DONNA SHORT: REFLECTIONS OF


objective of updating the antiquated legislation governing the industry. In tandem with John Lewis at the Department [of] Transport, as it was known in those days, the NPHA as it was known in those days, travelled round the country (with the NPHA largely being supported financially by PHTM for these meetings) in a series of ten “Green Paper Road Shows”: an op- portunity for local licence holders in those ten localities to fire questions at the DoT as to what might come out of these Green Paper proposals for reform.


We engaged very well with the (then) Transport Minister Steven Norris – who I have to say has been the longest- standing and most effective Transport Minister we’ve ever worked with – in negotiations to take the industry forward. Un- fortunately in the middle of the proceedings there was a Gen- eral Election, the opposition party was voted in, and that was the end of the industry’s Green Paper.


Really, the next monumental effort to bring about industry reform has to be the Law Commission campaign: “Reforming the law of taxi and private hire services”. This kicked off in 2012 and went on for two and a half years, involved five barristers/solicitors and £500’ expenditure to the Law Com- mission. Our association attended nearly every one of their na- tional events during this period; they relied heavily on our extensive knowledge, legislative resources and experience, and we had a very good working relationship with them all.


They had a draft Bill in place to go through Parliament; they had hundreds of pages’ worth of background information and proposals… and it all sat on the (then) Transport Minister’s desk for four years and went nowhere.


Meanwhile, the major stakeholders set up and took part in what was known as the Meeting of Minds. We attended each and every one of these conferences, as did stakeholders from the ‘other side’, the unions, and for most of the meetings, the Department for Transport. Again, the idea was to exchange information and experience with a view to bringing about some sort of national reform. Well… it ain’t happened yet.


THE LATEST EFFORT


Most PHTM readers will know about the most recent effort to unify the industry and bring about much-needed reform: the Task and Finish group. This was proposed in Parliament by the Rt Hon John Hayes MP, who as Minister of State for Transport in 2017 was determined to address the challenge posed by hor- rific events within the trade, and deal with the outdated legislation that is in dire need of updating.


As you may know, I was privileged to have been appointed as one of 11 members of this Task and Finish group. We were given the opportunity to meet on some ten occasions, along with of- ficers from the Department for Transport, to not only discuss all aspects of industry reform but also to read written submis- sions and hear oral submissions from countless stakeholder


44


groups, individual union members, licence holders and members of the public to gain their insight into the situation.


The resultant outcome was a set of 34 recommendations that the Task and Finish chair put forward to the Minister for Transport for their perusal. Most of those recommendations were approved/brought forward for action… however, the only one which has actually materialised so far is the government’s Statutory Guidance document, which PHTMhighlighted in July.


We’re still waiting for the latest Best Practice guidance, and the various proposals to bring about minimum national standards for licensing. How long will we have to wait? Anybody’s guess, really… meanwhile, the NPHTA cracks on tackling local issues hand over fist. But how much easier and more sensible if we had some form of minimum national standards. Trouble is, one of the other Task and Finish group members was told recently by a Minister that the T&F recommendations “are dead in the water”.


So once again we devoted hours of time, and travel, to try to bring about reform for the industry – but still after 30 years we’re no further forward. That is the frustrating part about all this; our frustration spilled out last summer with our campaign in PHTM highlighting #theforgottenindustry. It just makes you want to shout: “Hello – is anybody listening??!!!!” The answer is changing; we are getting far more invites to be involved in key discussions – so whilst this remains a slow process, we will have to keep shouting..


CHANGE IN EVERY DIRECTION


The last 30 years have seen dramatic changes in the industry in a lot of ways, not least the number, structure and make-up of private hire firms. The evolution of large, super-sized oper- ators means that there are less companies now than previously, as so many of the smaller firms were amalgamated into the larger organisations – and groups.


However, I believe there is still the opportunity for smaller firms to succeed going forward, if they are able to ride out this pandemic and consolidate their efforts to rise above the competition. It’ll be a case of attracting more drivers to the cir- cuit and informing the travelling public via social media that they’ll still be looking after them.


Speaking of competition, the advent of Uber in 2012 was of course a major game-changer in so many districts, not least London where they started in this country. And although the subsequent change of Uber’s CEO to one who is considered less likely to ‘play dirty pool’, the impact of this company’s business model makes the ‘U’ word more like a swear word in most quarters.


Now with the growth of more app-based companies through- out the UK, today’s success stories reflect the mantra “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”… that is to say, so many operators now


JANUARY 2021


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