Taxi Driver Online

Another council effectively recruiting for the trade

But £250 per day contracts up for grabs?

When do I start?

Maybe the problem is that it's more difficult to complete the contracting process than to actually get a badge


Wiltshire Council is encouraging people to become a taxi driver in Wiltshire

https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/news/wilts ... -wiltshire

Wiltshire Council has lots of contracts available which start at around £30 a day for short routes, increasing to £250+ a day for longer routes

Taxis are an essential part of our transport network providing a valuable service to the local community and in Wiltshire there is a shortage of taxi drivers.

Not only are taxi drivers needed by the community, but Wiltshire Council also needs reliable drivers to fulfil its growing number of SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) school and social care contracts. These contracts offer regular work and hours. They also help and support some of the most vulnerable people in Wiltshire.

Cllr Dr Mark McClelland, Cabinet Member for Transport said: "The council is committed to delivering contracts across our services which deliver the best value for money. Wiltshire needs a workforce with the right skills to prosper and more taxi drivers would help the council deliver our commitment to ensure young people get the best start in life.

"Being a taxi driver is a flexible job and they can either work for a taxi company or be their own boss, deciding when and where they want to work. Local taxi firms currently have lots of vacancies and we are carrying out a recruitment campaign on behalf of the taxi trade across the county.

"It's easy to become a licensed taxi driver and once people have become a licensed driver, we hope that they will bid for one of the growing number of SEND school transport and social care contracts that we have available. There are plenty of opportunities and plenty of work available."

Wiltshire Council has lots of contracts available which start at around £30 a day for short routes, increasing to £250+ a day for longer routes. Drivers are free to combine these contracts with rank work.

To become a taxi driver takes around six weeks and costs around £400. To be licensed people need to provide proof and undertake these simple checks:

• Proof of Identity
• Driving Licence held
• Enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check on previous convictions and whether disbarred from working with children
• Right to Work in the UK
• Medical (if applicable)
• Undertake on-line Safeguarding Training
• Take a guidelines test
• Knowledge test (if applying for a hackney carriage licence)

Find out more about becoming a taxi driver, how to licence a vehicle as a taxi, private hire or hackney carriage vehicle, and for an application pack visit our taxis information page on our website.

To find out about our SEND school transport and social care contracts and how to bid for one, email Wiltshire Council's Passenger Transport Unit passengertransport@wiltshire.gov.uk.

To find out about our SEND school transport and social care contracts and how to bid for one, email Wiltshire Council's Passenger Transport Unit passengertransport@wiltshire.gov.uk.


all you need is a cheap B & B and the patience of Job to tackle the A303

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

A good mate of mine does a small but very lucrative contract for a government agency.

I've had to help him a number of times fill in the Gov.UK tendering documents and they are a nightmare.

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IDFIMH

Not enough taxis to take special needs children to school

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/new ... en-school/

Wiltshire Council does not have enough taxis to take some special needs children to school, according to a new council report.

The shortage means some pupils have had their timetables reduced and the Council is paying other parents to take the children in said Cabinet Member for Transport Dr Mark McClelland, commenting on the report.

This follows a national fall in the numbers of taxi drivers and vehicles according to the report on Wiltshire taxi licences to be discussed by the Licensing Committee on December 5.

The report says: “The Passenger Transport Unit have advised they are struggling to fulfil all of their SEND [special educational needs and disabilities] school contracts due to a lack of drivers and vehicles.”

Cllr McClelland said: “We have had to put temporary arrangements in place such as doubling up on runs, reduced pupil timetables or paying parents to take them.”

He added: “In Wiltshire there was a shortage of taxi drivers to fulfil our SEND school contracts before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic hit the taxi industry very hard, and all local authorities have seen reducing driver numbers due to drivers switching to doing other driving and delivery jobs.”

However, he said: “We launched a recruitment campaign to support local taxi companies who were struggling to recruit drivers and to increase the number of licenced taxi drivers that could bid for our contracts.

“The recruitment campaign was successful in encouraging more applications and the number of new applicants has now recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

“The results of this are starting to feed through and we currently only have a small number of SEND school transport contracts unfilled.”

But even though the number of new applicants is back to pre-pandemic levels the report says the industry has still not recovered from the impact of Covid because older drivers keep leaving.

It says: “Whilst new applications are up overall driver levels remain flat as older drivers continue to leave the industry.”

“The current economic position within the UK may result in a recovery in the taxi industry taking longer than expected, if indeed it ever returns to pre-pandemic levels.”

Cllr McClelland added: “Demand for Send school transport continues to grow, so we are still keen to recruit more taxi drivers and to hear from drivers who would like to apply for our contracts.

“People can find out more and apply by visiting our website here.”

Obviously one of these types who think that if you're driving a taxi then you're only capable of doing other driving jobs...


... or they might have actually retired. The ba$tards

But who'd have expected that taxi drivers might retire at some point or other?

Council doesn't have enough taxis to take SEND children to school

https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news ... en-school/

Wiltshire Council is planning to buy more taxis for children with special needs and disabilities.

There has been a reported shortage of taxis for taking SEND children to school since November last year - but the council is now planning to buy more.

Cabinet member for transport Caroline Thomas said: “Unfortunately there are currently insufficient taxi drivers to meet all of our SEND home to school transport commitments.

“To address this, we are providing additional vehicles and employing drivers directly to operate them.

“This will enable us to provide our statutory duty to provide free home to school transport for those who are entitled.”

Head of passeneger transport Jason Salter was recorded in the minutes of a meeting of Wiltshire Council in December as saying: “There are currently five to six students without transport to education settings due to a lack of drivers/licenced vehicles.

“There were also as number of parents receiving a rate of pay to transport their own children to school that are entitled to free transport.”

The minutes add: “Jason Salter reported that they were looking at a blend of different things to help including buying larger vehicles that could carry eight passengers as that would release the capacity from smaller taxis.

“There were a large number of taxis that were currently only transporting only one person and they would look into this further to see if there was an opportunity to offer parents to transport their child which would release those taxis back into the market.”

This follows a national fall in the numbers of taxi drivers and vehicles.

Previously the council said it would put temporary measures in to solve the problem.

On December 5 the now-former cabinet member for transport Cllr Dr Mark McClelland said in a statement: “We have had to put temporary arrangements in place such as doubling up on runs, reduced pupil timetables or paying parents to take them.

“In Wiltshire there was a shortage of taxi drivers to fulfil our SEND school contracts before the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic hit the taxi industry very hard, and all local authorities have seen reducing driver numbers due to drivers switching to doing other driving and delivery jobs.”

But he added: “We launched a recruitment campaign to support local taxi companies.

“The results of this are starting to feed through and we currently only have a small number of SEND school transport contracts unfilled.”

I doubt repeated press articles will help the only way they'll recruit enough drivers is to offer to provide council owned and insured vehicles a good PAYE wage and civil service/council pensions !

There would be no shortage of drivers then

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector