phone calls and emails from all over, with folk telling us about how their licence fees haven’t been advertised recently in the local press; about how certain segments of their licence fees have never been advertised; about the horrendous increases in their fees with no perceived improve- ment in the service for which they are being charged. The real eyebrow-raiser has been the number of private hire operators who have contacted the NPHA about the structure of their licence fee. If you recall, we conducted a council-wide survey about 18 months ago gathering up statistics on all the licensing fees - driver, vehicle and oper- ator - from around the UK. This was done initially for the benefit of the Law Commission’s consultation about the review of national taxi and pri- vate hire legislation that is being conducted right now this minute. But I’ll tell you what: we couldn’t believe the variance of operator licence fees from one council to another. You do know, don’t you, that there seems to be three broad categories of fee structure for operators: a single fee for one year, a fee per vehicle on the fleet per year, and the absolute corker: the rising scale based on fleet size. Remember: this does not relate to company-owned vehicles; it is based on the number of vehicles on the private hire circuit, whether company-owned or owner/driver. I gave you examples of these in my recent letter to licence holders ral- lying you round for the fighting fund: for instance, the lowest single fee for the operator licence is £32 in Waveney; the highest is Wolverhamp- ton at £785. Then there is the per-vehicle fee: lowest is Hull at £9 per vehicle (£56 flat fee) and highest is Ashfield at £123 per vehicle. Then for the rising-fee corker: Brentwood is the most reasonable at £75 for one vehicle up to £650 for five vehicles or over – but that is for a five- year operator licence. The pinnacle of this type of licence fee is in Reading, where they charge £248 for one vehicle for one year, rising to £5,240 at 60 vehicles – plus £200 per additional vehicle thereafter. That’s for a one-year operator licence. Pretty valuable piece of paper, innit? So you can see why we got such an encouraging reaction from opera- tors! Basically they have now joined the O.C.O. Club (Over Charged Operators) which I kicked off in my Opinion PHTM June edition. Any more of you out there wish to fight the brave fight? Visualise that poster with Uncle Sam pointing his finger during the war, saying “We need you!” You know where to get in touch... and loads of you already have. Thanks for that; we’ll keep you posted with regular bulletins. This is all
about getting a Court decision which will force councils to actually do some work to show what licensing is actually costing them, and then and only then set proper and accurate licensing fees. What else is going on? I see that the DSA and VOSA are to merge into one company by next year. Now that’ll be interesting... certainly I can understand the move from the standpoint of saving staff salaries and the like, but think on: does this mean that it will be more likely that the DSA taxi test will be made mandatory across the country? If that is the case, we’ve already asked the Law Commission how this would fit in with their proposals that – unlike private hire vehicles, which would have national standards set – hackney carriages would remain largely the remit of local authorities. Hmmm... what do you reckon? And speaking of the Law Commission, it has been announced recently that Frances Patterson QC has been appointed to be a Justice of the High Court with effect from the 1st October 2013; she will be assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division. If you recall, Ms Patterson has headed the project team at the Law Commission that is conducting the review of our industry’s legislation. In fact she has been a Law Commissioner for over three years. And now it would appear that she will be even busier! We offer her our congratulations on her appointment, and every success in her new role. Now then, a quick word from/about Chief Anorak: due to my rather unscheduled disadvantaged health status, the League Tables haven’t had much chance of an update this month. Fear not: we shall be back on the case forthwith! A couple more requests have come into the NPHA office for assistance with preparation of hackney fare tariff rises... do please bear with me, and such assistance will be forthcoming as soon as possible. In the interim, here’s some food for thought: So many of you have con- tacted us about your ever-increasing licence fees – in this case to do with vehicle licences and driver badges. But what about your fares being able to keep up with these swingeing fee rises?! Time and again we’ve seen press reports about this, but has it hit your pocket yet? We need to know this sort of information for our fees investigation as well, so anything you can advise us about round your way will be greatly appreciated.
Until next time, when hopefully I’ll be firing on all four cylinders once again... sayonara.
Fleet cover from Swinton Taxi Division
We go the extra mile to get you cheaper insurance
Mick, Lyndy and Paul head up our dedicated fleet team, and they can get you a great price on your fleet cover… but they don’t stop there. They’ve got over 50 years experience of working with taxi fleets between them and they know what they’re talking about. Don’t arrange your fleet cover until you’ve spoken to them.
The Swinton Fleet Team can arrange: • Public liability cover
• A great quote by searching a panel of insurers
• Flexible payments • Tailored cover
Yasser Mansha, Albatross Cars, Derby “ Being with Swinton
Taxi Division has allowed us to cut our costs and invest this money back into our business. We’ve saved thousands!
For fleet queries only call today on or go online to
www.swintontaxi.co.uk For single vehicle queries call 0800 409 6498
JULY 2013 PHTM 0800 531 6125
Swinton Taxi Division is a division of Swinton Group Limited, registered in England number 756681, which is connected for the purposes of the Insurance Companies Regulations 1994 to MMA Insurance plc and Gateway Insurance Company Limited. Registered office: Swinton House, 6 Great Marlborough Street, Manchester M1 5SW. Calls may be recorded. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
PAGE 9
“
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80
