Taxi Driver Online

Chester cabbies angry at plans to change licensing



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BLACK cab drivers in Chester say their future is being threatened by proposed changes to licensing rules.

Council officials have announced plans to “standardise” regulation so the same policies exist throughout Cheshire West and Chester.

As part of the bid, which is currently up for consultation, zones which currently separate Chester, Ellesmere Port and Neston would be lifted.

The scheme includes a penalty points system which would see taxi drivers who continually break the rules eventually stripped of their licence.

However, Chester Licensed Hackney Association claim the move would result in an oversaturated market as taxis from all over the borough would flock to work in Chester – which is already crowded with taxis.

Chairman Richard Barker said the number of black Hackney cabs in the city had increased from 77 to more than 140 since deregulation was introduced a few years ago, which was “way too much” for the Chester area.

He said: “People might think they’re doing us drivers a favour allowing us to work in a larger area when they lift the zones, but they’re not.

“Can you imagine people working in Helsby and Frodsham now coming to Chester on race days? That takes away business from us, and it also leaves no taxis for people where they come from.

“Also, these drivers would not know the area like we do because they won’t be local. We want to give people the best possible service, but if these changes went ahead we would be losing out and so would the people of Chester.”

He added: “No one wants zones lifted, not us and not the private hire taxis. It will be a mess. Currently, all taxis here have to be wheelchair accessible, as they do in

Ellesmere Port and Neston. But in Vale Royal they do not. We feel they should come up to our standard, not us lowering our standard.”

He added the penalty point system would mean any misdemeanor committed would result in penalty points. “We feel that is ridiculous. It should be dealt with individually. If you park at the end of a taxi rank, you can get points. But there are only 43 spaces in Chester for 140 hackney carriages.”

Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) spokesman Rachel Ashley said: “We would encourage anyone with concerns or any comments to submit them to us and all these issues raised with us will be considered when we decide how to take things forward.”

Cllr Lynn Riley, executive member for community and environment, added: “Our priority is to ensure that members of the public enjoy safe and reliable access to taxis, and that members of the taxi trade operate within a clear and fair set of policies.”

The consultation closes on April 16.

http://www.chesterfirst.co.uk/news/1098 ... nsing.aspx

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

For the chairman of a taxi association....he needs a lesson in PR

CC

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

Par for the course.

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IDFIMH

Yes, perhaps he should consult the Casey Column guide to schmoozing.

He needs to take a few lessons from the local politicians what the media like is soundbites

something like the new rules will mean on race days people in helsby will lose their service

papers love that sort of thing it smacks of scandal not the long winded convoluted stuff he said

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

This so called consultation is an absolute farce... talk about loaded questions.

Anyone can see that the questions they have asked will get them the answers they desire.

The whole subject has the careers of hundreds of taxi drivers at risk and the council have squashed lots of massive questions into a tiny form simplifying them beyond belief.

We all know that the ultimate scenario is one zone with one fare structure and one set of conditions, however the zones as they are are so different the council cannot see that the whole thing will be a disaster.

And its easy to sit back and take the **** out of people for not being a PR expert but at least he is trying to do something, the apathy I come across on a daily basis is astounding.

Maybe we should all just sit back and let the council do what they want......

Keep at them and you could get your saloons back

Nobody in Chester wants saloons, in fact nearly half of the cabs on the road are new plates since delimitation and all were brand new wavs.(plates were only issued to new vehicles).

So your council is discriminating against the other 90% of disabled not in a wheelchair that cannot get into a wav for one reason or other, so they just call the PH instead

Yes its ok for the council to insist on a new vehicle, but it does not need to be a wav.
I noticed in another thread that they dont give a dam about the equality bill thats still going through parliament either, so some of you providing a shiny new wav could be forking out totally unnecessarily, when you could have had a brand new saloon at half the price

Skippy, the chap says that NOBODY in Chester want's a saloon, so even if they were given the choice everyone would choose to buy a WAV.

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Grandad,

I think Mr Very Very Busy is alluding to the fact that some of the non-local Chester cabs aren't WAVs, so if they all join together they might have the option to drive saloons.

If they choose not to, then so be it. But I wonder if some will change their tune when work out they can save a lot of money.

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IDFIMH

Where do you get this figure of 90% of disabled not in a wheelchair thay cannot get into a WAV. I have never had a single person who has not been able to get into my taxi. There have been one or two that have struggled slightly but they would have struggled to get into a car.

The main point is we have a 100% WAV fleet in Chester 99% of which are nice clean well maintained vehicles a standard which we would like to keep.

Maybe I was a bit ambitious when I said nobody in Chester wants saloon cars as I am sure when it comes down to it money talks. But what happens to all the wavs if everybody decided to buy a saloon car.

The situation in Chester means that anyone in a wheelchair can go to ANY taxi rank and get a taxi without a problem, knowing this they do. The amount of wheelchair jobs we do from ranks is surprising.

What suits one area does not necessarily suit another.

The trouble is where do you draw the line. Vehicles,fares and conditions have been moulded to the three zones over many years and each zone has a system that works and is suited to that particular zone. However one zones needs are different from another. To impose one set of rules on three very different zones is a minefield. There are obviously going to be some winners and some losers so it's all about damage limitation.

In an ideal world the zones would stay, we are too far apart on too many things to make it the best or easy option.

I run a wav and we have to be very selective who we send it to pick up some days i have to sit around for an hour at a time waiting for a job whilst our saloon cars are busy because it is simply too difficult to climb into for many of our customers who are elderly and have mobility issues. I do run a zafira as well which if there are no bookings requirig the wav I drive because it is cheaper on fuel and the customers prefer it !

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

We have 4 zones up here in the Borders, but all the hacks are on the same tariff.
You may get a lot of WAV jobs there but how many jobs are you loosing to the PH ???
Edders hit the nail on the head
Try asking your punters what they would prefer if they had a choice