Taxi Driver Online

FAKE TAXI DRIVERS CONCERN

POLICE fear a rapist may have stolen taxi plates to lure vulnerable women during the festive season.

Two sets of the distinctive plates were taken this week from cabs in Levenmouth, Fife.

Police fear the thief could use them to pose as a taxi driver.

Inspector Alan Turpie, of Fife Constabulary, said: "We don't want to alarm people unnecessarily but we are concerned, particularly at this time of year, that the plates could be used on another vehicle."

Industry body Taxiwise say there are 30,000 unlicensed cab drivers in the UK and that up to 5000 women are attacked by them every year.

On Hogmanay last year, student Sally Geeson, 22, was killed by East Kilbride soldier David Atkinson after a night out.

Atkinson had earlier boasted to friends that posing as a minicab driver was "a good way to lure women".

All genuine taxi drivers wear an identification badge, which includes the driver's name, photo, licence number and council logo.

Police advise women to pre-book a taxi and share with a friend to the end of the journey

The rules may be different in that zone, but I doubt it, but in East Fife few drivers wear badges.

Mine is on my dashboard, where it can be seen more easily than if I wore it. The rules say that it only has to be on display, not that it has to be worn.

Anyway, if I stole the plates to be used as warned about, I woudln't use them locally since drivers would be on the lookout, so a local news story is a bit of a waste of time. As for the public, they don't look at them anyway.

This is bad news, and most certainly a potential danger - especially as you say, at this time of year.

What has always concerned me more than HC plates being stolen is the Fife PHVs. The plates are very small and only on the rear of the car. There are also no door signs.

I know that Fife did alter their plates slightly not long ago, but I feel that they are too small and also that the cars are in desperate need of door signage.

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The police and the council need to publish the plate numbers that where nicked, and put it on the radio, and inform all ligit drivers then who ever nicked them wont stand a chance

Hi
Glasgow City Council have a very good policy regarding Private Hire.
1.They have plates front and back bumpers.
2.Small stickers on inside of passenger door windows or small rear windows (they are very hard to peel off).
3.All cars must have the name of the company that they drive for in the back window. The drivers
4. Drivers must have their badges on display.

This is a good measure as people who are unsure should only get into a car that has 1 thru 4 on display.

regards

I think you will find that this breaks the license conditions & in fact the local authority turn a blind eye to this in the way East Renfrewshire Council also do

10: The holder of a private hire car licence shall not display on his vehicle any signs for the purpose of advertising its services as a private hire car other than those approved by the Licensing Authority

7: No notice, advertisement, printed bill or other thing shall be displayed on the outside or inside of a private hire car without the prior consent of the Licensing Authority.

8: The holder of a private hire car licence shall ensure that, while the private hire car is in use as such, any plates or other things which have been issued by the Licensing Authority for the purpose of indicating that the vehicle is a private hire car are displayed at all times in positions approved by the Licensing Authority. Relevant identification plates issued by the Licensing Authority must be affixed to the rear passenger windows of a private hire car via the self-adhesive front.

I have spoken to the licensing team at Glasgow & the only requirements they have are the stickers you mentioned & the front and rear plates. Anything else is regarded as advertising & is authorised on application

This seems like it is now time for a roof sign, I know that some public hire operators will moan but if all the details where on the sign and on the front passenger doors instead of in some cases a silly disk stuck in the windows, or an extremely hard to read PH sign front and back it would help public safety,
Thats what a taxi or PH is all about first and foremost and until you lot can bang some heads together with your councils and get things changed how many more total bam pots are going to rape or even kill women who only wanted to go from a to b in safely, thats what i entered this trade 25 years ago for, now get your fingers out and do something

Yes, it all comes down to these two conflicting arguments again: more markings on PH vehicles protects the public, but at the same time it confuses them and facilitates illegal plying for hire.

But what is required more than anything else is consistency, which we simply won't get under the present regime of hundreds of LAs - recent press stories which try to explain the difference, but then have to use phrases like 'tend to have' rather than 'have' show that even locally practices vary and thus confuse.

The roofsign issue is a good example of how these vary practices confuse - where PH in one area have roofsigns but don't in others, then the public are bound to be confused, irrespective of what wording may or may not be allowed on the roofsign.

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So then one has to walk a couple of miles to get home?

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I think we all know that at the end of the day it doesn't matter who many plates/stickers/roof signs who have on a car, when people are drunk & want to get home they will jump into anything

In East Dunbartonshire they use paper licence plates which are displayed in the rear window of vehicles (yellow for private hire, blue for taxis)

A lot of vehicles have quite dark tints & you can't see the plates, but as far as I know they have never been any problems

Taxis use a variety of roof signs from company names to just plain 'taxi'

Best wishes

Here are a few examples

If it was not for LTI and metro cab and the rest of the bread van makers, charging an arm and a leg for them , all the public hire could be black and all private hire could be saloons or the like with the roof signs.
Its only the idiots in the trade that let them charge what they like, you can buy a bread van and put windows in it and seats for 13k on the road so why pay 22k for one and never use there finance companies if you can help it go for a bank loan its cheaper.
So in the meanwhile women and possibly kids are going to be injured or killed all because of a total over payed dick head who sits in a council office and dictates the rules

I don't think it matters what size the plates are, where they are postioned, etc. what matters is that the general public must open their eyes & make sure the driver has an ID badge

I also agree with Mr Renfrewshire when he said that usually most people are that drunk at the weekend they would take a lift home from anyone licensed or not

Don't the 'Mogo' plates have the registration and expiry date on them?

That said, I'm not that sure that anyone has ever looked at my plate before they get into my car.

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IDFIMH