Taxi Driver Online

With regard to Private Hire I have a letter from Pippa Brown at the DfT whom I wrote to confirm their view on PHV cross-border problems.
It states:-
" the law as stated in Dittah and Choudhry v Birmingham CC (1993) ........ is still good law. Our view remains as explained in the extract from the Department's letter......cited in the judgment...... namely that a PHV Operator requires a licence from the area in which he intends to operate, and may only use vehicles and drivers licensed in the same area.

This means an Adur PHV car/driver cannot work for an Operator licensed by B&H. And if the operator has an operators licence issued by Adur as well as a B&H operators licence but has his operation in B&H then he should be prosecuted by B&H for using the Adur drivers/cars because the Adur Operators licence has no standing.

_________________
Our safety is Paramount

A source of mine says that has happened.

But there is still debate over direct lines.

_________________
IDFIMH

Do you mean the operator has been prosecuted by B&H?

I may be being thick but I don't understand your reference to direct lines.
Can you enlighten me?

_________________
Our safety is Paramount

Oh yes.

_________________
IDFIMH

A direct line is viewed, by many, as being an extention of your office i.e. it doesn't go through an exchange.

So if an operator picks up the phone in area B, where they don't have a license, as long as that call went via their office in area A, where they do have a license, then IMO no offence is committed.

So you could have a senario such as the one you have, and in my view it's legal.

_________________
IDFIMH

Sorry, I was being thick, I was posting after having just gone to Stockport and back so my brain was a bit slow.
Couldn't agree more though, it's not where the passenger is that's important, it's where the PHV office is that is the determining factor.
Doesn't matter if the booking is made by mobile phone or direct line ( as in Ditta & Choudhry ) or even by smoke signals (though this hasn't been tested in court ! ).

_________________
Our safety is Paramount

I agree with that, but I also add that in the direct line case it may not matter where the booking is taken.

And that really is a p**ser.

_________________
IDFIMH

Perhaps you can enlighten us as to What's so good about it?

Is it the fact that Mr TS was completely out of his depth or the fact that his prediction fell flat on its face?

I see Newcastle eventually took the action I predicted, how uncanny?

Regards

JD

_________________
Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.