Taxi Driver Online

Our local authority have asked us to review a handbook before they 'cast it in stone' and publish it. It is refreshing to see such communication even if it is my own council!

The drafty contains the following statement:

'Exemption for vehicles to carry their plate in the interior of the vehicle for specific contract work is at the discretion of the Licensing Officer.'

I don't believe te council have the power to make this statement but don't know why.

Can anyone point me to relevant legislation and, if possible, any court cases illustrating application of the law.

As always, I'd be very grateful for any sensible comments.

The regs say a plate must be attached to the vehicle, so in some cases councils allow exec vehicles to display inside.

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IDFIMH

So what was the 'loophole' that was closed a couple of years ago regarding licensed or unlicensed vehicles and exemptions for 'contract' work?

I have a letter of exemption for my stretched limousines and executive cars. I have a plate in the front window but the rear plate can be carried in the boot. The side stickers that PH have around here also don't need to be on the vehicle.

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Grandad,

The loophole that closed unlicensed 'contract' work was the 2006 Road Safety Act.

What you are dealing with is licensed 'contract' work. i.e. the cars and drivers are as licensed as you and me, just that for certain work they don't need to display their plate on the back of their motors.

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IDFIMH

Cheers fellas.

The loophole was known as the section 75 contract exemption whereby any one working on a written contract of 7 days or more was exempt from licencing. This was used by many airport and I have to saqy, limousine company's. Basically, if you issued the customer with a written contract that lasted for at least 7 days, you didn,t need a licence. The daft thing waqs, you could have as many contracts as you liked running at the same time.

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Grandad,

Don't wish to dwell on a law that has now thankfully been repealed, but case law as of then stated that you could only have one contract at a time.

Maybe the NLCA offered flawed legal advice on that as well.

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IDFIMH