Taxi Driver Online

‘Extortionate’ licence fees for private hire car drivers


The fee rise comes after a review of charges associated with private hire cars in response to new government legislation.

Under the new system, vehicle licence fees will decrease, but drivers will face paying up to 33 per cent more for a yearly licence.

Manager of Starline Minicabs Malcolm Cannon branded the new fees ‘extortionate’ in a formal objection to the proposals.

He wrote: “As someone who has held a Chichester District Council licence for 28 years, I find this completely unacceptable and will certainly have to consider carefully whether to renew if these huge hikes are implemented. Personally, it looks as though drivers are paying for the reductions given to vehicle operators.”

The cost of renewing a private hire driver’s licence for one year will rise from £85 to £113 effective from May 23.

Drivers can also apply for a three-year licence that costs £285 to renew, an increase of £10 a year.

Cllr Paul Jarvis commented that considered in the face of six-years’ worth of inflation since the last review, the change in fees was a relatively ‘insignificant amount’.

He added that officers had ‘done the best job they could’, adding: “At the end of the day, if they get it wrong, all they simply do is re-adjust these numbers in the future. I think this is perfectly reasonable and fair, and we have to let it run for a certain period.”

A total of nine formal objections to the fee rise were acknowledged from individuals and groups of the 320 drivers licensed with the council. Many comments focussed on the difference in three-year and one-year fees, which officers attributed to admin costs already covered in an application.

At the start of the meeting, chairman Cllr John Ridd said: “When it comes to fees, we are talking about people’s livelihoods, and perhaps not the most well-to-do in our society, but hard working people, for whom every penny counts.”

He went on to add: “We are concerned that the service does continue, as we hope, without disadvantaging any members.”

The fee changes were passed with an agreement to review the fees after one year.

Read more: http://www.chichester.co.uk/news/local/ ... z49gv9fnoX

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

I thought drivers badges where to be issued for 3 years at no extra cost

And I think there's fairies down the bottom of the garden mate - until the taxi and PH trades develop a brain, they're going to be sh*t on from a great height.

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

Under the deregulation act there is no such thing as a 1 year drivers license anymore. It is a 3 year license unless the Council has a compelling reason to issue a license for a shorter period of time.

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Grandad,

Yeah right, name me one council that does that? It's all about the £££££££

Manchester, Liverpool. There's two

A person may ask for a 1 year license or a 2 year license or a 3 year license.

It is not always up to the Council what they issue,the 3 year license is the standard issue but a Council cannot compel a person to accept a 3 year license if they do not want to.

North Tyneside issue 3 year badge @ £140,2 year badge @ £105,1 year badge @ £70.

This allows a person not to pay for what he does not want.

Not according to the deregulation act.
Here you are, the important word is "shall" this means "must."There is no provision in the act for a driver to request a license for a lesser period and so if your Council are doing this they are acting outside the law.

53 Drivers' licences for hackney carriages and private hire vehicles
(1)
(a) Every licence granted by a district council under the provisions of this
Part of this Act to any person to drive a private hire vehicle shall
remain in force for three years from the date of such licence or for such
lesser period as the district council may specify in such licence.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of the Public Health Act 1875 and the
Town Police Clauses Act 1889, every licence granted by a district
council under the provisions of the Act of 1847 to any person to drive a
hackney carriage shall remain in force for three years from the date of
such licence or for such lesser period as they may specify in such
licence

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Grandad,

53 Drivers' licences for hackney carriages and private hire vehicles
(1)
(a) Every licence granted by a district council under the provisions of this
Part of this Act to any person to drive a private hire vehicle shall
remain in force for three years from the date of such licence or for such
lesser period as the district council may specify in such licence.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of the Public Health Act 1875 and the
Town Police Clauses Act 1889, every licence granted by a district
council under the provisions of the Act of 1847 to any person to drive a
hackney carriage shall remain in force for three years from the date of
such licence or for such lesser period as they may specify in such
licence[/quote]




(a) Every licence granted by a district council under the provisions of this
Part of this Act to any person to drive a private hire vehicle shall
remain in force for three years from the date of such licence


Or

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Read it again,the Council can issue a license for a period less than 3 years.

This was the reply to one objection:


I note the content of your objection.

It is acknowledged that the overall intention of the change in legislation is to help reduce the financial and administrative burden on drivers as stated at paragraph 10.8 of the Law Commission Report. It is unfortunate that by reviewing the cost associated with the driver’s licence that it has resulted in the driver’s fee being proposed seeing an increase.

Please be assured that we have undertaken a comprehensive review of our taxi and private hire licensing fees. This is to make certain, as far as reasonably possible, that we are accurately charging for costs solely attributable to delivering each element of the licensing regime, in terms of drivers, vehicles and Private Hire Operators. I feel it is important to highlight that this has led to a reduction in the proposed vehicle licence fees, as it is often the case that less time is spent on that aspect, partly due to the requirement for vehicles over 5 years to be tested on a 6 monthly basis. However, the proposed driver’s fee has increased owing to the amount of time spent by officers dealing with driver related matters.

The term ‘issue and administration’ (Section 53(2) of the LG(MP)A) has been interpreted to include the maintenance of the licence and ensuring compliance with its terms. This view is based on case law, R v Manchester City Council, ex p King 1991 and R v Westminster City Council, ex p. Hutton 2013.

The areas that cannot be charged for in relation to applications for driving licences are as follows:

• Recovering costs in relation to unsuccessful applications for the grant of new licences i.e. new applications that are refused by Committee;
• Recovering enforcement costs associated with unlicensed drivers;
• Recovering costs associated with Freedom of Information and Data Protection Act requests as separate provision is made for this; and
• Appeals against decisions made by the Committee. With enforcement action there is the possibility to recover some or all of the cost through the court process, however, this would be at the court’s discretion.

These elements have not formed part of the calculation.

For calculating the 3 year driver licence fee, there are some tasks that are a flat rate, linked solely to the application itself, that will not change regardless of the duration of the licence i.e. the production of the licence, badges etc will be the same cost regardless of whether a licence is issued once a year or every 3 years. There will be some tasks where the costs need to be tripled as these will be annual costs that need to be extended across the full duration of the licence, such as dealing with technical issues with applications, complaints and any conduct issues that result in a Hearing or officer involvement etc.

It is accepted that the fee for a 3 year driver licence cannot simply be triple the 1 year fee. However, it is believed that there can be an increase over the annual fee. Unfortunately, no formal guidance has been issued by Central Government to help provide a steer on how they envisaged these changes to be instigated by Local Authorities.

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IDFIMH

They can, but it has to be for a very good reason such as a new driver, one who has recently had conviction. But not because the driver wants a 1 year license.

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Grandad,