DEREG DILEMMA TAXI QUOTA LIMIT IN HARBOROUGH IS QUERIED
An independent taxi driver says a proposed council motion to put a limit on the number of cab licences issued in Harborough is unfair and will favour the larger firms.
Andrew Johnson, from Harborough, heard about the proposal last month after getting a letter from the coun- cil’s licensing and enforcement team. There are 173 licensed drivers in the district and 135 licensed taxi vehicles but the council has put out a consulta- tion paper to the taxi trade asking for views on a possible quota system. No suggested maximum limit has yet been put forward. Mr Johnson says the quota system will stifle
competition and he feels there is a need for more taxis in the area, not fewer. However, the Mail spoke to other taxi companies in town which said a limit is needed as the market is over-saturated. The council has asked for cabbies’ views after the Harborough Taxi Forum, which reg- ularly meets with the council’s licensing team, raised a number of concerns.
It put to the council that “hackney car- riages were chasing too little work” and that there was “a decline in demand for taxis”. Dave Facer, who runs town taxi firm Kwik Cabs and who has been in the Harbor-
ough taxi trade for 11 years, said one of the key problems was the lack of taxi rank space around Harborough. He added: “I’ve never known the problem to be as bad as it is at this moment in time, especially on the weekends.”
A spokesman for the council told the Harbor- ough Mail: ‘The council consulting with taxi companies to find out if they are for or against restricting the number of hackney carriages in Harborough.
“This is an opportunity for taxi companies to have their say in whether they think there should be a restriction on the number of hack- ney carriages in Harborough.”
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CAB LICENCE FREEZE TAKES PRESSURE OFF READING CABBIES
Hard up cabbies have backed the council’s decision to impose a further freeze on new taxi licences in Read- ing.
The limit was intro- duced last March after drivers complained there was no more room on the ranks. And last month coun- cillors voted to extend the freeze until a fur- ther review in 2012 - but warned they could issue more plates before that if the situa- tion improved.
They also fell short of agreeing to drivers’ calls for a set three- year cap on numbers. The decision followed a Government study to assess the level of demand for taxis in the borough.
There are currently 214 hackney carriage drivers in Reading - up more than 40 per cent in the last two years. Paul Beecham, who co-ordinated the sur- vey, told the licensing application committee there was no unmet demand in Reading. Tahir Abdullah, acting chairman of Reading Cab Drivers’ Associa- tion, told the meeting the economic down- turn had hit the taxi business hard.
“Right now we are just about managing,” he told the Reading Post. “There are huge prob- lems because we have way too many cabs in Reading.”
Cllr Jamie Chowdhary agreed. “Clearly it is difficult times out
there,” he said.
“This will take the pressure off and give them commitment to allow their invest- ments to be paid off.” Keith Johnson, chair- man of Reading Taxi Association, backed the move but had hoped for a three-year limit to give drivers some “stability”. “Three years would give drivers a chance to pay off the crippling debt of purchasing a new vehicle, and encourage others to upgrade their vehicle. It would give us a chance to breathe.” However Cllr Deborah Edwards commented: “I’m concerned that if we gave three years then the business would stagnate.”
‘TOO MANY’ SWINDON DRIVERS
Taxi drivers have blamed an overcrowd- ed industry for the town’s overworked and sometimes drowsy cabbies. The comments follow the report of a private hire driver who fell asleep at the wheel of his car, killing his pas- senger.
The incident occurred on October 19 last year when the vehicle smashed into a tree. The driver, Shehzad Akbar, 33, was sen- tenced in his absence, and is suspected to have fled to Pakistan. Now drivers have said that passengers’ lives are being put at risk because cabbies are working double shifts to make up for higher petrol prices and fewer customers. They also said that since the industry was deregulated in 2006 cabs have flooded the town’s roads.
The council said there are 676 private hire licensees in town.
Meanwhile the number of black cabs in Swin- don has jumped from 138 in 2006 to 159. Speaking anonymously a 45-year-old black cab driver, who has worked as a driver for ten years, told the Swindon Evening Advertiser: “It has become very bad since the recession. There are too many PHVs and black cabs on the roads. “We are all struggling, there are too many cars, not enough busi- ness and petrol is much more expensive. Put that all together and you have a problem. “People’s lives are being put at risk by these guys who are working 12-hour shifts, that’s clearly not safe.” Another 63-year-old, from Stratton, who asked not to be named and who has been driving a taxi in Swindon for 20 years, said taxi queues had grown a great deal around town.
He said: “Numbers
started piling up in 2006.
“I come in at 7am usu- ally and I know there are drivers in before me and working until at least 10pm, and that is both black cabs and PHVs.”
Mike Wykeham-Martin, of the Swindon Private Hire Drivers’ Associa- tion, said the body had asked the council for help on the issue. But a council spokes- man said it was not allowed to restrict the number of cabs. He said: “The legal change followed a 2003 report from the Office of Fair Trading which found that restricting taxi num- bers led to a poorer service for the public, increased waiting times, and encour- aged illegal unlicensed taxis to fill the gap.” He added that there was Government leg- islation on driving hours for lorry, train and bus drivers but not cabbies.
PHTM APRIL 2010
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