Taxi Driver Online

Operation takes unroadworthy taxis off the road

https://www.oldham.gov.uk/news/article/ ... f_the_road

A cabbie was arrested for drug driving during a recent enforcement operation aimed at making sure taxis and drivers operating in the borough are safe.

Licensing officers from Oldham Council, joined colleagues from the Greater Manchester Police Traffic unit, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and the Department for Work and Pensions on the night of action.

Officers from the City of Wolverhampton Council also took part because a number of private hire vehicles licensed in the Midlands are known to trade in Oldham, and surrounding towns.

In total, 26 private hire and hackney vehicles were pulled over by officers and taken to the council’s Moorhey Street depot so they could be checked over by trained mechanics to see if they were safe and roadworthy.

Of the vehicles stopped, 13 were immediately taken off the road for a variety of reasons, including cracked windscreens, balding tyres and faulty lights.

Of the 17 vehicles checked that had Oldham plates, five were taken off the road. Eight of the nine City of Wolverhampton licenced vehicles were found to have faults.

The cars cannot be used to pick up passengers until the faults have been fixed.

Licensing staff also carried out checks on the drivers to ensure all their paperwork was in order.

The arrested cabbie, whose hackney carriage driver licence had expired days before, now faces losing his licences all together and gaining a criminal record.

Councillor Elaine Taylor, Deputy Leader of Oldham Council and Cabinet Member for Housing and Licensing, said: “Taxi drivers provide a great local service.

“A lot of people rely on them every day and they are a huge support to the night time economy.

“However, no one should be driving who isn’t licensed or is unsafe to get behind the wheel. They are potentially putting the lives of their passengers, other road users and pedestrians at risk.

“The same goes for their vehicle. If they aren’t up to standard, then they should not be on the road.

“We’ll continue to work with the trade and take action to ensure drivers and taxis that operate in Oldham are safe.”

Councillor Craig Collingswood, City of Wolverhampton Council Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, said: “Public Safety is of paramount importance to us.

“Partnership working with our Licensing colleagues and other agencies shows our commitment to upholding our responsibilities; we expect drivers and vehicles licensed by us to always maintain the highest standards. This is irrespective of the administrative boundary within which they are operating at any particular time.

“City of Wolverhampton Council takes its enforcement responsibilities seriously and our officers are out across the country, every Friday and Saturday night, working to protect the public.”

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IDFIMH

So at that rate of 9 cars checked a week, it should only take 47 years to check the fleet you license.

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IDFIMH

if you live a hundred miles from where you are licensed of course you think you are safe from being checked.

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

Well with a one in 2,444 chance of being stopped, that's not really that surprising.

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IDFIMH

Picked up an older couple last night, and they asked if we had Uber in St Andrews.

I said no, but got talking about 'taxis' and the like (I'm really quite a shy and retiring type, but when I start wittering on I can't stop )

They said they lived in the Oldham Council area, and I mentioned Wolves-plated cars working all over the country, and although they seemed fairly switched on, they said they were unaware of all that. I said that, for example, I'd just been reading about an enforcement operation involving cross-border Wolverhampton cars, but couldn't remember where it was.

Got home and looked on here, and realised it was in, er, the Oldham council area

Also said to them that I'd recalled reading about quite a serious incident involving a driver in the Oldham area, but couldn't remember the details.

But when I looked it up, it was the *Uber* driver working in Oldham, who was murdered by the two scrotes over the address mix-up (or was it an argument about eating in the car?)

Funny thing, though, is that the couple said they'd never heard of any serious incidents involving drivers in the Oldham area...

Which I kind of don't get, but I suppose it's a bit like that many in Dundee wouldn't be aware of the driver killed over a cigarette last year, which in fact I'd guess tens of thousands of people in Dundee wouldn't have a scooby about

either they don't read the local rags or they only look at the hatched,matched and dispatched section or they only watch BBC news in which case they would have no idea of what's going on in the world locally,nationally or internationally

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

Edders, it's amazing how out of the loop we can all be. For example, when I was about 30 (ie about half my current age), I was a big Celtic fan, watched a lot of TV (bit of a soap addict in fact ) and got stupidly drunk at weekends.

If you'd told me back then that a couple of decades later I'd have gone nearly a decade without alcohol, hadn't owned a TV for several years and couldn't name one current Celtic player, the I simply wouldn't have believed you

It's a bit like when people get into your car and ask if you'd been watching the match earlier, and I'm thinking, 'what match'?

At least if they say something like "What did you think of the Scotland match", I can kind of pretend I knew about it, but in reality didn't have a clue it was even happening

So I suppose that a couple from Oldham didn't know about a taxi driver from Oldham being murdered doesn't really surprise me