Taxi Driver Online

From the headline I assumed this was some kind of over-ranking scenario.

But turns out it's PHVs, so more inclined to think it's near an office? If they were just waiting for work in their cars then presumably they'd find a less daft place to stop?


Taxi drivers set to receive points as police catch four parked on zig-zag lines

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/st ... re-3927641

Police acted last night after complaints about taxis in the area

Four cabbies are facing fines and points on their licences after police found them parked on zig-zag lines in a Staffordshire town centre last night.

Police spotted the taxis - all private hire vehicles - parked on the lines in Stone town centre yesterday evening, Saturday March 7.

It follows a number of complaints about the way taxis parked in the town.

In the early hours of this morning a Staffordshire Police spokesman said: "Four private hire taxis were reported for parking on zig zags lines in Stone town centre tonight.

"The drivers will get points and a fine.

"Officers acted after receiving complaints about taxis in the area."

what is it with Stoke drivers and Stone it's only a little town but they seem to head there in their droves

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What makes you think they're Stoke drivers? Nothing in the piece to suggest they're working cross-border, and Stone is in the Borough of Stafford (at least according to my pal Wikipedia )

we have had a few stories on here of cars illegally picking up fares in stone and there was another incident plus having relatives from the area I know that basically they are mostly stoke based but probably plated staffs as are Newcastle U L drivers

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Stopping on zigzags attracts 3 penalty points and a big fine. Be warned.

we have two crossings which regularly have up to 100 cars a day parking on them BUT the police almost never patrol the town and if they do don't normally bother

This morning i saw one of sweetie shop cabs vehicles parked on the opposite carriageway on those zigzags whilst his passenger used the cash point

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Stopping/parking on zig-zags used to be pretty taboo (as compared to double yellows, say), but like so many other things has become less so (and more legitimate) over the years.

Could write a book on this sort of stuff, but, you know...

I'm sure someone would buy it I have one lying around somewhere about roundabouts which my sister thought would be a good xmas prezzie

did you know..........................................

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Almost 30 taxi drivers contravene pedestrian crossing in just four hours

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/st ... ne-3975218

One driver did it four times

Almost 30 taxi drivers contravened a pedestrian crossing in a Staffordshire town in just four hours.

Police say they saw a total of 27 private hire vehicles commit the offences in Stone today - with one driver doing it four times.

Some of the offences involved drivers completely blocking the crossing.

A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: "27 private hire drivers are about to receive legal forms through the post for contravening a pedestrian crossing in Stone.

"Each offence carries three points and a fine. One driver did it 4 times. This puts pedestrians at risk. It's not acceptable and won't be tolerated.

"The pedestrian crossing offences from the last post were all committed in a 4 hour period and involved some drivers totally blocking the crossing.

"We have previously advised drivers but were ignored. We don't ask twice."

corrected for accuracy

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He would be an ex driver if he done it 4 times and got caught. 3 points a go and usually £120 fine ker-chingg!

The ONLY vehicles allowed to stop on zig-zags on the exit from a pedestrian crossing are buses where there is a bus stop either on the zigzags or just beyond. A bus being used for driver training is allowed to stop. There's the usual exemptions for emergency services, utility vehicles, breakdowns, but certainly not for PHVs or delivery vans or just nipping to the cash point.

A few years back there was a vehicle parked on the zigzags in the middle of New Romney. A cop car happened to be passing, it stopped a bit further up the road and the copper literally ran back to the offending car to dish out a ticket.

I Googled 'Stone taxis' at the time to see if I could find any office that the PHVs could be parking outside on zigzags.

Couldn't find anything concrete, but there's a firm called Stone Taxis comes up, with an address at 14-16 Stafford Street. And if you look on Google streetview it certainly looks very messy at that address - there's a crossing and zigzags, and you could just imagine PHVs sitting on the zigzags just beyond the crossing, forcing passing motorists into the hatched area.

However, the funny thing is that 14-16 Stafford Street is a takeaway called Piccolo's Pizzas, and can be seen to the left via the link below, adjacent to the zigazags.

So whether the premises maybe doubles as some kind of taxi office, or maybe it's changed use since the images were captured in June 2018, isn't clear.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/14- ... -2.1456926

There appears to be another one at the end of a pedestrian precinct at junction of station road can't see an office there but a few more licensed premises around so maybe there

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.9033723,-2.1482863,3a,75y,180h,70.83t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sco81ZJ7qqA0Fb-KaBK_oQA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

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Well seems we were both wide of the mark

This updated version of the article contains a bit more detail, including the location of the crossing and a photo. Found the crossing easily enough on StreetView. However, although it's right beside a hotel (the several buildings beyond the crossing's lights in the photo below), there doesn't seem to be much else going on in the area to justify cars ranking up there, and by the looks of its website it's not the kind of hotel that might have a nightclub at weekends, or anything like that that might attract HCs and PHVs.

For what it's worth, this is the StreetView scene. If you spin round you'll see there's not much sign of life in the vicinity other than the hotel.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.90157 ... 384!8i8192

Oddly, the article does also mention traffic problems at the Crown and Anchor pub cause by cabs, which isn't nearby, but looks more like it's in the kind of area with more nightlife and therefore where ranking cars could cause problems. In fact there's another crossing outside the Crown and Anchor, as shown here - the pub is the green and white building with the flowerbed, just beside the crossing:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.90327 ... 384!8i8192

Funny thing too is that behind the bus, where you can see the rearend of a van with chevrons, there's actually a two-car official rank, so I'll bet they just love all the PHVs etc ranking up nearby. In fact there's actually a PHV sitting on the rank, and this is presumably during the day.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.90332 ... 384!8i8192

You can more or less ID the driver as well, at least if you knew him. So no blurred face for this guy

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.90338 ... 384!8i8192

Anyway, sounds like there's lots of out-of-town cars working the area (as Edders said), and illegal plying for hire too.


Police catch 27 taxi drivers breaking the law in town centre in just four hours

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/st ... rs-4000609

They will now be hit with penalty points and fines


Image: Stoke Sentinel

Dozens of taxi drivers are to be slapped with penalty points and fines - after parking on part of a town centre pedestrian crossing.

The private-hire cabbies - who are from Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme - have been caught parking on the crossing or over the adjoining zig-zag lines in Crown Street, Stone.

And it has emerged that many of them were illegally plying for hire when they were caught during last month's four-hour crackdown.

A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: “Twenty-seven private-hire drivers are about to receive legal forms through the post for contravening a pedestrian crossing in Stone.

“Each offence carries three penalty points and a fine. One driver even did it four times. This puts pedestrians at risk. It's not acceptable and won't be tolerated.

“The pedestrian crossing offences were all committed in a four-hour period and involved some drivers totally blocking the crossing. We have previously advised drivers but were ignored. We don't ask twice.

“A number of Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle taxis have been picking up fares which have not been booked and are not on their patch.”

Private-hire drivers are only allowed to pick up passengers who have booked in advance. It is illegal for them to collect customers in a street or from a taxi rank if a booking has not been made beforehand.

Stone councillor Jill Hood has welcomed the action against law-breaking drivers.

She said: “We have been having an ongoing battle with this - it’s been going on for almost two years.

“I had a call from a man whose daughters were standing outside the Crown and Anchor, in Station Road, waiting for him one night – he couldn’t pick them up there because there were about 20 vehicles in a queue all the way down to Newcastle Road.

“Our taxi drivers in Stone are local and adhere to the rules. But we’re getting other taxis coming in and taking trade away from our local drivers.

“They’re coming to Stone to see what trade they can get and they’re parked everywhere at night. It’s going on all the time and they have no regard for the law.

"We should fine them more heavily – hit them in the pocket.”

Stafford Borough Council has previously taken action against taxi drivers caught illegally plying for trade in Stone town centre.

we have one or two "bigger" hotels round here which do a lot of weddings balls and parties etc. one in particular always has dozens of P'borough PH sitting outside allegedly waiting for bookings and is so notorious for no pick ups that very few local taxis accept return bookings from there (unfortunately it counts as inside P'borough licensing territory)

I wonder if this is a similar situation with large numbers camping outside waiting to grab party goers who probably couldn't give a monkeys if the car is pre booked or not

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