Taxi Driver Online

Don't know how I missed this on TaxiPoint at the time, but an actual article about spotchecks in my own backyard

And a photo from one of our four ranks in the St Andrews area (out at our station at Leuchars), although the operation covered all the Fife zones

And it's not good news either



And, funnily enough, I don't think this was publicised locally, and the source seems to have been a UK-wide Facebook page dealing with road policing matters. And the post is very brief, and TaxiPoint's rehash is quite straight bat

But maybe the reason it wasn't publicised locally is because the results don't really fit the usual narrative


https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 4176393359


TWELVE taxi licence plates removed during Fife taxi check operation

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/twelv ... -operation

Fife Roads Police, in collaboration with Fife Council Enforcement Officers, conducted a three-day taxi compliance operation as part of the National Taxi Education and Enforcement Campaign.

The initiative, which ran from 28 to 30 November, resulted in 68 taxis being inspected. Officers identified 47 offences and vehicle defects during the checks.

Following the findings, 12 yellow taxi plates were removed, effectively taking those vehicles off the road.

The campaign aims to ensure taxi operators meet safety and licensing standards while maintaining public confidence in the industry.

A Roads Policing Scotland spokesperson said: “Between 28/11/2024 & 30/11/2024 Fife Roads Police along with Fife Council Enforcement Officer carried out taxi checks as part of the National Taxi Education & Enforcement Campaign.

“68 taxis were checked, 47 offences/defects found and removal of 12 yellow taxi plates.”

So where to start with this lot?

But, for a change, I've got access to what might be called the raw data for all this

I'm going to try to analyse the '47 offences/defects', but maybe later on. But not sure there were actually ANY offences insofar as I'm not sure there were any charges, prosecutions, FPNs or whatever, so to that extent the word 'offence' is maybe overegging things for a start.

And I suspect a lot of the other 47, er, thingies were simply not displaying badges - off the top of my head I suspect at least a quarter of the 47 were just badges not on display.

Anyway, in the meantime, nice of traffic police to set a good example by sitting in the area clearly marked 'BUSES & TAXIS ONLY'. But which is possibly why just about everyone ignores it anyway

(In the photo, they must be alongside the front car in the view below.)

https://www.google.com/maps/@56.3756347 ... FQAw%3D%3D

And why have they left their headlights on while the car is unoccupied? Possibly an element of dazzle for cars exiting the car park here :

https://www.google.com/maps/@56.3759864 ... FQAw%3D%3D

(The photo looks like there's some sort of effects or filtering going on, but other than that it looks like a genuine photo, presumably.)

So here's a really funny thing (or tragic, depending on how you view these things), but you know those Fife zones that have regularly been getting 99/100% pass rates during the annual on-ramp inspections?

Here's how they did in the on-street spotchecks:


Glenrothes and Cowdenbeath - 31% of cars/drivers got clean bill of health

Kirkcaldy and Leven - 22% of cars/drivers got clean bill of health

And, surprise, surprise, in our East zone (normally the black sheep of the family) we did a wee bit better with 36% of cars/drivers getting a clean bill of health

Actually, West Fife/Dunfermline did best with 88% getting a clean bill of health

Best bit is that in the Glenrothes area checks (you know, where they can inspect 100 or so cars during the on-ramp annual inspections and not find one single fault), during the on-street checks 9 out of 13 drivers checked didn't have their badge on display, and were given verbal warnings

But, of course, cars aren't drivers, and plateholders aren't badgeholders

That must explain the huge disconnect between the hugely scrupulous plateholders, as compared to the sloppy approach of badgeholders

Still haven't attempted my full analysis yet, and it's maybe a tad trickier than it sounds to get the detail bang on. Or that's my excuse

But there was actually one PH plate removed as well, but it's not clear whether that's included in the 12 'yellow taxi plates' mentioned above. But our PHC plates are white.

Likewise, it's impossible to tell how many of the cars checked were actually PH, but all but one of the plates removed were from HCs/taxis (looks like the t-word is used generically in the analysis, so difficult to tell whether the cars actually checked were HC or PH).

But I wouldn't be surprised if the vast majority of cars checked were actually HC, and PH hugely unrepresented in the overall numbers

Probably because they mainly used the ranks to locate the cars to be checked.

And maybe also because our PHCs in Fife are very anonymous - apart from a smallish white rear plate, and a front window plate, our PHCs are totally unmarked