Taxi Driver Online

Source:

http://www.childcarsafety.org.uk/law/index.htm#under3

There is a trade exemption for vehicles with a fixed partition between passengers and the driver. With a fixed partition the driver is not responsible.

my work is pre-booked, any responsible parent will have and use a child seat

To be more precise.

Driver A owns an E7 (or similar) it seats seven passengers, one alongside the driver, six seats in the rear compartment.

Driver B owns an E7 also, but decided to opt for no front passenger seat, and therefore be licenced to carry six passengers only.

Driver B is approached by a family of seven, Two adults, and five children.

He passes them to driver A, the owner of a seven seater, who loads all seven in the six seat passenger compartment, which is identical to driver B's passenger compartment.

In my opinion driver A is overloading unless one of the passengers uses the front passenger seat.

Now, when a certain Mr Motivator made his first post on this site a few months ago, he claimed that he had picked up a family of seven in his E7, and wondered if he should report a certain Metrocab five seater owner driver, (me, actually) for turning up for the same job, which I did not take. It has since come to my notice that he has regularly carried this same family of seven, all in the six seat compartment. Odd that he should have thought about reporting me for something I didn't do, whilst he was operating illegally himself?

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Former taxi driver

We have already covered that ! If one of the passengers is not the required height or weight for a seat belt, in other words a small child/baby, then that child can legally sit on the lap of a seat belt restrained passenger.

The scenario could be 4 adults with 3 babies in the back on their lap and all would be legal.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

It wouldn't be a breach of license exactly as you would be working within the terms..

However... It would be a breach of the Road Traffic act..

Which in turn, (if you were prosecuted by John Darm) you would have to report to you LO.. and then... they might deem that you were operating unsafely... etc.. etc..

A bit like the Northampton PH who carried 6 passengers in his astra.. 4 had seat belts on.. 2 in the boot.. Got a 2 month suspension for that..
Still out flagging 6 days from 7...

I asked the traffic police for there opinion on this and there reply was.
If the kids are under 2 years old, they are not allowed to use a seat belt,but must use a child seat if available, if not the adult must wear one and have the child on there lap
If the vehicle is licenced for 7 there is abserlutaly no offence being committed by having all passengers in the rear compartment, unless all passengers are over the age of 14 and at that age they must wear one
They said that a normal family vehicle would have seats, but taxis cannot be expected to carry child seats as there would be not enough room for the different sizes required

Wow.. Now we're cracking eggs..
The law states that all passengers of a taxi must use a seatbelt where one is available..
It goes on to say... That for any person over the age of 14 years it is their responsibility to use it. For any person under the age of 14, it is the drivers responsibility (even when the parent / guardian is present).
If a car seat or booster is available, it must be used if age / size dictates. However, if none is available, taxi and PH vehicles have exemption from compulsary use.

There is no let off in the regulation about young children. But, it is actually quite dangerous for children under about 7 years to use an adult seat belt because it would pull accross their abdomin in a collision (instead of pelvis) and cause potential fatal injuries..

This is tooooo serious...