Sussex wrote:
"the business has been hit by "outdated" laws forcing the vehicles to operate under a bus licence", executive director Dominic Ponniah said last night.
The company will give up its right to run the rickshaws at a public inquiry on Tuesday when the Traffic Commissioner will consider whether the firm breached its licence last year.
Mr Ponniah said: "Unfortunately, it is felt by the company's management that the archaic legislation under which we are governed is no longer appropriate to operate under. "We will be attending the public inquiry next week and will resign our operator's licence with immediate effect."
Mr Ponniah said the bus licence under which he had run the service was inappropriate for tuk-tuks as it was too rigid and the potential for further fines too great. He added that it was impossible to secure enough taxi permits to run a profitable business.
He is now calling for a change to the law which would allow motorised rickshaws to operate as a cab but in a limited area. He said: "We have been pioneering and we haven't had the experience of other people running a similar service. "We were trying to stretch the legislation to fit us. We tried and to that extent we failed."
The firm will look at whether a new policy being drawn up for pedicabs in London can be extended to tuk-tuks. Plans for a service for the Edinburgh Festival and operations abroad, including in Estonia, are also being looked at.
Mr Ponniah said: "It is with great sadness that we will not be re-opening our Brighton and Hove service, at least for the foreseeable future. "As a company, we now wish to focus our attention on setting up services in other cities and countries, with more flexible and sensible licensing regimes."
The tuk-tuks have faced stiff opposition from taxis in Brighton and Hove who have complained the vehicles were not sticking to the bus licence and put passengers at risk.
Mr Ponniah has learn't a valuable lesson in that you can't always bend the law to suit your own business model and that it is you who has to abide by the law and not the other way around.
We were all aware how Mr Ponniah wanted to operate these vehicles and from the outset we pointed out what must be done in order to make sure that he didn't operate these vehicles in any way that was incompatible with his contract. That meant running a bus service and keeping to timetables.
It appears to me that the Brighton Taxi trade were the only ones that monitored this company and reported any infringements of license. It just goes to show that if you want anything done regarding enforcement of vehicles operating under PSV legislation then for the most part you have to do it yourself, otherwise it doesn't get done.
I congratulate the Brighton hackney and private hire trade on keeping the Traffic Commissioner informed of the breaches of licenses committed by this company.
I think other areas could learn a valuable lesson from the Brighton Taxi Trade in respect of vehicles operating under a PSV license but who break the law by using their vehicles as private hire vehicles. However Brighton had the will and know how to see this through, I suspect many others lack that determination
Regards
JD
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