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The Casey Column
By
Wayne Casey
(LL SC NTA DFC & BAR)
Carlsberg don't write columns in taxitalk, but if they did, they’d probably write this one
Thought of the month
Female bus drivers are probably lesbians.
Care in the Community
In the early 1980’s our City Council in Carlisle decided to demolish derelict slum dwellings in the City centre and replace them with an all new state of the art undercover shopping complex called ‘The Lanes’.
Anecdotal evidence suggests it’s a very nice place. I can’t actually confirm this, but I’m sure it is what people say .......very nice. You see, whilst the council had the foresight to build ‘The Lanes’ they also built a pedestrianised the area around it. Therefore, whilst I’m sure it’s very pretty, possibly with fountains, flowery plants and shrubberies, I don't actually know because I can’t park outside (saving for a god-awful multi-story car park).
Facing facts, the place might not actually exist at all, which would suggest at the time of writing I could be on some LSD induced trip (which would explain an awful lot), but it must be there, I seem to recall something in the paper.
The council of the day didn’t possibly believe people using the Lanes would need taxis, therefore no cab ranks were provided. Strange decision, judging by the arguably over-generous supply of bus stops, they must have thought there was plenty of bus users (or poor people as I like to refer to them).
In fairness to my council in Carlisle, they don't actually have control of our road system, which thanks to the two tier system of local government, are the remit of Cumbria County Council.
One licensing officer (and he reads my ranting’s so I wont actually embarrass him through naming him in the nations number one taxi magazine), has attended numerous meetings pushing for cab ranks. Like the taxi trade he has sat alongside people with dubious credentials and patently deficient mental ability, whilst fighting with us for additional rank space. Yet he has hit the same brick walls as us, namely f*ckwitted county councillors who don't know a cab rank from their huge backsides. I really should get a FOI request on their expenses......now there’s an idea.
Readers in Nottingham will be delighted to hear their City Council are looking into extending the power of Community Protection Officers to enable them to hand out fixed-penalty fines from £50 up to £300.
The cab trade should be very afraid of this new move, as Richard Antcliff, the council’s chief anti-social behavior officer, specifically cited the nuisance caused by taxis.
The fixed-fines for people leaving their car engines running has been introduced to prevent taxi drivers in the city from parking in ‘non-allocated’ areas.
Mr Antcliff stated: “What we have found is that at key times the taxi bays will get filled and then the taxis will start to wait on the road itself, causing blockages. It’s about communication and being proportionate with it, so first we ask taxi drivers to move on, but if they didn’t there is this power.”
He said the power can be used in other circumstances as well, but would not necessarily mean anyone in a stationary car with the engine running would be fined.
Being the controversial chap that I seem to be, I do wonder if supplying approximately 50 rank spaces for 400+ vehicles is a tad ‘unenthusiastic’?
Recently the council in Leeds have stated they will be taking action over licensed vehicles. Fines will be issued to drivers who stop at green lights, park on double yellow lines and block the ‘Headrow’, indeed, regular offenders could have their taxi driver licences suspended.
We are all aware of certain places and the growing trend of readily ticket taxis for over-ranking, using such modern things as CCTV cameras to catch culprits. We all should be aware that standing for hire at places other than Hackney Carriage Stands is obviously illegal. Many byelaws clearly stipulate if rank ‘a’ is full the driver must produce to rank ’c’. However, we only have 26 letters in the English alphabet, so when a cab gets to rank ‘z’ the driver is kind of goosed.
Therefore, short of adopting Russian as our mother tongue, it would appear, even to a blind man, we need some direct correlation between rank space and taxi numbers.
You may already be aware, the ‘Button’ book is p*ss poor in respect of rank spaces, indeed, according to this particular masterpiece, ranks space shouldn’t be a particular issue. Which isn’t exactly what the Chief Constable of Merseyside thought when Liverpool deregulated, indeed the use of paraphrasing suggests he said ‘what kind of idiotic f*cking idiot allowed 1000’s of taxis on the road and nowhere for them to park’, or words to that effect.
The reality is that rank spaces are rather important, we don't want to drive around each day at five and a half quid per gallon, belching cardiogenic fumes into our environment and therefore killing children and family pets, it’s ecologically unsound. The government are aware of this, presumably this is why all Local Transport Plans include a section dedicated to reducing pollution, any council worth their salt would also be aware that it is patently ridiculous supplying 1 rank space for 100 vehicles.
Yet there is nothing in law stating the LA has to provide a rank space, I sincerely hope the NTA make progress on this subject.
In my view we should have a minimum of 1 space for every 4 licenses issued. This equates to cab 1 being hired, cab 2 being off work, cab 3 being on the rank and cab 4 being on the way back to the rank.
For the benefit of some licensing authorities out there, those with what could be described as ‘special needs’, ranks need to be where the public actually are, this means places of public resort and NOT industrial estates just to solve a problem.
Bearing in mind a TRO (traffic regulation order) costs between two and three thousand pounds, it may well make a LA think before issuing taxi licenses with blatant disregard about where they will ply their trade. Or perhaps not, as licensing should be a self funding function.
This probably leads onto the argument offered by some with the purpose of giving reasoning why an LA doesn’t limit the number of Butchers, Bakers and Candlestick maker shops, so why should the taxi trade be any different. It seems to me like a false argument. If a high street has 100 shop spaces, the 101st shop cannot open because there isn’t a shop!
Indeed, if a butcher falls asleep the worst that could possibly happen would be a significant unmet demand for Lamb chop’s, if a cab driver falls asleep people waiting at bus stops may well be mown down by a driver doing a rather decent impression of ‘wee willie winkie’.
The Scottish Play
From the 16th November any person in Scotland operating a taxi or private hire office for more than 3 cabs or PHV’s must have a operators license. NTA members have already been distributed this information.
Of course, we have had PHV operator licensing in England and Wales since 1976, but the interesting thing in Scotland is that its been extended to Hackney Carriage Circuits.
I have given the view in the past that this is a good thing. I received criticism for this view, especially from one union who was ‘united’ in opposition. Yet I stand by my view.
The world has revolved many times since I mooted the idea and the world has revolved many more times since the idyllic days of the happy go lucky hackney carriage drivers, cheerfully whistling, doffing their caps to punters with rosy red cheeks and organising radio circuits for the good of all.
Radio Circuits are now big business, extracting thousands of pounds each year from cab drivers. Additionally they collect the personal data of each passenger they carry, in certain circumstances they collect credit card details, mobile phone numbers, and in all cases names and addresses.
Are we of the opinion that people responsible for this type of personal security shouldn’t be subject to any form of licensing? Our much maligned colleagues in the PH business have had the licensing regime for operators for many years, do we hear them crying?
Only a complete f*ckwit would suggest a journeyman driver should be subject to the same type of requirements as a 100 car plus radio circuit, only a f*ckwit would believe the doffing his cap rosy red cheeked, cheerful cab driver still actually existed (do these people actually drive taxis?)......but to have no scheme in place for a business where the people running it don't own a single cab....but hire radios to purely hackney carriages for profit, is patently ridiculous.
I sincerely hope the DFT look at the Scottish play and extend it south.
NTA Regional Meetings
Number 2 region NTA (Cumbria and the North East) will be meeting on the first Tuesday in December, number 5 region NTA Lancashire and the North West) will be meeting on the first Wednesday in December, please contact me on 01228 598740 for further details.
Till next month
Wayne Casey
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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin
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