Taxi Driver Online

Slightly daft headline, but interesting article nevertheless.

(Headline makes it sound more like an MoT or council compliance test rather than a vehicle specification.)


Canterbury City Council to ban taxis which fail emission standards

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury ... own-221259


Image: Kent Online

Up to 200 taxis could be banned from the roads in the Canterbury district in a radical bid to clean up air pollution.

The city council says it will refuse to re-license vehicles which fail to meet the latest emission standards by August next year as it attempts to push all cabbies into electric cars by 2030.

It would mean many drivers having to make costly upgrades in the next 18 months to protect their livelihoods.

Some concerned cabbies say they cannot afford to simply change their cars so quickly.

Nigel Harris, 64, who has run a traditional-style London taxi in the city for 20 years, says the proposals will force him into retirement.


Image: Kent Online

“I will just have to get rid of it despite the fact that it’s been a fantastic vehicle for the job which flies through its MoT emissions test every time without a problem,” he said.

“The trouble is that a new electric version of one of these, which is made for the job and has wheelchair access, is £60,000 and not many people can afford that.”

The controversial policy comes as the city council attempts to meet its own ambitious target of being carbon-neural by 2030.

The authority says taxis, most of which are diesel, are having a significant detrimental impact on air quality because of the nature of their multiple local journeys.

Now, in a phased approach to the problem, it wants all vehicles it licenses to be hybrid by 2025 and electric by 2030.

It admits it could cause “some pain” for cabbies, who may have to get rid of their cars for taxi work sooner than expected.

But some drivers question the reliability of keeping the electric vehicles adequately charged for their use, despite the council saying it will install reserved new fast-charging points at taxi ranks as part of the policy.

“I live in a terraced house so how I am supposed to charge my car at night?” said one sceptical driver.

But cabbie Vassil Sariev says he is already ahead of the game having bought a Toyota hybrid three years ago.


Image: Kent Online

“It has to happen and I have to say it works very well for me and I have already racked up about 150,000 miles without any problem,” he said.

Controversially, the proposed changes will not apply to Uber drivers at they are not licensed by the city council.

They were discussed at last week’s meeting of the council’s community committee and have now been put out to public consultation.

Safer Neighbourhoods officer Doug Rattray told the committee that taxis and private hire vehicles had a “disproportionate impact” on air quality, with the worst emissions caused by vehicles manufactured before 2016.

He said 200 licensed cabs in the district currently do not meet the Euro 6 standard.

“We have set a bold ambition to meet climate change targets by 2030 but we believe that by setting out such an ambition, we are more likely to achieve progress,” Mr Rattray said.

“As licensing authority we have to set clean air objectives in all our licensable activities and that will mean some drivers having to get rid of their vehicles by August 2021.”

But he said there would be incentives and cheaper licenses for the greenest vehicles.

The policy was welcomed by Cllr Ashley Clark, (Con) who has recently invested in a hybrid car “to set an example”.

“Action speaks louder than words and we need to get on with it straight away,” he said.

“These proposals are radical and they might cause some pain but we’ll have to look at that.”

Cllr Chris Cornell (Lab) was concerned that the policy should be pursued fairly and by making taxi drivers “the vanguard” of the climate change measures, it must consider their specific concerns.

The consultation will last three months, with the council’s policy and resources committee due to make the final decision in July.

The city council's policy comes amid warnings that cars could be banned from Kent town centres, in order to tackle climate change.

Chequered stripe livery on that Volvo there presumably from a firm in Canterbury called Cab Line 6.

Not clear why only part of the livery seems to be on the car though, and no phone number, or whatever.



Maybe driver has jumped ship and has removed the phone numbers etc, but has left the chequered stripe, but who knows

Wouldn't have thought the firm would be too impressed if that was the case, though

Utterly fascinating, though

Got to have sympathy for WAV owners who's only current options are £50,000 +++++.

But we all need to breath.

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IDFIMH

I'm sorry but i don't hold with all this compulsory upgrading the majority of the problem is growing population putting ever more cars on the road

The solution is to say that when you need to renew the vehicle must be euro 6 or above for a wav and saloon cars should be given 2 to 3 years if euro 5 but less if euro 4 and below although i suspect there are probably few if any below euro 5

It's the same with this stupid ban on diesels and petrol being brought forward. the technology to make them far less polluting is coming through in 10 years time it will be possible to buy diesel vehicles producing half the levels of Nox and virtually nil particulate

If councils are serious about reducing pollution scrap age limits and replace them with standard specifications if they just state all new vehicles must be Euro 6 at first plating then when the next standard comes out state all new vehicles must be that

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

In a way I agree with that, and time will sort all of this out in a natural process of car replacement.

If a car is safe enough in terms of emissions to get a MOT, then it should be safe enough to get licensed.

But the world is changing and local government are getting pressure from the tree huggers and we are going to pay the price for that.

And I'm not sure we as a trade can do anything about it.

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IDFIMH