WHY HAVE DRIVER NUMBERS In the two years since this warning was made:
Article by NI Licensed Taxi Operators Association - LTOA For more information, contact Stephen Anton
contact@ltoa.co.uk
Two years of inaction by the Ministers for Infrastructure and the Department for Infra- structure (DfI) forces another 61 taxi operators to cease trading, and takes a further 1,895 licenced taxis off our roads in Northern Ireland.
Can’t get a taxi? No wheelchair taxis available when you need one? Paying too much for your taxi at peak times? Here are the reasons why.
Two years ago, on 9th December 2020, representatives from the taxi industry presented to the Committee for Infrastructure seeking support for the sector, and changes to the way it is regulated. As part of our presentation, we gave the following warning:
“If our efforts for support are unsuccessful, what happens next? Well as we have already said some depots have already closed, others are close (to closing) and some have delayed further redund- ancies in the hope that things will improve but now there is little positivity in the sector for the future.
Services will be curtailed, sponsorship in local communities cut, charitable activity culled. Fewer taxis to welcome tourists when the market returns, more pressure on our health service to provide secondary services. Who provides transport for wheelchair users and passengers with sight difficulties and guide dogs? Who services rural areas that other transport operators cannot? One commentator on social media even went as far as to suggest an increase in drink driving when there’s no one to get you home after the pub.”
“Not supporting the operators will lead to a rise in unregulated taxis and the many associated issues which we hoped had been left in the past. They will not contribute and invest in our communities. It may ultimately mean that when we have a return to normality in society there may not be a taxi sector to return to.”
Unfortunately, due to inaction and intransigence on the part of the DfI, and successive Ministers for Infrastructure, we have been proved right.
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1. There are now 1,290 fewer taxi licences, which now total 8,077
2. Of these 8,077, DfI stated in August that only 6,218 are active (affiliated to an operator’s licence)
3. There are 61 fewer taxi operators, now 1,260 in total 4. There are 1,895 fewer licensed taxis, now 6,828 in total
5. The pass rate for the taxi theory test remains unacceptably low at 22.2% compared to other licence types
a. Taxi Theory 22.2% b. Private car 40.6% c. Motorcycle 68.0% d. Light goods vehicles (LGV) 79.1% e. Passenger carrying vehicles (PCV) 92.9%
6. The DfI taxi tariff consultation, promised in November 2021, still remains incomplete and unpublished.
SO WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
There are simply now too few taxis/taxi drivers to meet passenger demand across Northern Ireland, especially during anti-social hours at evenings and weekends, and the industry is finding it difficult to recruit more because of the licence testing regime, despite high levels of interest.
This results in passengers being unable to book, delays for passengers who have booked, and a free for all for those passengers trying to hail taxis at peak times with the price bartering that occurs when taxis are in such short supply.
Most taxi drivers are self-employed in Northern Ireland and many of them, like the rest of society, have looked at their work life balance during the pandemic. Drivers have decided that it is not worth their while driving the extra hours, especially evenings and weekends, on the current DfI fare structure when there are additional challenges for working these hours.
SO HOW DO WE FIX THIS?
As an industry, our proposals to the Department are consistent and well documented:
1. We need more drivers, but becoming a driver is too expensive and too complicated for the needs of the job. A theory test pass rate of only 22.2% compared to significantly higher rates for other licence types
JANUARY 2023 PHTM
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