NORTHERN IRELAND NEWS
DEPARTMENT FOR INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORT DOES LITTLE TO ADDRESS TAXI SECTOR ISSUES
The pandemic has had the same negative effect on driver numbers in Northern Ireland as it has across the rest of the UK with drivers taking alternative employ- ment, retiring early, or letting licences expire because they couldn’t afford to keep themselves and their cars on the road.
In NI this has however made an already bad situation worse with driver numbers already on a downward spiral since the introduction of new driver testing at the end of 2014. The sector, which boasted 15,500 licensed drivers in 2013 had reduced to 8500 by Q1 2021. It is believed that the number of drivers actually working at present could be as low as 5,500 with the majority of operators surveyed suggesting a loss in numbers of between 30% and 50% compared to pre pandemic.
Reasons offered for this vary – it could be that drivers are still not returning to work because of health concerns, but its more likely that their licence has been “parked” as there is no reason to give it up – Once a driver is licensed in NI, he remains so for five years.
While drivers have been leaving the industry at a rate of about a thousand a year, new entrants have not been joining at anywhere the same rate. The new theory test has proved to be complicated, long drawn out and expensive for applicants, and with an average pass rate of only 24% since it was introduced gives no guarantee that after this process the applicant will become a driver – why wait for up to a year, make the effort to take the test and pay the fees with no guarantee you’ll be successful at the end of it?
In Summer 2020, a group of private hire taxi operators from across NI came together under the banner of the Licensed Taxi Operators Association (LTOA) to represent the industry to the regulating body, the Department for Infrastructure (DFI). In lobbying the DFI, the LTOA campaigned for support on a number of issues vital in supporting the industry through the pandemic, but also to address the slow death that the sector had been experiencing in recent years. The LTOA asked for:
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• Financial support for drivers and operators to help sustain them through lockdowns and to assist with costs to get them on, or keep them on the road.
• A temporary pause to driver entry testing, and a return to the previous system where a driver still required enhanced vetting, a successful medical, a standard licence and necessary post driving test experience and with the correct insurances, PSV etc. This is what more than 85% of drivers working at present qualified with and was seen as a good way to get more drivers into the industry quickly, without sacrificing standards.
• A fare review. The last fare review in NI was implemented in 2016 and was based on 2011 costs so was long overdue. With a reduction in drivers, those drivers who are working are choosing weekdays and daytime hours instead of weekends and a fare increase was seen as an incentive to bring more drivers into the industry and to reward those who worked anti-social hours more appropriately. A ranking for NI of 228 in the PHTM fare tables is evidence that the region is under-priced relative to its economy and the costs incurred by drivers.
• Closing the “Class C loophole”. In NI, every taxi class except Class C is subject to maximum fares which are set by Government. Uber and some other operators have been operating in Class C (a class designed for wedding and novelty cars) This has given them the ability to surge prices, and with no need for meters or roof signs have benefitted from lower costs and lower enforcement as they tend to “fly below the radar”. LTOA asked that Class C either be regulated in the same way as other classes, or that the restrictions were removed from other classes so that all operators competed on a level playing field.
The DFI has within its power under the Taxis Act 2008 the ability to make all of these changes, and over the course of the last year has given some financial support to drivers, has waived fees for new driver testing and has approved a modest maximum fare increase. These steps however are too little to address the issues that the industry is facing and the impact that we are seeing on the economy and society as a result of not having sufficient capacity to meet demand as the region has been slowly returning to some sort of normality.
DECEMBER 2021
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