Taxi Driver Online

I suppose this just articulates what any sentient human being in the trade can work out for themselves - industry reform has never been a priority for the legislators, and the prolonged Brexit process and a possible General Election can only exacerbate this.


Could Brexit mean the exit for the task and finish group report into taxis and private hire?

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/single-pos ... ivate-hire

3 Sep 2019

Steve Kenton

23 June 2016, a momentous day in history, as the public went to the polling booths to decide whether the UK should withdraw from the European Union.

As history will testify, 51.9% voted to leave the EU, the UK government then triggered article 50, and from that point until now chaos has reigned with uncertainty in abundance. But where does this leave the taxi industry?

On 12 July 2017, the All Party Parliamentary Group On Taxis, headed by Ilford North MP, Wes Streeting launched their report into the taxi and private hire industry, entitled Lessons From London: The future of the UK taxi trade.

The 27 page document was a comprehensive assessment, identifying what was needed to keep both industries viable in the 21st Century.

The Government, under the behest of the Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, set up a "task and finish" group to create their own report into the taxi and private hire industry.

The Task and Finish Group Report was published on 12 February 2019, not too dissimilar to the APPG report, the next step would be to put forward the findings and bring the recommendations of the report into legislation - and this is where we come to a grinding halt.

With parliament coming back from its recess on 3 September, the country has the prorogation of parliament to enjoy, equating to 23 parliamentary working days. Although the reality is the "shut-down" until 14 October only really equates to around 5 parliamentary days because it is also conference season.

All of this now begs the question "what about the cab trade and new legislation?". The short answer is that it is hamstrung - along with just about every other piece of prospective legislation.

According to a number of sources it is simply impossible to get any new legislation passed at the moment, primarily because Brexit has rendered the Government a "lame duck".

With a possible general election on the horizon, depending on the outcome of the vote to block a no deal Brexit, the taxi industry could be waiting an extremely long time for any new legislation to be passed.

Those same sources have indicated that it could be years before the taxi industry sees any reformation of legislation, primarily because of Brexit negotiations and the subsequent aftermath, where various governmental departments scrabble around looking to make deals across the globe.

The Department for Transport will be no exception as they attempt to deconstruct and reconstruct every aspect of the transport industry in a bid to keep the country moving. The taxi industry is quite simply not that high up the pecking order.

So for now, whilst all around are losing their heads, the taxi industry can only sit, wait and watch.

The article makes some good points.

I'm more than certain that if we were in normal times the cross-border issue would be sorted, and the Labour Party would follow the wishes of Unite and the GMB, and many Tory back benchers have indicated they want things sorted too, in particular Ian Duncan Smith.

Problem our trade have is that the Rebel Alliance want to kick Brexit further down the line, as it appears they only support referendums that they win.

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IDFIMH