Taxi Driver Online

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All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE

You will notice that these groups of volunteer drivers are more often than not a closed shop of ex police, council and health workers-"never had it so good" one confided in me once!

and ive never seen headlines like "unbadged Community Transport driver raped girl"

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Would you fancy raping an 80 year-old?

Some of the voluntary drivers round here are 70+ and would be unlikely to pass a cab medical; same with their cars, usually 15 y/o wrecks that have rarely been serviced.

Seriously though, with the amount of jobs this lot are doing, average 27 jobs a day every day of the year, that's quite a few cabbies they're not helping. Bear in mind too my local wrinkly centre runs 2 minibuses @ £5 a journey, 2 trips am and pm, that's about £72k a year per minibus. CT section 19 permits are supposed to be for those whose principal business is not passenger transport! I reckon £144k is a good portion of their income and ought to be PSV licenced.

AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT MAYBE MRS ROY CAN INTERVENE THROUGH FELLOW CLLRS

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All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE

It was mrsRoy who alerted me to this following a chat at the town council meeting from the volunteer group who help with the local libraries. The woman got onto what else they do, including CT.

The trouble is it was getting late, mrsR was tired and had she asked what she wanted to could have been accused of a conflict of interest. However, I will be doing the FoI on her behalf!

Good sort the barstewards and to others theres an example of what can be initiated what you WAITING for

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All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE

Well, to re-open this thread, I've just had a lengthy chat with Martin of MC Cars in Mansfield following a letter I've had published in routeOne bus trade mag this week. In that letter, I mentioned the fact that CT groups were exempt from various licencing regs which I mentioned earlier in this thread.

Martin has put a substantial amount of his own money taking this case to the EU and a judgement is due later this month. there has already been some movement regarding CT bus drivers. It has been deemed that they WILL need D1 entitlement and a Driver CPC to carry on driving over 8 passenger seat vehicles. I understand that VOSA will be at a lot of schools from 10th September when the CPC rules kick in. Basically any CT driver who does not have the CPC card will have a PG9 (immediate prohibition) issued on the vehicle and he will receive a hefty fine, as will the CT operator.

Various other matters were discussed; I wondered how this will affect the ph/taxi trade with community transport cars. The EU ruling, if it goes in "our" favour, and there is a very strong likelihood of that as the EU is against government subsidies, will mean that most "voluntary" groups offering cheap hospital trips will be outlawed. This is based on the premise that if a CT bus driver needs a D1 plus CPC as he's driving for hire and reward, a car driver, doing cheap hospital trips (for hire and reward) will need a ph or taxi licence and be properly licenced. (See Rout v Swallow Hotel for the link on that matter!)

Excrement is likely to hit the air circulation equipment fairly soon, and the government will have to rethink its transport policies.

What has further angered the EU is the fact that Hackney Community Transport (turnover £50m+) recently tendered and was awarded the contract to run all the buses in Jersey, having ousted the previous French-owned company. HCT receives a hefty government subsidy for its operations.

No doubt further clarification will appear soon.

Grandma, alias mrs grandad has just completed her Periodic CPC and whilst on the course one of the instructors mentioned about VOSA being out from September. he also said that at the time she was taking her training only 11% of bus drivers had completed the CPC training. Should be quite interesting come September.

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Grandad,

The CPC's a bit of a nonsense certificate, You work damned hard and spend a heap of money to Pass your D1 driving test to prove you can drive a Minibus, but but that in itself is no longer enough, so now you have to spend £xxx's of your hard earned just to gain a CPC which is a guaranteed certainty even if you slept through each and every section of it's training itinerary.

That CPC is more about making someone money than it is driver competence.

A fechin pointless certificate which will become a legal requirement...who dreams that guff up? You have your D1 entitlement on your Drivers License but in reality it Isn't an Entitlement at all..It's only half the job.

I dunno whether I should bother with a CPC, I may never need to use it or at worst I can go through it at a date after September as It wont affect my D1 entitlement which will always be on my licence providing I keep passing the Medicals and renewing my Licence periodically.

They should also Clarify what Constitutes a Charity Price per Passenger mile...those Charity Transporters around here state it as being 30pence per mile, what they Don't say though is whether It's 30p per mile per passenger as I Suspect it is. if it were per passenger then it's a game changer because 4 passengers would generate £1.20 PPM income, 8 Passengers would generate £2.40 PPM and a minibus load would generate £4.80 PPM of income,

At these Prices the so called Charity is Charging somewhere between 50% and 300% percent more than we Professionals are charging per passenger mile, this they do mostly without the correct LA or VOSA Driver or Vehicle Licenses being in place, all under the guise of being a charity.

I'm not Even sure many of them are Charities, Someones been putting flyers out around here looking for Volunteer Drivers to assist in their Community transport service and there's no mention of it being a charity and I cant see it on the list of registered charities.

I Emailed them over a week ago for Clarification of both their Charitable Status and of their Pricing structure....so far no response, I wonder why ?

Most of these groups have an Owner more interested in making a Managers salary for themselves as they are about supplying the truly needy, It's time the Government seen through their Scams once and for all, they offer a low level service at over inflated prices and pretend to be loving and caring volunteers..what utter crap.

If Mr MC Cars wins then I struggle to see any negatives for the taxi/PH trade.

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IDFIMH

It's also worth reminding folks that the LC are recommending that all under 9 seat work is done by taxi/PH. No more small PSV.

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IDFIMH

What does that mean?

Every 4 to 8 passenger seat volunter Vehicle will be either PH or Hack? or that no Volunteer using a 4 to 8 seat Vehicle can get away with using their own unlicenced car?

Or does it Simply mean that the Volunteers cant abuse a Vosa operators licence by driving a vehicle with fewer than 8 passenger seats and for which did not require the driver to have a D1 category licence entitlement?

Oi Bloodnock, I happen to be one of those PSV operators who uses an under 9 seater on an O licence, I have written permission from the Traffic Commissioner to do so. Even shearings use under 9 seaters as feeders for their tours.

The CPC is a waste of time and money, another tax on working. From Setptember 10th, no CPC, no drive for hire and reward. It seems the EU commissioner has used Rout v Swallow Hotel to define what is "hire and reward". I have a letter printed in routeOne today asking what is "commercial use" as it has no legal status, hence the lengthy phone call from MCCars this evening.

Anyone caught driving over 8 seats for "hire and reward"WILL be issued an immediate prohibition, will receive a hefty fine and points, and the operator (if a psv) will face a Public Inquiry. The first case has already come before a PI. the operator had not started driver CPC training and as a result lost 50% of his licences as disciplinary action. BE WARNED, the TCs are taking this seriously.

Yes it will mean more business for hackney and ph drivers from September, and those of us with D1 and CPC will be able to command a high price for our services from that day!