Taxi Driver Online

Minister hints at further block to taxi access law, 20 years after MPs approved it


A government minister has told peers that it is “not necessary” for all taxis to be accessible to wheelchair-users.

Transport minister Andrew Jones said that such a policy would mean having to replace thousands of taxis across the country.

But members of the Equality Act 2010 and disability committee told the minister that powers to force all taxis to be wheelchair-accessible had been passed by parliament 20 years ago through the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, but had not been implemented by successive governments.

The Labour peer Lord Foster asked what evidence the government had for its claim that introducing these measures would be a “burden” on the industry, and how it balanced this against the burden caused to disabled people by an inaccessible taxi service.

Jones said that about 56 per cent of taxis in England and Wales were wheelchair-accessible, and so he was “not sure the problem actually exists”.

He said: “I don’t think we need to have every single taxi to be wheelchair-accessible. We need to have a significant number that are wheelchair-accessible so that people who require them can access them.”

He said the burden on the industry would be the cost of replacing the 35,500 non-wheelchair-accessible taxis, when a new London taxi cost about £40,000.

But he pointed to another measure from the DDA 1995, which would force taxi-drivers to provide assistance to disabled people, and had also not been implemented.

He said he was “supportive” of this principle and that his department was hoping to make a decision on the measure “very shortly”.

But Lord Foster questioned his claim that the lack of accessible taxis was not a problem.

He said: “I am very surprised to hear that you don’t think the problem exists, because all the evidence we have had in front of our committee suggests that this is one of the biggest problems that disabled people have.”

And Baroness Deech, who chairs the committee, said: “It has been the will of parliament for 20 years that taxis be accessible. How many more decades is this going to take?”

When told that 100 per cent of London taxis were accessible, Jones admitted this meant that the proportion of accessible taxis was far lower in some parts of the country than 56 per cent, and in rural areas was just 13 per cent.

Baroness Deech said: “Unless you bring those regulations into force on a rolling basis, taxi-drivers will never get the cars that are big enough to take wheelchairs. The will of parliament should be carried out.”

Baroness Brinton, the disabled president of the Liberal Democrats, said a survey in Watford had shown that under 20 per cent of its taxis were accessible, and a very small percentage of those were wheelchair-accessible, with an even smaller percentage accessible to electric wheelchairs.

She asked if the government could make it compulsory for any wheelchair-accessible taxi to use one ramp, rather than two, as only those with one ramp were accessible to users of electric wheelchairs.

She said: “Many taxi-drivers hide behind the accessibility label and can’t deliver. It’s very easy to sort out, given the price of ramps these days.”

Jones said that was a “very fair point” and that he was “extremely happy to take that forward” with his department.

source: http://www.disabledgo.com/blog/2015/12/ ... proved-it/

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

I'm with Jones on this one, is there really any need to have 100% of taxis Wheelchair Accessible when only 2% of the population are actual wheelchair users and of those not all are confined totally to a wheelchair but have some mobility.

If they are a wheelchair user then there's also a good chance they'll have access to a mobility allowance, mobility car or at least be served by some so called charity voluntary group or even a Bus service bring the real figure down to less than 1% of people actually requiring a WAV on anything like a regular basis.

With that in mind where is the Incentive for a Taxi Owner to spend up to 3 times as much on a vehicle for a wheelchair user who may never call upon their services in the vehicles lifetime and even then only as the last resort after the "Reason to own a WAV destroyer" the Charity Volunteer types having turned their client down first..

Nah, anything above a national average of 50% is plenty, if all Owners had to be 100% WAV then in reality there would be probably no extra WAVS on the road as many Taxi's would not be cost efficient, taken off the road and the driver on the dole resulting in fewer taxis for all including the disabled themselves.

Err...if its accessible then it's wheelchair accessible, she's seems to be twisting things to suit her agenda..





What planet's she off...the Ramps might just be a few hundred pounds to buy, but the vehicle they attach to has to be a WAV and still cost thrice as much as a saloon at best, especially to take the over-sized and extremey heavy modern electric wheelchairs..a small truck is more suitable for those things.

the ignorance is the most alarming part

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

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

To me the issue is having two levels of hackney owner, one that can put on a saloon, and the other that must put on a WAV.

We don't have the same situation with drivers, i.e. one does a hard knowledge the other does an easy one, so why have different criteria for owners.

Either everyone has a WAV, or no one is compelled to have one.

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IDFIMH

This is the entire problem - you see we have the experts out there suggesting if there's a market there will be a supply - yet government is forced to intervene to ensure the market does what they want.

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

All single deck buses have to be compliant from 1st January this year, yet the police and VOSA have said they have no intention in enforcing the legislation, so why have it in the first place?

And, the disable are again forcing their needs on the majority of cab users who may not want a trip to the night club or a restaurant in a van with a wheelchair ramp.

The backlash beginneth ...

ISTR reading about one of the northern councils who done a survey of wheelchair users in their area and found there was only ONE! So why have all the taxis WAV? Give punters THEIR choice. After all, we don't pander to the likes of religious groups too much just yet... <dons tin hat and ducks>

Why do you wear ducks with your tin hat?

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Grandad,

Cos he's Quackers..