Taxi Driver Online

12.The transport unit will then contact transport operators about providing the
required transport. It’s appreciated that not all pupils from designated year groups
may require transport. Schools are not to contact operators directly.

Sent: Friday, 17 Apr, 20 At 13:09



Thank you for the email
I do understand your concerns at this difficult time so respectfully offer the following.

Should you choose to use an alternative vehicle e.g. Minibus or London Cab with screening to support your staff then please do so.

I understand schools are monitoring which students attend school so would not risk either operator staff or their own staff.

We do however have provision for operators who cannot fulfil contractual arrangements during these times, as we have the option to suspend contracts and find replacements for them.

I can confirm we will not take any compliance action but as you will have noted from the correspondence we sent you on 3rd April (titled Contractor Update No. 9) this would have an impact on the ongoing payments we are making to operators.

Our ongoing payments to you are being made in line with government guidance issued the Cabinet Office and we will act in line with its terms. Please ensure that you read the “Extract from FAQs – Cabinet Office Note PPN 02-20” attached to this update. This contains important information that you must be aware of:

· Restrictions on making redundancies

· Restrictions on furloughing staff who are required to work on contracted work – i.e. you cannot furlough a member of staff whose wages you are paying with contract income.

· If you are not able to deliver a service when required that we are continuing to pay for. Where alternative suppliers are required to cover for lack of availability we will deduct payment as per our conditions of contract – as would normally be the case where a contractor is unable to operate.

Any contractor that breaches the terms set out for continued payment could risk being excluded from all future tenders.

I hope this answers any concerns you have but if you have any doubts over your ability to continue to operate the route please contact us asap.

Our position is as stated.

I am not in a position to authorise additional expenditure.

The County’s decision to continue to pay contractors in full between mid-march till the end of June was based on an expectation that contractors would be flexible. I would expect that the payments you have received would cover the suggested “increase”.

However, If you are unable to run transport as requested on Monday please let school know in order that they can communicate with the families as appropriate.

The only saving grace is the council still pay us and I have no idea what will happen come September, hopefully all that will be needed by then is a face mask

I think the biggest concern is if any of these kids get the virus and the driver then has to have 14 days off.

I’ve heard a rumour that Flintshire council are insisting that all school runs from September must be covered by vehicles with a permanent screen fitted.

But is there enough motors with screens, or are they suggesting saloons get them fitted?

And will the schools have screens in their classrooms?

Hi,

So my brother started the school run in Sept 2019. He hasn’t done it before this time which can be verified by the council. However the councils contracts manager has stated because he’s self employed and not a taxi company employee (All the taxi drivers are self employed that do the school run) they cannot pay anything from the supplier relief fund to him or the supervisor they must claim theough the self employed scheme but he only started in Sept 19 and therefore it will not cover the school run payments. He can show how much he was paid each month and this can be verified by the council own transport team.

The government notice doesn’t state that subcontractors shouldn’t get paid for the school run.

Any help on this will be appreciated.

Thanks
Nikki

I think your brother is one of the few taxi/PH drivers that have missed out in respect of the self-employed grant, which is a shame.