Taxi Driver Online

Well I wonder if the licensing committee will agree to this at today's meeting?

In fact it should be done and dusted by now, but I don't know at this stage whether this has been adopted. I'd guess it will be


Background

At the meeting held on 6th May three test reports for the above areas
were considered and as there were a number of failures at annual
inspection the Committee agreed to continue consideration of these
three items to allow the Convener & Vice Convener together with the
previous Convener of the Committee, Cllr. Lindsay, to meet with
Council officers to consider what measures could be taken against
those operators whose vehicles failed the annual inspection tests this
time around and whether these measures could be introduced to all
operators who had any vehicles failing the annual inspection tests in
future.

Issues and Options

Councillors Adams, Browne & Lindsay agreed that the following measures
should be taken against those operators whose vehicles failed the annual
inspection tests this time around. It was also agreed that these measures
should be taken against those operators whose vehicles fail any future
inspection tests:

• All operators failing the test be called to a meeting with the above-mentioned
Councillors and officers of the Council to discuss the failure rates in all three
areas as well as the measures to be taken against them;

• All taxi & private hire operators licensed in Fife will be advised that they will
have to complete and sign a declaration prior to their annual inspection tests
confirming they have checked all items that are listed on the inspection test
sheets issued by Fleet Services. If the declaration is not completed and
returned prior to their annual test, their test will be cancelled and the operator
will be instructed to return the licence plates to the appropriate garage until
the declaration has been received by the garages and the vehicle has passed
the annual inspection test;

• Any operators with vehicles failing the annual test in future may have to wait
for a re-test for their vehicle;

• All vehicles failing the annual inspection test will have to undertake and pass
an additional MOT test 6 months after the annual inspection test. The cost of
the additional MOT test will be at the operator’s expense. The details of the
additional MOT certificate belonging to the vehicle that failed the annual
inspection must be provided to the appropriate test centre within one week of
its new MOT test. Failure to do so will result in the operator being instructed to
return the licence plates to the test centre until the additional MOT certificate
is received;

• Spot checks will continue to be carried out on a regular basis throughout Fife

• If the new measures are agreed by the Committee, any operator failing the
annual inspection test in the future will be called in to a hearing by the
Regulation & Licensing Committee for possible suspension of their licence.

Conclusions

As the Committee was disappointed in the failure rates at annual test it
is felt appropriate to introduce the above measures to increase the
number of vehicles passing the test first time.

So, basically, apart from anything else, it looks like a suspension hearing for anyone who fails an inspection for any reason.

I would love to know exactly what consultation process the council conducted with the trade over this matter.

If any.

_________________
IDFIMH

Did I ever mention that I was one of those who failed the test?

Anyway, just received this email in the last hour. Or, at least, I just read it in the last hour - it's timestamped at 15.30 this afternoon.

I'll be sending an email in response later tonight confirming my attendance, but with various questions, so would be grateful for any comments.

================================


Good afternoon,

I am writing to advise you that the Regulation & Licensing Committee, at its meeting held on 5th June, considered a report which recommended measures to be introduced for vehicles failing the annual inspection tests.

The Committee agreed that all operators with vehicles failing the test earlier in the year in East & West Fife as well as Levenmouth Zone be called to a meeting with Councillors Adams, Browne & Lindsay to discuss the failure rates at annual inspection in all three areas and advise operators of the measures listed below.

As you had (a) vehicle(s) failing the annual inspection test, you must attend a meeting in the Council Chamber in Fife House, Glenrothes, KY7 5LT on Monday 15th September at 10.00 am.

As your attendance at the above meeting is essential, please confirm you will be in attendance by replying to this email.

The Committee also agreed, at the meeting on 5th June, that the following measures be introduced for all licensed operators in Fife:

1 All operators will have to complete and sign a declaration prior to their annual inspection tests confirming they have checked all items that are listed on the inspection test sheets issued by Fleet Services. If the declaration is not completed and returned prior to their annual test, their test will be cancelled and the operator will be instructed to return the licence plates to the appropriate test centre until the declaration has been received by the test centre and the vehicle has passed the annual inspection test;

2 All operators with vehicles failing the annual test may have to wait for a re-test for their vehicle

3 All vehicles failing the annual inspection test will have to undertake and pass an additional MOT test 6 months after the annual inspection test. The cost of the additional MOT test will be at the operator’s expense. The details of the additional MOT certificate belonging to the vehicle that failed the annual inspection must be provided to the appropriate test centre within one week of its new MOT test. Failure to do so will result in the operator being instructed to return the licence plates to the test centre until the additional MOT certificate is received; and, following the above measures,

4 Any operator failing an annual inspection test in the future will be called in to a hearing by the Regulation & Licensing Committee for possible suspension of their licence.

Please note that spot checks will continue to be carried out on a regular basis throughout Fife.

Kind Regards,

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pamela Henderson I Licensing Administrator I Miscellaneous Licensing

Please note this is the first official communication I've had about this since leaving the test depot on 11 March this year

I've heard NOTHING officially from the council since then until reading the email about an hour ago.

Therefore, for a start, any comments on the timescale etc? The meeting is thus less than a fortnight away, at 10am, and an hour's drive from where I live. (I would probably set off at least 8.30 am to be on the safe side, since I've never been to the council chambers before, don't know exactly where the building is, don't know about parking etc, where the meeting will take place in the building (Fife House, I assume, is council HQ, thus presumably a big building).

What might be meant by the stuff about the MoT, precisely, in terms of timing? (As highlighted above.)

"6 months after the annual inspection test", means 11 September for me, to be precise, thus not much notice really. I think at least one of the taxis failed was tested on 6 March, so that would require an MoT this week on the basis of an email sent a couple of hours ago?

Does an MOT test deal with stickers?

_________________
IDFIMH

What happens to those beasties that do not attend, and can they supply a log of enforcement checks, both in and out of working hours?

_________________
IDFIMH

I would also like to know who the council consults with within the trade when they develop new policies.

Or when did a licensing councillor ever come to your manor to seek views from taxi drivers?

_________________
IDFIMH

It might also be worth emailing the Fire Service to seek their advice on what to do when your car is on fire.

Should you try and put it out with a fire extinguisher, or remove yourself from the vehicle asap and keep well clear?

You could quote DfT best practice about the need for training in areas that mandate fire extinguishers.

_________________
IDFIMH

Given your test predates the new policy, I would assume this will not affect you.

Very much doubt it's retrospective.

_________________
IDFIMH

You're probably right about the six-month MoT requirement NOT applying this time round, Sussex - I'll ask them to clarify in my email. But at least that's one panic hopefully over. Hopefully

I was maybe swayed by the highlighted point at 4 below about the suspension hearings applying to inspection failures 'in the future', while the point at 3 about the six-month MoT made it sound more like a current requirement

Anyway, what happened was that with the annual council inspection imminent, I took the motor to John Clark Skoda in Dundee for an MoT and service (car less than a year old, and service and first year MoT not quite due, but since that's the nearest Skoda dealer, and it's about twenty miles from where I live (at least three bus rides away), I booked a service at the same time, and hoped everything would go to plan. And it did - car passed MoT, no advisories, and I only had to hang around at the nearby Asda for a couple of hours. (The bill is another story, however )

And they sent me one of those fancy pants videos the main dealers supply these days. Good to know you get something back for your near-£400 for an MoT and glorified oil change )

Some screengrabs from the video below.

It's a one-minute spoken narrative on the video, so would take too long to reproduce it all on here. But among the relevant bits were:


(In fact the guage shown in the video seemed to show 6.46mm nearside, and 6.7mm or so offside, so actually maybe less worn than 31%. On the full video the technician briefly shows the guage to the camera, although the offside reading isn't that clear, but I'm sure it's 6.7x)








Anyway, that's the first part of the story. More later

Anyway, I only did 300 miles between the MoT above and the council inspection. Nothing obvious happened in the interim, and obviously I was hoping it would sail through. (Or if it didn't, it would be an issue with the meter, etc).

Er, no


It was late morning by this point, but they said that if I could get it sorted before the depot closed later that day (they start early and finish early - think it's maybe 3pm ) then they could get the plate back on that day.

So I visited a couple of tyre depots garages in Cupar, but no guarantee that they could get the tyres that day - they're 205s, which is apparently quite an unusual size.

One of them was good enough to phone a rival depot a few miles away, and they had them in stock, and could fit them that day

On arrival I was in more or less immediately, and they just used trolley jacks to jack the rear up. After a few minutes they came back to confirm that it was both the rear tyres, because they couldn't see anything amiss with them

I checked the failure document the council had given me (as per quote above), so they replaced both rear tyres. I think three different tyre professionals there looked at them (it was a specialist tyre depot, and not a general garage), and couldn't see anything apart from a couple of minor glitches.

Anyway, I was back to the council depot within a couple of hours after leaving it, and after hanging round almost an hour with a few of the other drivers who were waiting, the council inspector came out to check the car, which was just sitting near the front door of the building going into the reception area.

He literally spent less than a minute looking at the car - basically checking that they were brand new tyres

(A lot more effort, in fact putting the plate back on, which are stuck on with very sticky - and difficult to remove - stickers.)

Then:

Fife Council: "That'll be a £100 retest fee."

Me: "American Express?"

Fife Council: "That'll do nicely, sir!"

(I don't really have Amex, surprise, surprise. Older readers will no doubt remember the old TV advert and catchphrase...)

I took the tyres away, and have shown them to several different people since then, who think it's all a big joke. Including one person previously involved in doing the Fife Council taxi tests, who basically said that if they were on his own car he'd put the tyres back on

Anyway, that was all on 11 March, and until late yesterday afternoon I'd not heard another peep from the council about it officially.

(Of course, I saw the press report on the Courier's website about how our heads needing 'knocking together' etc, but I'd guess most of those who'll have to appear before the councillors in a couple of weeks have been totally unaware of it all until yesterday )

But these are the tyres in the photo below, taken indoors with flash a few hours ago. I've not zoomed in enough to make the glitches seem worse than they look (and considering that any inspection undertaken would have been while they were on the car), but the photo should be detailed enough to show them. The second photo linked to below is a bit higher-res.

I'm not even entirely sure if these are the failure items - they're certainly the most obvious glitches, but I'm not sure if the pen marks highlighting them were applied by the council inspector, or by the guys at the tyre depot where I got them replaced

Of course, the big caveat is that I'd done 326 miles between the MoT and the council inspection. But what are the chances of picking up these rare 'cuts to the cord' on two different tyres in around 300 miles? Anyone else ever had a problem with 'cuts to the cord'?

(Like the oil leaks stuff, these seem to be a thing peculiar to the East Zone taxi tests - at least one other owner-driver failed on a cut to the cord at around the same time as me, and he'd just had his car tested by a local garage immediately before the council test.)



https://i.imgur.com/rk1YC78.jpeg

I’m not up on Scottish law regarding taxi licensing, but here they can’t remove the vehicle licence plate, to charge £100 re test it would have to be advertised, they would also have to advertise the 6 monthly test fee. But lesson learned, you had an Mot test before your test, as I always do, you had a service I don’t see what more you could do, I don’t think the council have a leg to stand on, in fact the wasting council time and money, if you constantly keep failing then fair enough come to a hearing. I would also have a word with the dealership about what has happened to you, I do think the tester missed it.

Thanks for that, MCF - more or less sums up my own thoughts. And although I don't have the records to hand, I think that's the first time I've failed a council inspection for maybe twenty years

As for the dealership and the tyres, I think that ship has sailed now (MoT was six months ago), and they'll just say that I could have picked up the glitches between the MoT and taxi test (I'd done 326 miles).

But from what others have said, I'd guess most mechanics and MoT testers wouldn't have noticed them, or at least wouldn't have investigated further and then failed them - I think they have to poke some sort of instrument into them to see how deeply they're cut.

I'd guess faults like these on tyres are pretty common in reality, but tyres only rarely replaced as a consequence. I could take buying a couple of new tyres on the chin if it had been just an MoT failure, but it's the whole council thing...

The photos of the tyres with the flash above maybe make them look a bit urealistic and lacking in tread. These are a bit more realistic without the flash, and at an angle:

Not that easy to see when on a car, even when on ramps etc. In my opinion at least

https://i.imgur.com/tSV7kOb.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/Zrl10cH.jpeg