Taxi Driver Online

Was going to tack this on to the thread a few weeks ago about the 5ft 4ins 85-year-old from Canterbury who had retired, but what initially seemed like something pretty un-newsworthy (hence the thread title) it actually throws up several interesting talking points.

Although I suspect it's just me


Longest serving Wakefield taxi driver collects his final fare

https://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news ... -1-9747555


Image: Wakefield Express

A taxi driver thought to be one of the longest serving in Wakefield has collected his final fare.

Granville Palfreyman from Crigglestone has covered hundreds of thousands of miles carrying passengers around the city for more than 27 years, but at the age of 67 has decided the time had come to apply the brakes to his working life.

He said: “You can only get one-year licenses when you get to 65 and the price had gone up this year so I decided it was time to finish.

“I’m not missing it at the moment but it’s only been a few weeks - it’s been like a holiday!

“In the next month or so I think it will probably hit home.

“Every day was different in the job, you could be running around going to local supermarkets or hospitals, then the next day you could pick someone up from Westgate and they’d want driving to Newcastle.

“But the job has changed down the years, there’s a lot more drivers these days and it’s more difficult to make a living. I’m just going to relax now, maybe do a few odd jobs on the house and making the tea for my wife who is still working.”

From the Flanshaw estate originally, he was a delivery driver for Empire Stores before becoming a cab driver.

He worked for Yellow Cabs, Hall Green Cars and Kettlethorpe Cars among others before his finishing at Asdale Cars.

Andy Crowther at Asdale Cars said: “He was always a driver you could rely on with a smile on his face and with a biscuit in one hand and a piece of cake in the other.

“We wish him all the best in his retirement.”

That's the most noteworthy thing about the piece



Find it hard to believe a 67-year-old retiring from the trade is particularly newsworthy, or that 27 years is the longest serving driver in Wakefield, which according to the DfT figures has 1,400 PHDs. (Although the sub-heading says he's *thought* to be one of the longest serving, thus not quite the same claim as the headline).



You mean like that night I had eight consecutive one-mile runs from the same rank to the same drop-off point at the same student halls

In fact twelve in a row if you count another drop-off point in the same complex, and count over two shifts



Legal?



Although not while driving, hopefully

It might be that over 65 you have to have an Annual medical in his LA ?

but 27 years is shorter than some of us on here have been in the trade

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

Would have thought everyone over 65 has to have an annual medical but this does not bar you from being granted a 3 year license.

As it's easier to not re-issue, than to revoke, I would say that council is operating in the correct manner.

Providing they only charge drivers one year at a time.

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IDFIMH

As discussed recently in the thread where the council *wouldn't* give one of grandad's drivers a one-year badge, the legislation seems to say that three years should be the norm, but that exceptions can be made in *individual* cases.



At a rough guess I'd say a policy stipulating only a one-year badge after a certain age is a 'blanket' policy rather than an individual exception, thus not in accordance with the legislation, however convenient it may be for the council in practical terms.

If as claimed he's *always* got a biscuit in one hand and a piece of cake in the other then I'm surprised he's still alive, never mind able to pass a medical