Taxi Driver Online

Not sure what this is all about, precisely, but I suspect it's more about simply not being able to get drivers these days rather than the delays and suchlike the operator here is moaning about, although the latter obviously won't help


Taxi drivers in Oxford accuse council of being 'unfair'

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23018 ... il-unfair/

TAXI drivers have accused the council of being ‘unfair and unjust’ against them leading to Abingdon having a lack of drivers.

Gazeka Khan, director of private taxi company Her Ride in Oxford, said she wanted to raise awareness of South Oxfordshire District Council ‘penalising and discriminating’ against drivers.

She said officers ‘rush’ to revoke or suspend taxi badges and vehicle licenses leading to the ‘people of Abingdon and Didcot struggling as they aren't enough drivers’ as well as drivers ‘struggling to get existing drivers taxi and vehicle badges renewed in a reasonably timeframe’.

“I have been witnessing this since the start of the pandemic,” she said. “During which they changed and implemented new policies with minimum consultation and made little effort to pass this onto drivers resulting in many losing their licenses.

“It isn't the job of the district council taxi licensing to catch drivers out but to work together with them as both parties should work in unison.

“There is a serious breakdown in relationship between the two, resulting in drivers leaving the profession and loss of earnings which during these trying times isn't something an office of the council should be part taking in.”

Taxi driver Kaiser Shah had to wait five weeks for licencing renewal when it is ‘supposed to take three to five days’.

Another driver, Murali Gunarajah, faced delays due to needing a DBS check from India despite moving to Sri Lanka as a teenager and giving up his Indian citizenship.

Miss Khan said: “Are they trying to make life more tricky for their taxi drivers? The taxi licensing team are still not answering their phone calls whilst most others do and most of their officers are still working from home.

“This is a downfall of the public office and this team needs to be bought to account as they have caused havoc within the industry.

“We are struggling to recruit drivers and this team is not doing anything to assist.”

A spokesperson for Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire District Councils said: “The councils refute any suggestion that licensing officers are acting improperly.

“All decisions, including revocation or suspension of taxi licences are carefully considered, taking into account all of the information available.

“The councils aim to process applications within three weeks of receipt but cannot guarantee timescales as there are a number of factors which may influence this such as availability of staff and the number of applications.

“As such, the councils remind applicants to apply well in advance of their licence renewal - at least six weeks before or 12 weeks when they need a new Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.”

Good example there - makes it sound like his history should make it easier to get a DBS check.

No, me neither

Typical of many, but not all, moaning about this that and the other when it comes to driver shortages.

But the fact of the matter is that prospective drivers now have many more options available to them. Most of them more better paid, and nearly all of them better hours.

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IDFIMH

Yes, and sure I recall looking at this firm and its website previously in relation to similar stuff, but can't find it now.

Anyway, what's not wholly clear from the article is that Her Ride is a Pink Ladies-style operation for women passengers only. Or at least I think that was the intention, so although one page says they're only recruiting female drivers, the homepage actually says: "We are focused on recruiting both male and female drivers to meet the needs of our customers."

So I'd guess that they've always had problems recruiting sufficient drivers, so they compromised to a degree and took on some male drivers.

But, like the slightly unusual firm in Hertfordshire, lockdown has simply made it even more difficult to recruit to their niche operations than the mainstream trade

https://www.herride.co.uk/index