Taxi Driver Online

Cabbies Angry At Window Tint Ban

3rd October 2008

Taxi drivers have blasted a council clampdown on tinted windows.

Under changes to the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire licence conditions, no new licences will be given to cars with tinted windows.

Taxis and private hire cars currently on the road will need to strip their windows by 2010.

The amendments were made because of concerns over driver visibility, difficulty in identifying occupants in the case of an accident and in seeing if passengers are wearing seatbelts.

The scheme has the backing of Wiltshire Police, Wiltshire Fire and Rescue and some taxi firms.

But drivers who contacted the Adver said the scheme was unfair.

Aklus Miah said that the council is putting added pressure on taxi drivers.

“When I first purchased my car I wasn’t told anything about not being able to have tinted windows,” he said.

“Then I heard that maybe new vehicles wouldn’t be allowed to have it, and now that even cars on the road will have to make the changes.

“Lots of people are angry about this.”

Margaret Wilkes said the cost of making the changes will be crippling.

She has already had to relinquish one vehicle because of the cost of converting it and worries about the cost for her remaining Mercedes Vito minibus, which will set her back at least £800.

She said: “We are struggling and this is making matters even worse.

“When I bought the car a year ago I wasn’t told anything about plans for tinted windows to be removed. The council should have let us know sooner.

“People like tinted windows. It makes them feel a bit special – like a celebrity.

“I know the council say it’s for safety and for making sure people are wearing their seatbelts, but we as drivers are obliged to make sure passengers are wearing them. They should trust us.”

A council spokesman said: “We’re asking taxi operators to remove window tints for safety reasons.

“The police and ambulance service have asked for this so they can see who is in a vehicle if it is involved in an accident, and it also reassures passengers because, if anything untoward is happening in the cab, people outside can see what’s going on.

“We originally asked all vehicles to comply with this regulation this year, but after listening to the concerns of some drivers we agreed to extend the deadline for existing vehicles until September 2010.

“However, all newly purchased vehicles will have to comply from now.”


Source; Swindon Advertiser

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seems crazy to me

mercedes must have passed all required legistlatin, VOSA and TUV test to even consider fitting the tinted glass, now a trumped up council official knows better

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

I really hate tinted windows.

What have licensed drivers got to hide?

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IDFIMH

So bloody Typical, as times get harder and Businesses of all Types are fighting for Survival that this council like so many others Gloat at our sufferings and then through pure Ignorance or because they are run by Twisted perverse Individuals decide to make it even harder for us all to operate within our means....these people need strung up by the Goolies for putting needless trivial obstacles in our way simply because they have bugger all better to to fill their time with, that being because they havent a clue whats wrong in the real world today.

If the councils, Police or other authority have concerns about activities in licensed vehicles then surely they should reconsider the licence of the driver. If they believe the driver to be fit and proper it shouldn't matter whether the windows are tinted or not.

B. Lucky

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TF pi$$ed on his chips.

CC

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Have to agree.

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In London, Drivers have always been bemused by the fact that Hackney Carriage vehicles such as the FX and TX series, Metro cabs and now the New Vitto taxi are banned from having Tinted windows. But the TFL/PCO in their infinite wisdom have allowed PHV vehicles to have tinted windows even though it means the license roundel in the rear window cannot be read. In some vehicles in cannot be seen.
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With the TX4 fires on everyone's mind at the moment, there has been a lot of talk about passenger safety. Mary Dowdye signed the original order to take the affected TX4's off the road " in the interest of passenger safety"
Many years ago, the order to stop Taxis in London having Tinted windows, was signed in the interest of passenger safety.

Your PCO are quite strange....from memory the rear screens in early FX4's (pre 1973) had shaded rear screens.

Indeed wasnt the old central partition glass only a matter of a few inches due to passenger conversations being private?

CC

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

what windows can/cant be tinted though, i bet the bright spark who thought this up has a big range rover with blingy wheels and......privacy glass


what goes on in the back, stays in the back, ive got a camcorder...

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most