Nine illegal private hire taxis have been seized from the streets of Gloucester in a new clampdown.
Seven of the nine vehicles were seized by police during the operation which ran on Friday and Saturday night.
The action was taken in response to complaints over private hire taxis picking up passengers who had not pre-booked.
Only hackney carriages are allowed to pick up passengers after being stopped in the street.
Sgt Elonor Lakin, of the Gloucester City Safer Community Team, said her team joined forces with roads policing officers, special constabulary officers and city council officials for the crackdown, codenamed Operation Acro.
She said: “The operation was launched following a growing number of complaints about the drivers of private hire taxis picking up passengers who had not pre-booked.
“By picking up fares in this way, the private hire drivers are also invalidating their insurance, leading to concerns for the safety of their passengers. This operation was a great success, nine taxi drivers were prosecuted for a range of offences over the weekend.
“However, the number prosecuted on the second night was half that of the first night, showing that lessons were already being learnt.”
A spokesman for Gloucester City Council said: “We held an enforcement operation over the weekend in conjunction with the police.
“It is something we carry out from time to time.
“We caught a total of nine vehicles who were plying for hire, and seven of those cars were seized. There were six caught on Friday and three on Saturday night. We are now in the process of deciding what appropriate action we should take against the drivers.”
Zeya Ahmed is the chairman of the Hackney Carriage Association, said: “We have been asking for the council to do some enforcement because there have been issues with us working within the rules and the rogue drivers taking away our business.
“It has also hit private hire firms who operate within the law, whose trade is also taken away by these rogue operators.
“Therefore the benefits of this clampdown will be for all drivers, and those breaking the rules have got some thinking to do about the way they operate in the future. We are very grateful to the police and the council for getting this going and making this clampdown happen.”
One private hire driver, who did not want to be named, said: “I am pleased they are clamping down on these drivers, they are the ones who give the rest of us a bad name.
“We are just trying to earn a living, and nearly everyone plays by the rules, it’s just a few who try their luck, but it looks like they are getting caught now.”
Writing in today's Citizen, Editor Ian Mean gives his view on the crackdown:
So called “cowboy” taxi drivers are a menace on our roads.
That is why the iron fist of Gloucester City Council, which came down hard on nine of them at the weekend, is to be welcomed.
Why should licensed Hackney carriage drivers, who alone are allowed to pick up fares from city streets, be penalised by these “cowboy” operators?
Nine of these illegal taxis were seized by police during the operation over last Friday and Saturday.
These illegal drivers are private hire taxis picking up passengers who have not pre-booked from the street. Nothing wrong at all in hiring a private hire car if you have pre-booked, of course.
Those of us who have hired one of these “cowboy” taxis have probably never even realised that the drivers are invalidating their insurance by picking up in this way without being pre-booked.
The consequences of a crash or accident in one of these private hire cars could leave passengers in a very awkward position legally in terms of any compensation claim for injury.
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/gloucestershireheadlines/Police-swoop-illegal-private-hire-taxis/article-1882416-detail/article.html
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