Taxi Driver Online

Excuse me if I'm being thick, but how many LA's license both PH and HC?

Well as no-one else has risen to the bait, I will.

They all do, apart from two or three that haven't any HCs.

In Scotland I think they can either license both or neither, but I don't think many don't license.

So it's basically the same as with you Sussex.

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Caledonian Cabbie

I just wondered, because I read something about quantity regulations for HC being lifted, one of the reasons being that customers were having to wait a long time for a cab. If they had to wait that long I can't understand why they didn't ring and book PH, so I though maybe some places were all HC. Next stupid question, why are PH not subject to quantity regulation?

Perhaps the point is that if there weren't quantity restrictions then there wouldn't be a PH sector in many areas, at least if only saloons were required for a HC license.

So the OFT are basically saying that people shouldn't have to phone for a PH if they want a HC, just to satisfy HC license holders.

Indeed, what the flawed 'unmet demand' test seems to do is push much demand into the PH market, so many locations end up with a tiny HC sector, but still manage to satisfy the unmet demand test - if people can't get a HC, then they phone for a PH, so if there's less HC demand as a consequence, and thus less chance of unmet HC demand.

Thus the test favours the status quo.

How else could the figures I posted recently be explained??

Slough 108,000 HC 66 PH 712
Reading 145,000 HC 138 PH 400
Dundee 150,000 HC 507 PH 130
Swindon 177,000 HC 138 PH 468

Dusty

Good question - it might be that historically, over-supply of HC has been evident on the streets, whereas the same issue has not been so much in evidence with PH, as they're sat outside PH offices or in side streets and suchlike.

So it's basically a case of 'out of sight, out if mind'.

There are occassional calls to limit PH, and this is the logical extension of the self-interest evidenced by HC license holders.

For example, some MPs signed an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons last year calling for PH to be numerically restricted.

The Scottish consultation last year also proposed this.

But the chances of either happening seem remote.

Dusty

Well it was because the laws that presently govern HCs, don't take PH into consideration.

So legally you can't have PH meeting HC demand.

The bit about people ringing for a HC/PH if the ranks are mobbed with people, doesn't take into consideration holiday makers and those who don't know a local number.

For the same reasons buses, trains, planes, rickshaws, coaches, trams etc etc aren't i.e. we live in the twenty first century, not the first.

If we restricted PH numbers, how would we access the amount needed?

The fact that the PH trade has grown to dwarf the HC trade, is because it is highly flexible in meeting any sudden increase in demand. The HC trade is quite awful at doing that.

By the time the HC trade get around to issuing more plates to meet any unmet demand, that demand has either gone, or increased. Seldom, if ever, do they get it right.

[quote="Anonymous"]Perhaps the point is that if there weren't quantity restrictions then there wouldn't be a PH sector in many areas, at least if only saloons were required for a HC license.


Now I'm really confused, where I come from only the so called "Black cabs" can have HC licence

Which is why it all needs sorting out.

Yes, so you'd probably have a significant PH sector with or without quantity controls.

But if your area only required saloons, then if there were not quantity controls then there'd probably be few PH.

Dusty

Alas that will be the norm in the next tens years or so.

Loads of really happy HC vehicle licensee's, to be found through-out the rural areas of the UK.

And just as many in the urban areas.

Alex

Our LA has not restricted HC numbers for many years. And any vehicle complying to the safety regulations can be plated. There is no statutory demand for WAVs, but the Council encourages and "leans on" there being enough WAVs among the larger operators to fullfill demand.

Thus, we have hardly any PH at all. The fact that we do still have two or three PH minibuses, is purely down to the fact that we can insure them cheaper than we can insure HC.

As this is a rural area however, most of our work comes in off the phone, and is technically therefore PH work, undertaken by Hackney's.

One could not generally make a living working the ranks in this area, without the phone work. Secondly, there are only two rank spaces in the Town Centre that are worth working from anyway, and these are usually blocked with private cars parking. Belonging to the best radio circuit is therefore advisable, unless you can live on your own contract work.

Our situation is very different from larger towns, where delimiting the HC plates will put extra pressure on the ranks and particularly those independant owner/drivers who rely on ranks and flag work and make little use of being on a radio circuit. Post OFT, one envisages there being considerably fewer PH as they swap over to HC plates. It would also appear that the radio circuit will become a more powerful influence on the HC trade.

Is this a good thing?

I think that de-limitation is a good thing. But, and its a big but, only if it comes with proper regulation from a qualitative point of view, ( and quality doesnt mean all WAV). My fears, are that people will take de-limitation to mean de-regulation. And that, could be a dangerous thing.

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There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

I think the rural HC trade, is similar to the urban PH trade in two ways.

Both take the majority of their work via the radio, and both help out with just a few jobs off the path.