Taxi Driver Online

Our friendly local operator with the Rutland plated vehicle was seen a couple of weeks ago picking up customers outside a local pub. Bearing in mind that the Rutland "office" is not manned and does not have a telephone number, how was this booking received? Rutland say that he can take mailed bookings at the Rutland address But this is unlikely to have happened is it. One of our enforcement officers paid him a visit and he admitted that the job was in one of his Rutland plated vehicles. Did our officer ask to see the booking records? No, it has been passed to Rutland, who we know do not do any enforcement.

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Grandad,

once the dereg bill goes through it'll be nice and legal

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

And when that happens I wont have a problem with it.

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Grandad,

Call divert.

There is no number to divert.

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Grandad,

Not sure he has powers to do so.

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IDFIMH

The chap is a private hire operator in our area as well. The booking was obviously taken at the booking office in our area because there is no means of taking the booking in Rutland except by letter and lets be honest, that is not going to happen.

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Grandad,

Grandad, If you are sure that the booking was taken in your licensing district and passed to a PHV licensed elsewhere then make the complaint to your licensing officer(s) and ask them to inspect the records held by the office in your area. That should be sufficient to prove either, that the job was passed to a vehicle that is not licensed in your area or that the job was not booked and was undertaken illegally.
As for the suggestion that the Dereg Bill will affect this - (legally) it won't. The Dereg Bill includes 3 changes to taxi law - 1. Use of PHV's by persons not licensed as PHD's - when the vehicle is not being used for private hire work. 2. Mandatory 3 year licences for drivers unless the authority can show good reasons for issuing for a lesser period and 3. 5 year licences for PHO's unless the authority can show good reasons for issuing for a lesser period.

Erm, Our licensing officer did visit but did not inspect the records and just informed the other authority. The deregulation bill will make it legal. When passed a private hire operator in one area can pass work to a private hire operator in another area.

The three measures which have been added to the Deregulation Bill are:
(i) Allowing private hire operators to sub-contract bookings to operators licensed in a different district. This change will improve operators’ ability to meet passengers’ needs. And it will help to make the passenger’s experience so much more convenient.

(ii) Allowing anyone with an ordinary driver’s licence to drive a private hire vehicle when it is “off-duty”. The principal benefit of this measure is that a PHV could be used as a family car, freeing up many families from the need to run a second car and saving them money.

(iii) Making the standard duration for all taxi and PHV driver licences three years; and five years for all PHV operator licences. Shorter durations will only be granted on a case by case basis, where it is justifiable for a particular reason. This will reduce the financial and administrative burden of having to make more frequent licence renewals.

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Grandad,

unless his Rutland landline is on divert

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

FFS Wanna, will you keep up. He doesn't have a landline in Rutland. It is an office of convenience. It is someone else's property not his, it is not a private hire office. IT DOES NOT EXIST!

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Grandad,

What number is he running off? That's if he does have a number.

so explain what you want, what you expect and what you know will happen.........

he runs Rutland plated vehicles in Melton, hacks or PH? he has Rutland and Melton plates...why?

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

The rutland "office" does not have a phone number. The Rutland licensing officer says that he doesn't need one because he can accept bookings by post.

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Grandad,

As his vehicles become to old to be plated in Melton he is getting Rutland private hire plates for them because they have no standards at all apart from a current MOT. There is not knowledge test for drivers and the cost is less than half that of Melton. He also uses Melton badged drivers to drive the vehicles.

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Grandad,