licence for a shorter period, should this be appropriate in the circumstances.

Best practice says 5 yrs, would save on costs.

All licensed vehicles are subject to be randomly tested by Authorised Officers
But only three times a year, so if you have an annual and a 6 monthly,it can only have one more check.

The licence plate remains the property of the council and must be returned within 7 days when:

• The vehicle ceases to be licensed;
• Requested to do so by an Authorised Officer of the Council;
• A new plate is issued.


We covered this on here! An authorised officer can't ask you to return it. Ok he can, but you don't have to.

Private Hire vehicles are not required to be fitted with a taximeter. Where a taximeter or other such device is fitted, it must be approved by the Council.

Private Hire drivers should agree the cost of a journey with the passenger prior to the start of a journey and the fare charged should not exceed the amount agreed.


Private hire drivers should agree? Should they now. Surely the price has to be agreed at the time of the booking, oh unless they are referring to flyers:-)

The Council issues a joint badge which allows drivers to drive both hackney carriages and private hire vehicles. The badge is valid for one year.


Best practice states It is obviously important for safety reasons that drivers should be licensed. But it is not necessarily good practice to require licences to be renewed annually. That can impose an undue burden on drivers and licensing authorities alike. Three years is the legal maximum period and is in general the best approach.

Applicants will be required to detail, on the application form, any prosecutions, cautions and convictions that have been recorded against them. By the provisions of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) (Amendments) Order 2002 applications by prospective Hackney Carriage and Private Hire vehicle drivers must detail all convictions as the ‘spent’ convictions provision do not apply to these occupations. Subsequent checks to the DBS will serve to confirm this information. The applicant must not rely on that check to provide the correct information as any application which does not provide the correct information at the outset may be considered to be incomplete and a view may be taken that a deliberate attempt has been made to conceal convictions.


I would suggest that the council check the wording about failure to declare a conviction or other material fact. This has now been altered slightly by the Mr T case;