Taxi Driver Online

Private hire drivers set to win fight to use city centre road



CABBIES are set to win their fight to use a city centre road.

Private hire drivers have been calling on Stoke-on-Trent City Council to lift their ban from some city centre roads.

It follows complaints that Hackney carriage drivers have a 'monopoly' because they can use more roads in Hanley.

Now council leaders are set to reopen Old Hall Street, near Albion Square, for private-hire cabbies.

Dave Currie, regional secretary of the National Private Hire Association, said: "This could potentially present a huge saving for customers in terms of mileage.

"It is a big step in the right direction, and paired with the other proposed plans – such as creating a circulatory route around Hanley – will improve the ability of private hire firms to compete with Hackney cabs.

"Hanley is a particular problem for having obstructions for private hire taxis.

"It's like things have purposefully been put in the way. That is why we are looking at this area first."

Private hire drivers cannot pick up or drop off passengers in Stafford Street, Trinity Street, New Hall Street or Marsh Street North because of the traffic regulations.

It means passengers have to walk to other streets to be picked up by their cabs.

Magnum driver Habib Majid, aged 26, of Cobridge, said: "The problem is we have a lot of old passengers, and also some disabled ones, and it isn't easy for them to manoeuvre themselves to the places we have to pick them up from. It is inconvenient for them and awkward for us."

A1 Embassy driver Imran Ayub, aged 34, of Hanley, added: "There is so much traffic by Marks & Spencer in particular and opening the access out would help ease that.

!The other day a taxi driver told me it took him 45 minutes to get from M&S to Poundstretcher."

The private hire drivers ultimately want to create three circular routes in Hanley – from the directions of Longton, Bucknall and Cobridge – to save money on mileage for customers.

Councillor Jack Brereton, cabinet member for transport, who has had meetings with the cabbies, said: "The situation is very poor for the firms because they want to be able to drop customers off in convenient places and they cannot.

"The difficulty is balancing their needs with other road users, including buses, to share the space effectively.

"We don't want to remove disabled parking bays to create pick-up points, for example. But we are aiming for dedicated taxi bays."

"The level of traffic offences is currently high because of the pedestrianisation of that area, which is confusing.

"The main offenders are taxi drivers dropping people off."


Read more: http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Private- ... z3z8hcLrEt

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I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE

but will it mean PH drivers "ranking up" waiting for fares which I am reliably informed used to happen (by my Stoke relatives)

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

Can't see it happening during the day at least if I park up in the town centre it's not long before a traffic warden moves us along.
If Ph are parked there probably waiting for the next batch of jobs to be released as on most radio/data systems you can tell if there are jobs in your zone coming up.

As long as they use it as a drop off point and not a pick up point I can't see there being any problems. If they start abusing it then stop them dropping off there.

Love the 'private hire cabbies' bit.

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IDFIMH