Taxi Driver Online

Came across this via Taxi Point

And nothing obvious here to suggest the drivers were doing anything wrong - I mean, what does 'parked without bookings' actually amount to? That's the phrase used in the official council papers.

If they mean plying for hire, then presumably an official council report would specifically say that?

Kind of reminds me of that stuff from Cornwall last week, where the driver claimed PHDs had to go home between bookings

Of course, that was a grassroots driver, but surely council officials shouldn't be so vague. And Taxi Point just parrots the phrase, and the closest it comes to an alternative view is saying right at the end that "enforcement concerns can arise when vehicles wait locally without confirmed bookings."


Mansfield District Council reported ten private hire drivers out-of-area to licensing authorities after officers found them parked without bookings

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/mansf ... ties-after

Ten private hire drivers have been reported to their respective licensing authorities following an enforcement operation in Mansfield.

Mansfield District Council said the drivers were found parked without bookings during an evening worked by its licensing team between April and August 2026.

Private hire drivers can only carry passengers through pre-booked journeys and cannot wait for customers showing their availability in the same way as licensed hackney carriages. The council’s report did not disclose where the vehicles were licensed or identify the locations where they were found.

Each driver was subsequently dealt with through either a warning or advice issued by the authority responsible for their licence. No further sanctions were reported.

The operation forms part of continuing efforts by licensing authorities to manage cross-border private hire activity. Drivers and vehicles licensed by one council can legally undertake pre-booked work in another area, but enforcement concerns can arise when vehicles wait locally without confirmed bookings.[...]

You mean, specifically, that PHDs can't ply for hire?

But that's different from simply being 'parked without bookings'.

I mean, how many tens of thousands of cross-border cars can be 'parked without bookings' at any one time?

Are they all going to be reported to their licensing authority?

And that's all the official papers say about the matter, as far as I can see (para 3.13):

https://mansfield.moderngov.co.uk/docum ... Report.pdf

On second thoughts, the official Mansfield papers don't say that the drivers were specifially PHDs, correct me if I'm wrong

It simply says they were 'drivers', and the allusion is that they were cross-border because they were "reported to different Licensing Authorities for being parked without a booking."

And: "All drivers have been dealt with by way of a warning or advice by their respective Licensing Authority."

So maybe it's a mere assumption by Taxi Point. Or maybe, you know, one of those AI 'hallucinations'

I mean, the reproted drivers could have been HCDs. In which case if they're 'parked without a booking' then that's prima facie evidence they're plying for hire. Unlike in the case of a PHD

Another non-story by LOs trying to justify their jobs to councillors.

Nothing wrong with advising drivers not working in their local area, and maybe the odd warning of what could happen should they ignore that advice.

But if they were doing anything wrong, then they would have had enforcement action taken against them, which clearly didn't happen.

Thus, they were doing diddly squat wrong.

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