ROUND THE COUNCILS GUERNSEY:
CABBIES MUST WEAR ID LANYARDS
Guernsey taxi drivers will be required to wear lanyard IDs starting 1 January 2026 as part of an effort to make them more
identifiable, especially following
complaints of overcharging. Laura Oxburgh, head of on-island travel and transport implementation at the States, noted that feedback highlighted the difficulty in identifying both vehicles and drivers when customers needed to raise concerns or complaints. She explained that while vehicles must display a licence plate, the number is “often hard for people to capture as the vehicle drives away.” The new ID system was agreed upon with the Guernsey Taxi Drivers Association (GTDA). The ID cards can be worn on lanyards or “displayed in a prominent place in the vehicle if the driver does not feel comfortable wearing the lanyard when driving,” according to Ms. Oxburgh. She added that it “will be implemented formally from January 2026 and encouraged from now, being assessed over time before consideration is given to alternative or extra options.” GTDA president Peter Blondel confirmed the association’s full backing, stating: “We, as the GTDA, were in discussion with the DVL earlier this year and suggested the introduction of lanyards... This is so drivers are more identifiable and professional when meeting clients at locations such as the airport.” The move comes amid repeated reminders to drivers about charging fixed fees without prior customer agreement. A local transport official, in a letter seen by the Guernsey Press, noted that drivers had been informed of this problem “many times previously.” The official warned that drivers “that are choosing to act illegally are tarnishing all taxi drivers with the same brush because customers are presuming that all taxis are ripping customers off.” Traffic & Highway Services confirmed that for all journeys from a rank, when a taxi is hailed, or booked through the Guernsey Taxi App, the fare must be calculated on the meter. Fixed fares are only appropriate for specific advanced notice bookings or specialist jobs like airport transfers. Miss Oxburgh confirmed that authorities are taking action against non-compliance. “A suspension for overcharging was issued a few months ago, and we are currently investigating some reported incidents of this,” she said.
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She also stressed the importance of transparency: “It is set out in legislation that taxi tariffs must be on display within vehicles, which enables customers to have the opportunity to check the rates being charged against it.”
NORTH EAST LINCS: KEY LICENSING CHANGES APPROVED
Councillors in North East Lincolnshire have approved significant changes to local taxi licensing, including a slight increase in tariff rates and a doubling of the fee for passengers who soil a vehicle. The North East Lincolnshire Council’s licensing and community protection committee completed a year- long process to decide on hackney carriage policy. Key Policy Decisions l Tariff Increase: All taxi tariffs will rise by 50p for the first mile of any trip, the first increase since February 2022. This change was described as “quite reasonable” by Cllr Sheldon Mill (Labour - South), who noted the nearly four-year gap since the last increase, observing drily to traders, “You’ve mentioned car insurance, I don’t think that’s stood still.”
l “Soil Charge” Doubled: The fee levied when passengers are sick in or on a taxi will double from £50 to £100. Wayne Crouch, from the NEL Hackney Carriage Association, explained the reason: “The reason being if you get somebody sick in your car or out of it, times before you could get a valet for £40 or £50. Now, for a proper valet it costs £80 or £90.” He added that the charge is mainly “more of a deterrent.”
l WAVs: To combat the dwindling proportion of local WAVs (now 16 per cent), new hackney carriage applicants must have WAV vehicles, and current WAVs must remain as such. To boost numbers, the vehicle age limit for getting a first licence for a WAV was increased from five years to eight years. One respondent wrote that the stricter five-year rule “unintentionally limits the number of accessible vehicles on our roads.”
l Hackney Limit Maintained: Following a consultation where 66 out of 68 respondents backed the policy, the 220 limit on the number of licensed taxis will be kept.
l Fuel Type: New hackney carriages will not be restricted to electric and hybrid only, with similarly overwhelming approval from the trade to continue allowing all vehicle fuel source types.
The changes to tariffs and the soil charge were agreed unanimously.
DECEMBER 2025 PHTM
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