Taxi Driver Online

No frankly I am not, they do not seem to have to abide by the same rules. How do you check an asylum seeker from Afghanistan - phone the Chief of Police over there?

The PCO do not make the rules - politicians and TFL make the rules - all the PCO are required to do is carry them out to the letter - they are not paid to think - they are paid to enforce.

None of this changes the fact that you cannot say that all minicab/private hire drivers are rapists and thugs - that is simply rubbish.

Its worth noting that in the new licensing act (drinking version), all applicants for door supervisors (bouncers) must give details of their backgrounds for, I think, three years at least.

They cannot give the 'I haven't lived in the UK that long' excuse. If they can't provide it, they don't get licensed.

Now wouldn't that be nice if the same applied in our trade?

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IDFIMH

I would never suggest you all are, I just see, as I'm sure you do, a story a week similar to the one discussed above.

The second biggest Failing is operators that are willing to take on Drivers that clearly have not been resident in the UK that long

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Promoting The london Private Hire Trade

http://www.lphda.co.uk

Someone has got to take on black cab drivers when they want to improve themselves, and drive proper motors.

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Happy to be legit.

They take them on because they have the correct temporary permit. In the legislation they do not require / it is not possible to do a CRB check on them. I agree that this is a totally unacceptable situation.

There are a lot of loopholes in the legislation.

There is the ability for anyone with a suitable car being able to get a licence for their car (complete with baby on board stickers as greenbadgecabby would say) - gain exemption from the congestion charge without having to produce Hire & Reward Insurance (Social, Domestic & Pleasure suffices for the test) or either a Full PH Licence or a Temporary Permit. So if you want to tout and stand less chance of being caught - just go and get your car tested. If you do not want to tout but wish to save yourself the £5 a day congestion charge just pay for the test and your away.

There are Hospitals and Schools using unlicenced drivers every day because of a loophole in the regulations.

Only recently have the Drivers and Operators of the Stretched American Limos been brought into line previously dodging the legislation.

I attended a lot of meetings prior to legislation between members of the LPHCA and the PCO. We were listened to then completely ignored in the final legislation. The LPHCA members asked for reasonable signage for PH vehicles in London so as to clearly indicate to he travelling public that they would be getting into a licenced vehicle - we got the stupid discs.