Taxi Driver Online

Think this is a very similar issue to that raised in another thread, but since it will no doubt have a meaningless, nondescript and cryptic title, I can't be bothered looking for it

Anyway, reaction here is well over the top. For a start, he's claiming in the press that a lost weekend of work cost him £1,000

The rep is even worse - makes it sound like the council crushed his car by accident, or something like that

And what's the betting the 'legal action' doesn't actually happen? In fact, although it's mentioned in both the headline and strapline, the article itself is largely huffing and puffing, and barely a mention of legal action

Sabre-rattling, much?


Taxi driver taking legal action against Wakefield Council over licence plate ‘error’ which cost him £1,000

https://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news ... 00-4054401

A taxi driver is taking legal action over claims that a Wakefield Council licensing error left him unable to work.


Image: Wakefield Express

Cabbie Ishfaq Hussain said the mistake has left him up to £1000 out of pocket after he was issued with an out of date licence plate.

Mr Hussain made a successful application to the local authority to have his Hackney carriage licence renewed earlier this year.

The father-of-five said a new licence plate was posted to his home which had an expiry date of February 19, 2023.

Mr Hussain, 36, a driver based in Pontefract since 2017, said the plate was already four days out of date by the time he received it.

He said: “When I showed it to my operator they spotted the mistake and told me I couldn’t work until it got sorted.

“By then it was a Friday afternoon and I tried to ring the licensing office but couldn’t get through. It meant I couldn’t work over the weekend

“It was the last weekend of the month when a lot of people go out after getting paid. It’s a big weekend for lots of taxi drivers. I would have expected to have made between £800 and £1,000.”

Mr Hussain has now returned to work after being reissued with a new plate but said he has made a formal complaint against the council and is seeking legal action to recover lost income.

Mr Hussain, from Bingley, added: “I didn’t notice the mistake at first because you don’t expect mistakes like that to be made.

“The council are constantly saying to drivers that they expect us to be professional at all times. It’s only fair that we should be able to expect them to be professional too.

“It was a lot of money for me to lose and I will struggle to pay my mortgage this month.”

Mr Hussain later received an e-mail from the council’s licensing office stating: “As you have pointed out, the licence was issued with incorrect dates. This was a genuine mistake as a result of human error.

"Although we endeavour to minimise mistakes, the licensing office processes thousands of licences each year and, from time to time, small mistakes are inevitable.”

Yasar Ahmed, president of Wakefield Drivers Association, said: “The fact that Wakefield Council can dismiss their life-changing incompetence as “human error” simply highlights the dismissive nature and pure incompetence that taxi drivers have to face.

“No urgency or action was taken when notified. If we were to make a “human error” mistake, it would be a five-year ban for dishonesty.

“This is simply appalling and disingenuous to our profession.

“West Yorkshire Major Tracy Brabin called us the ‘fourth emergency service’.

“Wakefield Council treats us with discontent. We have had enough.”

Glynn Humphries, the council’s corporate director for communities, environment and climate change, said: “We are aware of the issue raised by the complainant and we are responding in line with our procedures.”


Image: Wakefield Express

Sorry, and no doubt it made things difficult for the driver. But if a weekend of lost work is 'life-changing' then, er...


'Contempt', presumably

I wonder how Mr Ahmed would get on if he was the one issuing the plates?

Surely another numerical error there?

I got given a license plate once with an error on the registration number BUT an hours wait in grotsville council offices and a new one was issued

could that not have been done in this case ?

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

How many councils issue a date specific plate every year? never knew that was a thing until out of town cars started working here, we are issued a hard plastic plate with just reg no, seating number and issuing council name and plate number when you put a car on and it stays on for the lifetime of the vehicle, change of vehicle? you get temp plates until they make the new ones which can take a couple of months.
Do agree the claim of the loss of earning maybe over the top, it wasn't long ago when cabbies were claiming they where only making 40-50 quid a shift.

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now a licensed hackney driver

As I said in the meaningless, nondescript and cryptic titled thread the fella is a numpty, and has no chance of getting that kind of cash, and could well be done for fraud if he legally attempts to get that amount.

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IDFIMH

FYI, Edders. Will save you reading the whole article

AGabbyCabby, we get a new dated plate in Fife when we renew our licence, and that can be either every one or three years

And because under the Scottish legislation we can apply at the last minute, and because it takes a few weeks to process it all and grant the renewed licence and issue the plate, plates can regularly be weeks or even months out of date

Previously, we also had undated plates specific to the vehicle that also lasted its lifetime as a plated vehicle.

I think Skippy once said the plates in his (Scottish Borders) area didn't have a registration number on it, thus could be transferred between cars...

More discussion here...

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=36367&p=405126#p405126

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=36537&p=406307#p406307

But I'd guess dated plates are the most normal scenario, but dated for the test rather than the licence expiry. We have the latter, which entails a trip to the council garage about half an hour away to get the new plate fitted. So can easily take a couple of hours, and that's when it's going smoothly...

This was a Friday afternoon (urgently trying to get the vehicle sorted for the weekend. You will NEVER get hold of council licensing by phone BUT turning up at the office to sort problems usually works !

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

The vehicle was licensed so it was irrelevant that a mistake had been made on the plate, I would have still worked the weekend and got a new plate on the Monday.

What has an operator got to do with a hackney carriage.

Heathcote, I agree, and a thing like that to my mind is the council's problem, not the driver's.

As long as he does all he reasonably can (which he did in view of the fact the council had gone home for the weekend) and isn't acting in bad faith, then can't see a problem about a minor administrative glitch.

On the other hand, the scenario outlined in another thread where a PHV driver was in error issued with an HC plate for a non-suitable vehicle, and has since taken advantage and has had a meter fitted and is working the ranks, seems to me the driver is acting in bad faith and exploiting an administrative error.

As for the Wakefield driver's operator, I assumed he works on a circuit, and he asked the operator for advice on what to do. And the operator didn't want to take the risk of a possible black mark against his name (wouldn't be surprised if he still insisted on his full settle, though ) so wouldn't give the driver work until the plate error was rectified.

If I was the driver, I'd have just worked the streets over the weekend

He should have worked the ranks, but the issue seems to be the operator wouldn’t give him work due to the dates not being correct.

In my view the operator should have got the ok from licensing, even taking into account the late time on a Friday.

They should have had a plan B and they didn’t.

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IDFIMH

If he is claiming a loss of £1000 in earnings for the weekend , i think the council lawyers will want to see his books.
That might shut him up.