Taxi Driver Online

Not particularly interesting, but spot the clangers in the paragraph about the fees. Or at least something that's potentially confusing and should maybe be clarified


West Suffolk taxi drivers facing first fee and charge increase in seven years

https://www.suffolklive.com/news/suffol ... ng-7721412

The new fees will come into effect from April 2023

West Suffolk taxi drivers will face the first increase to fees and charges in seven years from next April. The district council's cabinet agreed to a set of higher costs at a meeting on October 18.

Combined driver’s fees for three years will increase from £206 to £308. Operator fees will stay the same – at £200 for up to and including three years and £301 over three years or for three vehicles. The council puts the increases down to its costs being higher, as a result of changes to national government guidance.

This includes Department for Transport expectations for taxi drivers to have DBS checks every six months rather than the previous three-year checks, and HM Revenue and Customs tax conditionality checks introduced in April.

Cllr Andy Drummond, the council’s Cabinet Member for Licensing and Regulatory, said: “Let’s be clear, this is not about generating additional income for the council. We are not allowed to do so by law, but we are looking to run a cost neutral service.

“By increasing these fees and charges, we are effectively asking the trade to cover the increased costs associated with granting licences. These increased costs include the checks that we have to do on their behalf to protect passenger safety and maintain public confidence in the taxi trade.

“Our priority is to ensure applications are processed in time and the appropriate checks are carried out. If there is any surplus income over a three-year period, it will be used to support the trade.”

A consultation with taxi drivers and operators between late June and the beginning of August on whether the changes are appropriate and legal returned four objections. Two objectors said passenger fares should increase first, which they did in late August. The proposals to increase fees and charges was included as part of the rationale to increase passenger fares. The main comments made by the remaining two objectors were that the fees were high and that the council should reduce the level of administration instead.

The three highlighted words are a bit ambiguous. No mention of badges or plates in the paragraph, so I thought the figures might be some kind of combined fee for a badge and plate.

But a previous article on the fees refers to "combined driver's licences", and the one word difference clarifies what it means - it's a dual-badge

Thought the vague wording in today's article might be the fault of the Suffolk Live website rather than the council, but in fact the official council page also uses the description 'Combined driver's fees', so basically it's the council's description that's a bit confusing.

On the other hand, the council page also specifically includes 'vehicle licence' fees (that are not mentioned above) so to that extent it might be deduced that 'Combined driver's fees' refers to a badge per se

But maybe that's the more obvious clanger - 'up to and including three years' should actually read 'up to and including three vehicles'??

But again this looks like the fault of the council rather than the Suffolk Live news site.

Won't bother with the actual figures, but under 'Operator's fees' the council says this:

https://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/news/pr221019ws01.cfm


So basically 1 and 4 don't actually exist as fees, and are just for comparison purposes

So only 2 and 3 actually exist as fees.

But I suspect 3 is just nonsense. Instead of saying 'Over three years, three vehicles', it should say 'Three years, over three vehicles'.

So basically they've got two operator's licence options - both for three year licences, but the first is for up to three cars, and the second is for more than three cars.

And the second part of this is also nonsense:


That should be 'for three years and over three vehicles'??

Or at least that's my best bet to explain the confusion. Please send any other suggestions by postcard

Anyway, the one-year plates are going up 20-30 per cent, and badges up around 50 per cent

But given that it's the first rise in seven years, and that even the new fees aren't exactly off the scale, then I suppose it could be worse.

The new fees are £188 for a one-year PHV plate, and £209 for a one-year HC plate.

The dual badges will cost £308 for three years, so not the worst in the country by any means

How much extra work is the 6 monthly DBS check?

Two minutes to check online?

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IDFIMH

Cannot understand how a Council can claim costs have gone up for 2 what can be called adjustments to a fit and proper person.

These adjustments are not costing the Council anything, licensees have to pay and do the work of obtaining or giving permission for Councils to access the information.
Officers would still have to be payed whether these adjustments were in place or not, where does the additional costs for Councils requiring fees to be increased come from.

Councils have to account for the time officers take on performing a task, especially where taxi licensing is involved because the costs are ring fenced. If an officer has to spend 5 minutes checking a drivers DBS twice a year instead of once every 3 years that is an additional cost. However it is not just the 5 minutes because they have also probably had to send out email reminders to the drivers and then check the replies before they can spend the 5 minutes doing the check. The same for driving license checks and tax checks. It all adds up.

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Grandad,

No reminders go to drivers for the online DBS checks.

The council doesn't have to do anything in respect of the new tax checks. It's the same as insurance if the driver hasn't got it he doesn't get relicensed.

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IDFIMH