STATION
STIRRINGS....STATION PERMIT PREDICAMENT: DO WE HAVE TO PAY
Over this past disastrous year, in which every aspect of life has been permeated by the ominous Covid-19 pandemic, our industry has experienced innumerable facets of running a business that have come up against a financial brick wall.
As we have featured in PHTMthroughout the period, there have been positive stories about concessions having been made by operators and licensing authorities alike, making allowances for the horrendous financial setbacks experienced by licence holders countrywide.
On the other hand, there have been those who have not bent their policies/rules to give way to financial hardship on the part of owner/drivers. You name it, they’ve copped it: continued high “settle” (weeklies, radio rentals, call it what you will); school contracts whereby the operator doesn’t hand over the appropriate fees to the driver; council licensing fees that have not been waivered or reduced; vehicle testing stations being closed and the vehicle proprietor not being able to continue to use his taxi/PHV.
Add to this list the situation at many railway stations across the UK where hackney carriage drivers have been paying an annual fee to ply their trade at the station. Of course during the past year starting with the first lockdown, the footfall through railway stations has been drastically reduced; thus journeys from the station have suffered in number as well.
DOWN TO BASICS
We’ve come across several stories concerning local areas where taxi drivers have rebelled against having to continue to make full permit fee payments; Colchester is just such a location, where taxi drivers at Colchester North Station are having a go at train operator Greater Anglia after being told to pay £645 for their permits for the next six months despite passenger numbers dropping by almost three quarters.
This figure is the second instalment for the year, where it works out that they normally pay around £3.50 per day for the full year. Greater Anglia gave drivers a three-month
18 JANUARY 2021
extension to the permit, offering three months free between July and October; however drivers say they still can’t afford to pay.
Charlie Isbell, chairman of the Colchester Taxi and Hackney Carriage Association, told the Colchester Daily Gazette: “There is no discount being offered at all and no concessions. We want to see some common sense and understanding. If footfall has dropped so much, where are these drivers supposed to get the money for their permits from?
“… We are not refusing to pay, but the drivers can’t afford to pay the full amount. There is a lot at stake here. It is 80 people’s livelihoods.”
Local Councillor Tim Young is supporting drivers’ calls for a discount and accused Greater Anglia of being “unreasonable”. A spokesman for Greater Anglia discussed future plans and difficulties for the railway, saying they were “working on recovery plans for a time when they can start to rebuild their passenger numbers”… but no mention of any further concession to the taxi drivers at the station.
NORTH EAST DRIVERS FEEL THE SAME
Similar ructions erupted at Newcastle Central Station, where taxi drivers hit out at transport operator London North Eastern Railway (LNER) after they were told they had to pay hundreds of pounds in fees despite losing 80 per cent of their work at the station during the pandemic.
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