gecouk wrote:
To clarify what is being said by our LO,
When a job is booked the contract is with the company. The company is therefore liable under section 143 that the vehicle has the relevant insurance to carry out the job, and is therefore also liable for prosecution if it is not. I personally do not agree with his interpretation of section 143. Because of this we are being made to keep records of all Drivers insurance details which I believe is the LO's job.
This according to the LO is incase they catch an uninsured vehicle on our fleet we can prove to a court that we took reasonable precautions to ensure all vehicles were legal and we should not be prosecuted.
Perhaps the company might have a case against the council for licensing a private hire vehicle in the first place that doesn't have insurance cover? However the council is right to apply a condition that places an onus on private hire operators to make sure vehicles they operate have upto date insurance cover.
In respect of hackney carriages and considering Hackney carriage drivers do not have private hire operators then I wonder what your LO's reasoning would be in this scenario?
Regards
JD