Taxi Driver Online

Perth private hire operator highlights shortage of wheelchair accessible taxis in the area

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/loca ... s-23878709

Concern comes despite there being more than 4000 wheelchair users in the region

A Perth private hire operator has highlighted a shortage of wheelchair accessible taxis in the area.

According to a Transport Scotland document published in 2019, only nine per cent of Perth and Kinross taxis could accommodate wheelchairs.

At Perth and Kinross Council’s licensing committee was this week, it was claimed an estimated there are over 4000 wheelchair users in the region.

Private hire operator John McIntosh made an emotional deputation to the committee as it met virtually on Thursday, April 7.

He and his wife Jane run JJ Tosh Private Hire and operate three private hire vehicles - all wheelchair accessible.

Mr McIntosh said he was alerted to the lack of wheelchair accessible vehicles by a friend who uses a wheelchair.

Recognising the need, they got their first wheelchair accessible vehicle when they launched their business eight years ago and have added two more since.

On Thursday Mr McIntosh presented an application for a wheelchair accessible taxi operator licence for Perth.

He said: “Being private hire I have to wait until someone contacts us.

“We are constantly asked by new clients why there is a lack of wheelchair accessible taxis in Perth and we explained the caps in place.”

At a licensing committee meeting in May 2018, it was agreed the cap on the number of taxis should remain in place.

But on Thursday Mr McIntosh expressed concern at the scarcity of wheelchair accessible taxis.

He said he discovered through a Freedom of Information request only eight taxis in Perth were wheelchair accessible.

Mr McIntosh claimed he had also spoken to Tayside orthopaedic and rehabilitation technology (TORT) services at Ninewells.

He said: “They service and provide over 2000 wheelchairs in the Perth and Kinross area.

“And they themselves believe there are at least another 2000 private wheelchair users out there.”

According to a Transport Scotland survey in 2019, just 10 out of a total of 107 taxi vehicles in Perth and Kinross are wheelchair accessible.

In local authorities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, South Ayrshire and all three Lothian councils, every single taxi vehicle is wheelchair accessible.

Convener Conservative councillor Chris Ahern moved to refuse granting a taxi licence to John and Jane McIntosh and Conservative councillor David Illingworth seconded.

Conservative councillor Colin Stewart put forward an amendment.

He said: “It’s undeniable that there’s unmet demand and we are not meeting that in Perth and Kinross, and I would amend your motion that we grant Mr McIntosh’s licence.”

But no one seconded Cllr Stewart’s amendment and the motion to refuse the licence was approved.

But Cllr Ahern did add a couple of conditions.

The Perth City Centre councillor asked the licensing team to look at the situation.

He said the next unmet demand survey would not be representative of the situation and should the situation change the committee would lift the usual 12 month restriction - following a refusal - and allow JJ Tosh to reapply for a taxi licence.

What's going to change in next 12 months?

There's no unmet demand for HCs overall, so that's not going to change in the forseeable future, if ever.

And the provision of WAVs will be largely similar, so what could possibly change?

Three years ago the survey identified unmet demand for WAVs in mostly-saloon capped Perth. It recommended the council engage with the trade regarding WAV provision.

I'm guessing zero saloon owners wanted to convert to WAVs - surprise, surprise

So three years later and councillors refuse a WAV application. Again, surprise, surprise

But the Perth cap has been in place for decades, so chances of granting a new HC plate in the current financial climate pretty remote

www.taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... 5&p=380359

Who needs WAV's when the Volunteer wheel's brigade offer them "faux cheap" community transport which is usually more expensive than a WAV is....but hey ho, false perceptions count.

precisely I ran wav's for 15 years but in the end the only work I was getting was the 400 yard nursing home to hospital jobs the volunteer brigade didn't want and of course as much as I could handle xmas day when the volunteer brigade won't work !

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

It's a shame local authorities and other government bodies can't see that the volunteer brigade are both destroying many taxi jobs and also create a loss of tax revenue from the wages and profits from the professionals that should be doing the job, when it comes down to the facts the volunteer brigade is false economy for all, it creates no jobs in a time when every job should be seen as sacrosant.

Anyway, it's not about whether or not the applicant wants to run a WAV - he's already got three WAVs on PHV plates.

It's more about using the unmet demand for WAVs to get HC plates. He knows there's zero chance of a saloon HC plate, but because unmet demand for WAVs has been identified then he thinks that's a way in, but obviously the licensing committee thinks otherwise.

he does realise of course if you put a wav on a rank with saloons you've got no chance my record was 19 fares walking past me and getting in the cars behind until a little £2.20 fare did that and got told by the car behind to get in with me because he didn't want to pass up front rank for something so small

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

Yes, there's a degree of that here too, and that's one reason I prefer a saloon. Not that there are many WAVs, specifically, because we're all saloon plates, but about a third of the cars here are more than four seats. I think the public view the likes of Zafiras as cars, so less likely to walk past them, but the Transporters etc are more likely to be bypassed.

Couldn't see even a Transporter or Tourneo being bypassed here 19 times, though

I don't think it's as bad as that in Dundee either, where maybe half the cars are WAVs and half saloons.

But they're generally smaller WAVs like the Peugeot Partner or whatever it's called, and they had a lot of Doblos when the WAV plates were uncapped originally.

my last one was a transporter but the real problem was I was the ONLY wav the other companies had 8 seater (non wav) vehicles which came out at weekends


I remember once getting a booking from Heathrow to pick a family of 5 up travelling to a local village I picked them up but when I got there they refused to pay because two of them had had to travel backwards and they has assumed when they booked it was a non wav with all forward facing seats eventually they agreed to give me half the fare

99 percent of the travelling public hate rear facing seats in cars but seem to have no trouble with them on a train !

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