BOARD MEMBER VEHICLE POLICIES FOR HACKNEY CARRIAGES?
hail a taxi in the street. Indeed, many hackney carriage drivers don’t even have radios or PDAs in their vehicles and therefore don’t accept bookings from the major operators. They rely almost exclusively on public hire to earn their living and are unlikely to encounter many wheelchair users at all.
Apart from the black cab being such an icon and the popular perception of disability, gesture politics is certainly also a major factor. This is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as:
“Any action by a person or organisation done for political reasons and intended to attract public attention but having little real effect.”
It certainly requires little effort to impose such an onerous burden on the trade with little benefit to the travelling public. The responsibility for meeting the needs of all users, with and without disability, including wheelchair-bound passengers should be shared by both private hire and hackney carriage vehicles alike. Hackneys are targeted by local authorities specifically as a kind of bribe: allow wheelchair-bound passengers access to your vehicles and we will allow you access to our taxi ranks, to flag-downs and to your own bookings without the need for an operator’s licence.
I also suspect that it is an indirect means of limiting the number of hackney carriages in areas where the number is delimited, at least officially.
It is effectively a blunt instrument and I think it is time for local authorities to stop using people with disability as a
political football. Other more fine-tuned options are available, including the licensing of smaller rear-loading converted WAVs, such as the Peugeot Partner, which costs about the same as a regular saloon car.
It has been said that loading a passenger via the rear doors is undignified. This is fanciful, especially when compared with wheeling someone up a ramp before tilting them back and rotating them 45 degrees, potentially hitting their head, shoulders or feet on the sides of the vehicle if they are especially tall. Loading someone through the rear doors, already facing forward, requires far less time and fuss which is preferable to most wheelchair users and drivers alike.
Differentiated age limits for newly licensed vehicles, with WAVs enjoying a more relaxed limit is another possible incentive.
Ideally we should be aiming for mixed fleets both for hackney carriage and private hire vehicles and the target for WAVs should be between 10 and 15 percent of hackneys or less if WAVs are also licensed as private hire vehicles.
There are growing campaigns by the trade for mixed hackney carriage fleets in parts of the country, notably in Sheffield and in Dudley.
I hear you guys and I support you!
Article by Steven Toy NPHTA Board Member Trade leader of Cannock Chase HC PH Liaison Group
A UNIFIED TRADE IS A POWERFUL VOICE! NOW MORE THAN EVER WE NEED TO STAND TOGETHER!!
0161 280 2800
info@nphta.co.uk JOIN THE NPHTA NOW!
DECEMBER 2021 31
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