Taxi Driver Online

From 1st April.

Hackney plate down from. £140 to £125

Private Hire plate down from £140 to £96

Hackney Badge UP from £52 to £99

Private Hire Badge UP from £52 to £72

April fool?

Change of vehicle up 200%

Private hire ops licence up 225%

Only in Lincoln?

Anywhere else where one badge costs more than the other, and if so, why?

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Former taxi driver

Barrow in Furness latest proposals!

What's a Hackney Carriage operators licence?

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Former taxi driver

Who Knows because they certainly don't!

I would ask them what extra product is used in processing a hackney badge over a PH one, if any, and how much more time does it take to process a hackney badge over a PH one, once again if any.

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IDFIMH

I would ask for a copy of the accounts relating to both licenses, and what best practice they did when working out these costs.

Misc prov act 1976 section 53 para(2)

"Notwithstanding the provisions of the act of 1847, a district council may demand and recover for the grant to any person of a licence to drive a hackney carriage , or a private hire vehicle, as the case may be, such a fee as they consider reasonable with a view to recovering the costs of issue and administration...."

Now that couldn't be clearer, could it?

It goes on, ".....and may remit the whole or part of the fee in respect of a private hire vehicle in any case in which they think it appropriate to do so."

So what does the second part mean, exactly? That a council can discount a PH drivers fee, or even waive it? Why?

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Former taxi driver

It means they can charge less, but they can't charge more.

Freedom of information request sorted. Great when you can do it via the website! So good I just had to bombard them with loads more!

Building up our complaint against the council fee charges.
From the accounts submitted by officers to committee last year it is clear not only do they have a small surplus and they also appear to have included costs for stances.

Further to that however they quote the Scottish Best Practice Guide 2012 and they have included costs for enforcement.
They did acknowledge English court cases and practices there are contrary to this.

On the basis that the enforcement of licences is principally for the benefit of the wider public and as such a case exists that licence applicants should not support this activity, i.e. that the fee charged should equate solely to the costs associated with acquiring a licence.

Anyone know anything about why or on what basis the SBPG 2012 opposes this view.?

No idea.

However most enforcement is against the driver not the vehicle, so they can't use vehicle license fees to enforce drivers, and they can't use driver's fees either as those fees are only allowed to cover the costs of processing a drivers license.

So ask your council how they fund driver enforcement.

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IDFIMH