bloodnock wrote:
Ok...final draft wi some bits added...To much maybe???
Dear MP,
Re: Volunteer/Charity cars
I'm writing to you out of desperation and concern in relation to the effect the so-called Volunteer/Charity car organisations are having on my business as a licensed Private Hire driver.
Although these types of organisations are now popping up all over the country, where they stay within the law they are a valuable service to the community run by people with only good intentions. However it is becoming apparent that an increasingly large section of these firms are now encroaching, possibly even illegally, on the legitimate Taxi and Private Hire trade.
Current law allows the Volunteer/Charity cars organisations to seek payment that covers their running costs. The Inland Revenue have suggested a fee of 40p a mile will meet those running costs.
Regrettably, this is now being abused by many firms claiming to be Volunteer/Charity cars. Typically they charge a registration fee of say £5.00 and on top of that they typically charge 40p per person per mile. It’s the 40 pence per person that is one of things I strongly object to.
Taxis and Private hire tend to charge approximately 70 pence per mile regardless of whether they carry one person or 4 in a licensed 4 seat vehicle it will still be 70 pence per mile, this is where the Volunteers are I fear abusing the rules…they are charging 40 pence per person per mile which means that if they are carrying 4 people then they are receiving £1.60 per mile from their passenger. These Discrepancy’s appear even more unfair if they use an 6 or 8 MPV where technically they can make up to £3.20 per Mile where as the Likes of myself as a Private hire operator or a Taxi operator would be charging just around £1.00 per mile for that same journey irrespective of the number of passengers we carry on board.
By having these 'fares' these Volunteers firms are in fact acting as Taxi or Private Hire vehicles without the required and expensive Private Hire or Taxi licenses and without the Incredibly expensive Taxi or Private hire vehicle insurance with its built in Public liability cover.
What makes this matter still harder to accept is that the services they provide and the groups that they are targeting are too broad. Also the range of the reasons for requiring a volunteer driver is far too broad to; all this virtually gives the volunteers access to anyone that would normally need a taxi. the runs they offer now have strayed away from the true needs of the elderly, infirm, the disabled and the truly needy for visits to the doctors or the hospital or dentist or to visit friends or family that may be in hospital.
I have taken these examples from the WRVS/Getabout scheme of who may qualify and what kind of journeys they may expect. Though there are many other volunteer groups who offer a similar range of services
Sadly around 90% of the people in my operational catchment area come under at least one of the following qualifying categories or criteria, this is really hitting me and others in my situation very badly.
Who qualifies!
You can get getabout if you meet any of the following criteria....
You are an older person
You consider yourself to have a disability
You live in a rurally isolated area
You are a young person (if you are under 16 you must be accompanied by a responsible adult?
You are a parent or carer of small children who are under the age of 16
You cannot afford other transport options
You are otherwise unable to access public or private transport
What for
You can use the Services to do anything that involves transport. for example:
Visit your
Doctor, Hospital Dentist, Chiropodist, Optician
Family and Friends, Local organisation and services
Community centres, Physiotherapist
OR
To have a Day out ,Go Shopping, Have Groups social outing, Groups Taking part
in meetings.
The unfair part is that as they are supposedly non profit making concerns, yet they actually take in a lot of money in the form of payment, this money covers a lot more than the Individual driver is probably getting paid, otherwise they stops becoming volunteers and enter the realm of paid driver and who should then be subject to employee rules and minimum wage etc, so anything more than 40 pence per mile and both the driver and their umbrella group must be breaking the law as a volunteer service.
Should the group organising these volunteer drivers be charging 40pence per customer then they are also breaking the law simply because they are making a profit out of any journey where they carry more than one customer at a time and also because they are not entitled be charging individual fares.
It is easy for the groups management to say they are a “Non profit” operation simply by investing any money which may otherwise be deemed to be profit into new equipment or vehicles as well as paying themselves a wage as big as they like. I guess any Private hire or Taxi driver could do exactly the same, instead of declaring a profit for the Taxman we could simply do as the Volunteer groups do and explain that money away as wages and equipment so that on paper we would appear to be “non profit” making also. By doing that we could also get around the need for Licences, special insurances and special vehicle types etc. it is most unfair and to some extent unethical to say they operate charitably but if their customers see the bigger picture they would see that their 40p per mile might become only 20p per mile if they used a shared taxi or private hire vehicle…sadly they are being conned.
If these firms are allowed to grow at the rate they are, then many in the legitimate Taxi and Private Hire trades will be forced out of work. I have to ask you why I should have to go through all the checks and balances one is required to meet to be licensed, and then use a vehicle under a certain age which needs to be correctly insured and local authority checked when anyone with an old banger can earn a living out of taxiing the vulnerable around.
While I do whole heartedly agree on a certain amount of voluntary work in order to help those truly in need of such services…just as it used to be, But now it has got completely out of hand and they the Volunteer groups have hijacked the work of individual volunteer drivers and turned into a big business that generates an income for its organisers and its drivers who as volunteers are not required to be Local authority licensed on what appears to be a lowly 40p per mile fee….this fee of course is absolute rubbish as its 40 pence per passenger not 40 per vehicle mile. Its ridiculous that I’m expected to make a Living from charging 70 pence per mile with all the extra overheads running a Private hire business involves and at the same time these Volunteers can earn up to £1.60 per mile without any extra costs other than a small amount of fuel.
I would be very grateful if you could ask the Minister concerned why the government allow such Schemes, and what I'm to do when I have lost all my customers to these unchecked, unlicensed so-called community services.
I have taken out a few words that I thought were not needed and changed a couple of bits (highlighted in red) See what you think now.
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