Taxi Driver Online

Within my licensing district there is only one garage that is allowed to do the mechanical inspection test. This is the councils own workshop.

20 years ago any MOT garage could do it, I left the taxi game for a lot of years, until recently & find this situation very strange to have been allowed, is this not a monopoly, they set their own prices, their are only 2 - 3 mechanics, anyone of the 400 odd taxi / ph drivers who fall out with anyone at this garage beware...

Can anything be done about this?
I'd appreciate some pointers?

In my area it's all done by one garage. The contract was put out to tender recently as the last contract expired. I gather there was only one bid submitted, and that was by the incumbent garage.

That garage is what you'd call a back street garage; I ran a check on them with VOSA who came back with a good report on them. Ther e's been no problems with that garage and they do give a good service with the cabbies as they understand the need to get cars back on the road quickly.

I find it strange that any council still has its own workshops. Maybe FoI the council and ask if the job has been put out to competitive tender.

TAXI AND PRIVATE HIRE VEHICLE LICENSING: BEST PRACTICE GUIDANCE
Number Of Testing Stations. There is sometimes criticism that local authorities provide only one testing centre for their area (which may be geographically extensive). So it is good practice for local authorities to consider having more than one testing station. There could be an advantage in contracting out the testing work, and to different garages. In that way the licensing authority can benefit from competition in costs. (The Vehicle Operators and Standards Agency – VOSA – may be able to assist where there are local difficulties in provision of testing stations.)

any MOT twice a year should suffice, together with a check by the LO...

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

who has qualifications in engineering?

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

How much are your inspections?

How often are your inspections?

How much are retests?

Is there a free retest if brought back within a certain period?

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

In my area the 2 tests and any retests are free to the driver. the council picks up the tab for it all.

How much is your license fee?

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

Yes.

You need to outline your, and your colleagues, concerns and ask the chair of licensing for a review.

Or better still ring him up. That's what they are there for.

And if that doesn't work write to the Office of Fair Trading.

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IDFIMH

Our council replaced MOTs for compliance checks. You can still go to any garage for an MOT if you wish but you MUST have a compliance check which is only done by the council at its garage. If you have a compliance check you don't need an MOT and the council wont' accept an MOT for the licence, they won't even accept compliance checks from neighbouring LA's garages.

However the biggest gripe I have is that the councils garage is an MOT test centre, an ordinary member of the public can phone up an book a time slot for any day at any time but taxi tests are only done one day a week on a first come basis - so the first person to book gets 9am the second 10am etc. taxis have no choice on what day or time to be tested. But what's the difference between a member of the public wanting a test at 3pm on a Wednesday and a taxi wanting one at the same time ?

Operators licence fee now £307 a year, was £280.

For how many vehicles is that?

Each vehicle.

There's nothing in the act that says they can charge anything at all?

That's ridiculous.