Taxi Driver Online

Bedford taxi drivers hit by fee hike to fund survey



TAXI drivers could be made to pay more than £250 extra for their licenses after councillors decided to undertake a survey into the number of licensed vehicles.

At a meeting of the council’s licensing committee last Thursday members voted to carry out a survey into how many people should be allwoed to become licensed drivers.

The consultation would cost around £20,000 to undertake and would mean each registered driver would pay £543.50 for their licence compared to the previous cost of £286.

Councillors reluctantly voted to go with the survey as they were unhappy with the officers’ other recommendation to remove the limit on the number of Hackney Carriages allowed in Bedford Borough.

Gurdeep Singh, secretary for the Bedford Hackney Carriage Drivers Association, said: “It is upsetting that drivers will have to fund the survey but we want to sit down with the council before it is conducted to find out if the cost can spread over four years as that is how long it would be valid for.”

source: http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/News ... 120000.htm

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

I didn't think they could pass the cost of the survey on.

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Grandad,

they do usually - but usually spread the payments over 3 years

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

I don't think so.

That said I'm not sure councils have the powers to recoup the cost of a survey through the vehicle license.

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IDFIMH