Taxi Driver Online

Plymouth council mistakenly issues licences to taxis which are 'too long'



TAXI licences have been mistakenly issued to vehicles which are too long, it has emerged.

Plymouth City Council’s regulations state that a hackney carriage must not exceed five metres in length.

But the authority has admitted it has issued a “small number” of licences to vehicles which breach this rule, blaming an oversight in the testing process.

A council spokeswoman said: “We are aware of a small number of hackney carriages being wrongly issued with a licence.

“The testing stations did not pick up the fact that these vehicles were too long, so we issued the licences in good faith. We have since written to all stations to re-enforce this requirement.

“The permitted length of hackney carriages is clearly in the testing addendum which all stations must follow. We will be in touch with all the owners of the vehicles that were wrongly issued with a licence to review all options and agree a way forward.”

The council would not confirm how many taxis have been mistakenly issued with licenses as it is “still investigating”, but The Herald understands it could be up to 16 cases.

City cabbie Mark Dawn said some drivers may have to give up if the regulations are more strictly enforced.

“Nobody is trying to get away with it,” he said. “There are people out there who can’t afford to upgrade their vehicle because they can’t get the finance. It will be taken off them and they will be left without a job if it’s proven that its too big. At the end of the day a taxi is a taxi.”

The council’s rules also state that a taxi must have a wheelbase of at least 96in to obtain a licence and must have a step height of greater than 42cm from ground level.


Read more: http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Plymout ... z3GftCZwPO

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

Why? What safety issue relates to five meters?

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IDFIMH

What chop a bit off the end?

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IDFIMH

I wonder what vehicles these are, possibly the long wheelbase vito?? Chris the fish will hopefully enlighten us
If they have been issued with a licence how can the council take away someone's livelihood, without fully compensating the owners

“The testing stations did not pick up the fact that these vehicles were too long, so we issued the licences in good faith.

And it came to pass that the great and the good in the land of the Dft decided in their infinite wisdom to issue a decree that henceforward the space allocated for each carriage acting as a Hackney on the rank would be measured in that foreign unit, the meter, and that unit would be multiplied by five to get to the length of five meters. This therefore is the equivalent in the time honoured measurement of the English, Irish, Scots and Welsh, of 16 ft 3 and one third inches.

Carriage owners were not greatly perplexed at this as no limit as to the size was insisted on in the Vehicle Conditions and verily any vehicle that could carry those in personal chariots was looked on by the Local Council with great favour.

Indeed those carriages that could not carry those in wheeled chairs were banned from being used as hackney anyway and been banned for many years until this time. The custodians of power merely copied the rules as laid down by other custodians in a far flung place, a place of capital importance, and the rule makers in this far place styled themselves “PCO” and came up with a standard that was termed “Condition of Fitness”. The fitness of other vehicles was raised into question, indeed it was accepted by all except the PCO that other vehicles could be nicely converted and be so much better for the Passenger, Passenger unsound of limb and even the Driver of the carriage, especially the driver who had grown to a full adult size.

And therefore those with great power in Plymouth decided to retain the PCO commandments yet add to that wisdom more wisdom again and allow that vehicle known to many as the bread van to join the ranks of the Hackneys and to ply the trade for which they were so well suited. The wisdom they added was written in to the vehicle conditions and great joy there was had by Proprietor, Driver, Passenger and particularly Passenger without possibility of perambulation.

Time passed, the Bread Van was evolved into a new and larger creation, and some ventured onto the streets as they were compliant in all respects, the possibility of more joy was looked at and frowned at by the City Fathers, a limitation to this merriment was needed. The Bread Van could not be lost forever, but the largest of its brethren needed to be stopped from proliferating. The limitation imposed on rank allocation by DfT was seen as the benchmark by which all carriages could be measured. The decision was not included in the Vehicle Conditions but in a document on the council’s webpages which is so hard to find that only those with nothing to do but look for the obscure on the internet would ever find it. The document entitled “Testing Addendum” was also given to those stations which the Authority saw fit to allow doing the testing of Hackney and Private Hire vehicles.

So some proprietors now owned carriages over the designated five meters and these would be allowed to continue and indeed would be able to relicense henceforward. But other proprietors wanted these super bread vans too, but were denied the chance because the testing addendum prevented them from so doing.

Yet in error some more of these beasts were bought and to compound the error the Testing Stations did not measure the vehicle nor look at the logbook and passed as fit therefore, these behemoth.
And the Council too did not look at the logbook and, taking the money, issued the plate. And the proprietors who had been refused felt great angst and with a grinding of teeth approached the fourth estate and moaned like hell. And the paper listened to the tale of woe being told unto them and went to print, as is their want they got some things wrong but printed anyway.

And the Council now must consider the rights and wrongs of what has come to pass. Most think that they will find themselves ”blameless in all things and that they are beset by Fools and Jackanapes”. Most also think that if they done things right from the beginning then none of this would have come to pass.

And verily I say unto you, if you are in the market for a used, yet cherished, super Bread Van you could do worse than to look to Plymouth for a place to go shopping. I would warn you to check with your own powers that be, that the vehicle is allowed to operate in the way you would want and as it was meant to do.

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Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

So are these bread vans the Vito, or the new Peugeots, that are slightly longer due to the manufacturers making them like that now,