Taxi Driver Online

Private hire drivers praised by council chiefs for not breaking licensing rules

local private hire drivers after a recent test purchase operation gave them a clean bill of health.

The test found 100 percent of Plymouth's private hire drivers stopped during a recent test purchase operation passed.

The council revealed that over the past month two test purchase operations were carried out and of the 19 private hire drivers approached no unauthorised journeys were accepted.

The taxi licensing team undertake regular test purchase operations to find out whether private hire drivers hold the correct licence to work and if they will accept passengers without a pre-booking, this is commonly known as "plying for hire."

Councillor John Riley, cabinet member responsible for licensing said: "I'm really pleased with the results of our latest test purchase operations. We carry them out to make sure private hire drivers abide by the conditions of their licence.

"All private hire journeys must be pre-booked through their respective operator, pick-ups by private hire vehicles are not covered by the vehicle's insurance, so this in turn puts passengers at risk. If passengers have problems the journey will not be recorded and the circumstances of any complaint are more difficult to investigate."

Hackney carriage (Taxi) drivers can 'ply for hire' off the street or from the Council's appointed taxi ranks situated throughout the city.

Councillor Riley said passengers were reminded that yellow door stickers were attached to the front doors of private hire vehicles which clearly state that the driver can only take pre-booked fares and they should not try to flag down a private hire vehicle.

If they do, they are then not covered by the drivers' insurance and passengers would be considered to have put themselves at risk.

Councillor Riley added: "I will soon be looking to engage with Private Hire drivers, Operators and Hackney Carriage drivers to seek to improve the taxi service available to Plymouth city residents and visitors alike.

"Making a start with that process I would welcome observations, comments, opinions and experiences from the wider public as to the quality of taxi service currently available in the city, their views as customers are invaluable."

The Taxi Licensing Team can be contacted on taxi.licensing@plymouth.gov.uk or 01752 304141.

Read more at http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/private ... zfXQucu.99

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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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IDFIMH

So basically after the first test purchase within 5 minutes every Ph driver in Plymouth knew the council guys were on the hunt or maybe I'm being cynical and all Plymouth Ph drivers are good little boys and girls

and this is why Plymouth is the best place in the world

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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 have thought that the fleet of Private Hire Vehicles in a place as big as Plymouth would be greater than 19 cars.

I think that was 19 vehicles tested out of the total ph fleet

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

Do you think that the Council people identified themselves to the drivers at the time?

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Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5

I find its a combination of things that give them away they are sober they don't dress like your normal revellers and instead of saying can you take us to wherever they come out with are you for hire or similar and a lot of drivers know the licensing officer's by sight.

When they have carried out such activities round here they use other council staff that are not connected to licensing and they do ask to be taken to certain locations. Of course we are predominantly Hackney here so they are actually checking that drivers are using the meter correctly. When at that location they will ring for a taxi back and check that the meter is used correctly on the way back. At no point during the journey do they identify themselves or say what they are doing. The first that a driver knows that he has been caught is when he gets "invited in the office" to discuss it. Maybe our staff are a bit cleverer than the ones down your way.

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Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5

We had some a few months back. A couple in their mid 40's, dressed in suits stood in the main square at 11pm. Pulled up to drop off and they asked if they could get in, strange as there were 20 hackneys queing on the other side of the street (on a rank for four cabs).

Quarter of an hour later I had another drop off at the same place and they were still stood there, and again asked if they could get in. I pointed to the queue of hackneys and said if they don't want to use them they'd have to phone and book.

A little later same again and they were STILL stood there, so this time I asked them why they were trying to catch out PH's and doing nothing at all about all the HC's illegally ranked across the road,'dunno what you mean' came the reply. I then asked them if they knew that 2 minutes after they arrived every taxi/ph in town knew 'licensing are in the square'

Poor numbers for a city the size of Plymouth.