Taxi Driver Online

Cabbie fined £500 for driving in Derby bus lanes



A CABBIE says he is angry after receiving fines worth more than £500 for driving in Derby bus lanes - despite signs being up saying taxis can use them.

Chris Hillman said he had been issued with nine £60 fines since July for driving in the bus lanes in Albert Street, Victoria Street, and Uttoxeter New Road, and that fellow drivers had also been stung.

He said the three routes have signs on them saying they are for bicycles, buses and taxis.

Mr Hillman, 34, who works for Belper-based K’s Taxis and is licenced in Amber Valley, said: “They shouldn’t have a sign up saying taxis are allowed. It shouldn’t be displayed like that.”

The fact that Mr Hillman is licenced in Amber Valley means, according to a city council rule, that he could only use Derby bus lanes, where taxis are allowed, if his customers’ journeys either began in Amber Valley or ended there.

It means Mr Hillman would need to prove this was the case to get his fines rescinded.

A council spokeswoman said the rule was a “standard clause” in hackney carriage licences, such as those held by drivers at K’s Taxis.

Mr Hillman said all of his jobs that led to fines had involved taking customers from Amber Valley to Derby.

But he said there was no record of this.He said: “If you’re just picking someone up from the taxi rank at Heanor, for example, there’s not going to be any record of that because you’ve been flagged down.”

Mr Hillman said: “I’m not prepared to pay the fines and I’m willing to take it to court because there’s not a judge in the land that would award the result to the city council.”A city council spokeswoman said some bus lanes have an exemption for taxis, which applied “to licenced Hackney carriages and not private hire vehicles”.

She said: “Where a Hackney carriage is licenced by an authority other than Derby, such as Amber Valley Borough Council, those vehicles may only act as a licenced Hackney carriage where their customer’s journey either begins or ends in the area where their vehicle is licenced.

“If that journey does not begin or end in their licencing area they cannot behave as a Hackney carriage in Derby and so they may not drive in the bus lane.

“Penalty Charge Notices will be cancelled once the drivers give satisfactory evidence that they were legitimately using the bus lane as a licenced hackney carriage.”

The situation appears to be made more confusing by information on the city council’s website which says no taxis other than “Derby City licensed hackney carriage (taxis) can use bus lanes within the city”.

The fines for incorrectly driving in Derby bus lanes are £60, reduced to £30 if paid within 35 days.



source: http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Cabbie- ... story.html

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

I would dispute the signage. The fact that their website says different, I feel is irrelevant.

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Common sense........is just not that Common.

I use bus lanes all the time in other areas,according to gladen I'm a taxi all the time,wether I'm in my area or not, the signage is wrong it should say only Derby taxis allowed.

National traffic signage says different, they are only allowed to use signs stating taxis, along with buses and bikes, or other forms, they are not allowed to discriminate where they come from

How many more times are you going to state this crap? It depends what is on the traffic order. In Nottingham the traffic order states wheelchair accessible taxis only and that is what the signs say.

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Grandad,

That's correct, no other Taxi from anywhere in the country can use Nottingham's bus lanes only those licensed with Nottingham City Council.

Unless that is tongue in cheek....that is not what Grandad posted>>>>>>>>>

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Common sense........is just not that Common.

Doesn't matter what a traffic order says if the signs are wrong - is a motorist supposed to look up the TRO every time they reach a road sign to make sure they are ok to proceed legally, or is it expected that all the required information is on the sign itself ? If you saw a sign saying '40mph' but the TRO states '30mph' would you expect to be prosecuted for doing 39 ?

Anyway, if you're a licenced HC from anywhere in the country can you use bus lanes anywhere else in the country that just state the word 'TAXI' (no other restrictions) on them ? That is the key question here.

The roads in Derby mentioned in the original post only state TAXI, nothing else, see for yourselves ;

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.91752 ... 312!8i6656

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Alb ... fe88e74b31

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.92245 ... 312!8i6656

To me that means ANY HC can use them.

Its a well known fact that almost all bus lanes are limited to "local" taxis I never use bus lanes when in another town or city just in case last year one of my drivers got caught out in Leicester the sign says taxis BUT only Leicester licensed hackneys

This is something else that really needs a National Standard because Buses from anywhere in the UK can use any bus lane in any town and city.

Discrimination ?

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

You are not correct there Edders,
Any Hackney can use the bus lanes in Leicester. However if the vehicle has not had it's Hackney plate registered with Leicester City Council a ticket will be issued. You need to return the ticket with a copy of your Hackney vehicle license and the fine is cancelled and the registration number added to the database so that no ticket is issued in future. You can ask your LA to send Leicester a full list of all Hackney licenses and they will be added to the database.

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Grandad,

If a bus lane states Taxis, then Taxis can use it.

I've yet to see a sign saying Taxis [but only ones licensed by X authority]

Any adjudicator should be agreeing.

That's exactly the point I was making, the signage on the Google maps on here are the national ones

They can have them as long as they have the appropriate TRO as well, they also need to apply for a special exemption from the Traffic Signs Regulations (because an authorised sign wont exist) to approve the signage and make it legal.

I think Derby might be twisting the legislation by saying if an out of town hackney is picking up a pre-booked job in Derby, for the duration of that fare it's acting as a private hire vehicle and therefore is not allowed in the bus lanes But once the passenger has been dropped it reverts back to being a hackney

A taxi is always a taxi.

benson v boyce

they cant have it both ways the c*nts

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