Taxi Driver Online

The law please on, operating a mpv/minibus 7 passenger seats for H&R. I have found someone advertising a service just for airports in a manner which i wanted to but i didnt advertise myself as i believed i could be flouting the touting laws, I am PH. I contacted the guy to see if he had found a loophole and his reply was

"Hi Gary,actually we haven't started up as yet,just wanted to know if there was any interest out there for the airport runs.However,we have a local company that just do airports and they are not private hire ,the cars are not plated and when we enquired apparently if they took bookings two weeks in advance then they didn't have to be.They advertise in the yellow pages andin the local paper and have the monopoly .I wouldn't do anything that is illegal.I haven't done a single trip yet as i work as a rep for another company,if you can find out how this company can advertise and yet they are not taxi drivers,then i would love to know .I have a wedding business and we have one wedding car,the mini bus was just stood idle so thought of putting it to work .Kind regards ,Trevor. "

The firm are acting illegally, even if they used the 7 day exemption clause. Which thankfully will soon be gone.

If they are advertising then they are acting as operator's, and operator's aren't exempt from the act.

Because many council's don't know their bums from their elbows this lark has been allowed to flourish, it seems that many councils think ignorance is bliss.

That said, I would e-mail the LO in the area where the bloke advertising is based and ask the LO why he allows such an obvious breach of the law.

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IDFIMH

They need a licence and depending on the number of seats it will be either Private hire/Hackney carriage or PSV?

It doesn't matter if they advertise 12 months in advance they still need a license of some sort. Unless of course they have a contractual agreement to hire the vehicle for 7 days or more?

Whats the companies name?

Regards

JD

As well as a taxi I operate a merc as a chauffeur drive service which is not plated but I only operate 1 job a day and can do it legally under the one contract per 24 hour exemption.

Just make sure your insurance covers you and you charge enought to make one job per 24 hour worthwhile.

kevin

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

I assume your refering to PSV legislation and isn't there a requirement to operate a vehicle with more than 8 passenger seats? Would that be correct?

Regards

JD

No i'm not refereing to psv

the merc is a s350 and seats 4.

You'll find that in the exclusion clauses there's also the 24 hr exclusion in addition to the 7 day contracts.

kevin

Which act are you refering to?

Regards

JD

If your not referring to psv legislation then you must be referring to the 1976 act and section 75 D ii. This section refers to the displaying of plates on licensed private hire vehicles, it has nothing whatsover to do with running an unlicensed vehicle. Therefore if your vehicle is not licensed as private hire you are breakig the law.

7 5 Saving for certain vehicles etc (I) Nothing in this Part of this Act shall —

(d) "require the display of any plate, disc or notice in or on any private hire vehicle licensed by a council under this Part of this Act" during such period that such vehicle is used for carrying passengers for hire or reward—

(i) ...
(ii) under a contract for the hire of the vehicle for a period of not less than 24 hours.

Regards

JD

in light of the above posts, i have put the link to where i found the advert, for obvious reasons i didnt want to put initally as if this is a legit way of advertising airport work i wanted to get in, is it a legit method for a PH operator of going about getting work? lots of couriers are placing ads on ebay similar to this but this is the first for a cab, BTW it was found searching for airport transfers. Your views please


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/T-B-AIRSERVE-CHEA ... dZViewItem

The fact that he is only doing pick-ups gives the game away.

Maybe someone should inform ebay that he is acting illegally.

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IDFIMH

have had several messages with trevor ( the ebayer) and he is just looking i think i have pointed him in right direction ie; local aurthority licensing. and am now going to point him here, i dont think he is doing anything wrong as yet because he dosent know, it's the other party in his area that needs sorting out.

He is advertising for work, or as the act says making provision, without an operators license.

That's an illegal act, whether he knows or not.

Why on earth doesn't he get licensed, the motor looks fine?

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IDFIMH

from my side can i look for work in this manner, i am licensed PH and hold operators licence, or is it classed as touting for work

There is no law prohibiting you from advertising your services in any part of the country. Just remember that under P/H legislation all three of your licenses must be issued by the same licensing authority and they only apply in that authority.

Regards

JD