VIEWS ON DEVOLUTION
which as we know, some are so ludicrous and mismatched it is worrying, but we could see that where one of the councils has a reasonable age limit for vehicles, this could be lost
Fees going up?
Where the fees are lower than those of a neighbouring authority, they could see their fees go up to match the higher one as it would become one authority. As we all know, it is very rare that fees go down.
Fares leading to pay cuts
We have seen the fares “average out” from the previous single authorities to a regional fare card, which means that if one was £2 per mile, and another £6 per mile, the average becomes £4 per mile. This means a pay cut from £6 to £4. But it also means less affordability for the elderly where the fares jump from £2 to £4, also resulting in a pay cut.
Confusion and poor organisation?
We have members from regions where this joining up, levelling up or devolution of licensing has already taken place, suffer the consequences of the change. These include ranks being flooded, to “some” of the vehicles being allowed to do their compliance (or MOT) tests from any of the garages within the previous areas, whilst some are not, since whilst they joined some “zones” they did not join all requirements. We have also seen some have to go and buy first aid kits and fire extinguishers, whilst others have not needed them.
Will this stop people licence shopping?
“Greater economies of scale should also enable authorities to improve the efficiency of licensing, reducing the incentives for people to license out of their usual working area.” No, we do not believe that it will at all, since those migrating to other areas for a licence, do this not just due to lack of efficiency, they do it for cost, and they do it to comply with what they consider to be more reasonable conditions.
Summing it up
Overall, the white paper means little to us an industry, with very little mention of us at all and it would seem even less understanding of the cross-border working issue and how to address it.
We have seen the James Button plan, effectively removing licensing from being local by nature, instead
PHTM JANUARY 2025
adopting a national licensing body. In our view this White Paper is merely suggesting a mix between the Button plan and “Uber zones.”
Would the triple lock rule remain?
If this White Paper goes ahead, then it is effectively undermining the triple lock rule, since it shifts licensing to vast regions instead of local districts, effectively rendering the triple lock rule (driver, vehicle and operator licences must all be issued by the same council) meaningless.
Is there a solution?
We believe that if the government genuinely wants to address the cross-border problem, then the fastest and easiest solution would be to roll out intended use policies to ALL licences. Where currently such a policy can only be implemented against hackney carriage drivers, we believe it should apply to private hire drivers and private hire operators too.
Having such a policy in place does not “stop” the ability to perform work out of area at all, it merely stipulates that “most,” not “all” of the work must be within the licensed area.
What about the local transport plans?
We have seen mention in various government papers including this one, “Taxis and private hire vehicles are an important part of our transport networks and some of the most vulnerable groups in our society rely on them.” and in the recent “call for ideas” document released on 28 November, which can be found here:
https://shorturl.at/Bfhmf
This consultation ends on 30 January, and indeed in the best practice guidance of November 2023, that taxi and private hire services should be considered with the development of any local transport plans, but we have yet to be included in any of them as far as we can see.
Transport plans include bus lanes
We have published articles about allowing use of bus lanes for private hire vehicles, but to date, there are still very few councils that have this in place. We even suggested that this ability could be limited to locally licensed private hire only, local benefits for locally licensed drivers, but even that has not seen any changes.
So when are taxis and private hire vehicles going to be included in local transport plans?
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