Taxi Driver Online

From Evening Telegraph, 8 Feb 2005

http://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/outpu ... 582t0.shtm

Taxi chief’s doubts over no- smoking legislation

With Dundee taxi drivers having just six more days before new anti-smoking regulations come into effect, a senior figure in the business has reiterated his doubts over the changes, writes Bryan Kay.
The licensing committee unanimously agreed to impose a new condition, stipulating that drivers should not smoke while operating as a taxi whether a passenger is inside the cab or not.
However, Graeme Stephen, chairperson of Dundee Taxi Association, voiced serious concerns that the tightening of regulations would be unenforceable and is another piece of unnecessary red tape.

“The rule is going to be impossible to police,” he said. “What is to stop a taxi driver dropping off a passenger, switching off his light, putting on his seat belt and having a smoke?

“I don’t smoke myself, but I have to look at it like this — I think they are pushing the red tape too far.

“There are still people out there wearing jeans and shirts, and nothing is done to enforce the smart dress code. Now they are bringing in something else they cannot stop.

“And another thing — no one can tell whether a taxi’s light is on or off during the day. I am not saying I’m dead against it, but I can’t see how they are going to enforce it.”

The revamped code also states that drivers, while plying for hire or carrying a passenger, must be clean and tidy and conduct themselves in a proper and civil manner.

Licensing committee convener Councillor Bruce Mackie hailed the new condition as a welcome move in the fight against passive smoking.

“It is the unanimous view that this needs to be brought into play,” he said. “There is nothing saying they (drivers) cannot smoke inside their taxis as long as they are not plying for a hire.

“This is a general move towards trying to do away with passive smoking.

“There has been a massive improvement in the taxis in the city in the last year, specifically in the field of more accessible taxis, and this is another stage in the right direction.”

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Dundee rocks. Almost.

Why isn't that happening now?

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IDFIMH

What if the passenger wants to smoke? or are they banning that too?

This LA must be amongst the strangest in the UK, they were after drivers on cab ranks avoiding WAV work last week.

Do they do nothing else except pick on cab drivers?

Captain cab

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

That bit seems to be a bit misleading. I’ve got a set of license conditions from the 90s (which I can’t find now!!!) and I’m fairly sure they say something like the driver should be clean and tidy and conduct himself in a proper and civil manner.

But it may have been the case that the past rules only applied when carrying a passenger, so maybe it now ensures drivers are being proper and civil while plying for hire as well as when carrying a passenger.

PS I've changed the last paragraph since last night since I cocked it up

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Dundee rocks. Almost.

I think it’s a complete ban on smoking while the car is on duty.

A report in the local press a few months ago and on another thread on here seemed to say that while carrying punters neither the driver nor the passengers could smoke.

But like the clean and tidy rule above I think this was misreported. Again I think the rules said that while carrying a passenger the driver couldn’t smoke, but as regards the passengers smoking the rules said that the driver need not carry them if they refuse to stop smoking when requested, so this seemed to say that if the driver permitted it then this was OK.

But now it seems that no smoking at all will be allowed.

The past rules, if I’ve got them correct, were a bit anomalous, since the driver could allow the passengers to smoke but wasn’t allowed to do so himself until he was on his own again.

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Dundee rocks. Almost.

I'm not sure if it's any worse than in other places, but the disabled issue rears it's head occassionaly, and a photo of one such story splattered across the local paper is on this site, but I can't find it now.

The best one was in the late nineties when Dundee had around a dozen WAVs and 500-600 saloons (the WAVs got a subsidy). The council ran a taxicard scheme which gave subsidised travel to the disabled and infirm. I think all the big offices took part, so maybe 400 taxi were part of the scheme, and clearly the saloons could manage the non-wheelchair-bound members of the scheme and those in chairs who could get into a saloon.

So one day a disabled lady couldn't get a taxi to take her from the main rank in the city, and had to ask several cars before finding one to take her.

This incident was splattered all over front page of the Evening Tele, and the licesning chairman called the drivers "despicable" for refusing her. However, it was then claimed that she hadn't been refused but it was simply a case of most drivers not accepting taxi cards - this was entirely plausible since this rank was the one where most of the street cars congregated, and they were not part of the scheme.

So it seemed like the whole thing was just one big misunderstanding, but the council, in its infinite wisdom, said that the trade had to pay for new plates to show whether the car was part of the scheme, and thus drivers wouldn't be able to claim that they weren't (although the incident above was probably just a misunderstanding, there's no doubt that some drivers who were in the scheme tried to claim that they weren't.)

But obviously the trade didn't want to shell out for new plates, particuarly since cars often changed from office cars to street cars and vice versa, which would clearly require a change of plate.

So the offices threatened to pull out of the scheme altogether, which would have meant hundreds of cars refusing taxi cards. After 20 or so articles and letters in the local press the council backed down.

If that wasn't bad enough, a year or two later the entire taxi card scheme was given exclusively to a private hire firm, with only the handful of WAVs allowed to stay in the scheme. So after the incident at the rank the council were apparently keen to make it easier for people to find taxi card cars on the street, and a couple of years later they reduced the number of taxis in the scheme from at least 300 to about a dozen WAVs and a private hire firm. In a court case a solicitor said that the private hire firm were awarded the Taxicard contract "on the basis of being a private hire company". Since there were only a dozen WAVs then they were a rare sight on the ranks, and still are even with several times that, so basically hiring a taxi card taxi on the streets became impossible.

Another example is that at about the same time the saloons were allowed to advertise on their cars, and it was claimed that this would make it easier for them to invest in WAVs.

Years later and the same plate holders are still allowed to operate saloons, while the new operators have to run WAVs, and hence the other story last week.

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Dundee rocks. Almost.

Thanks Dundonian,

The moral of the story seems to be never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Captain cab

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin