of the suggested items but checking a vehicle and completing a checklist are two entirely separate activities.
Even if the checks were completed and recorded diligently in good faith, this is unlikely to reduce the risk of the vehicle breaking down later that day while taking a family to the airport for their family holiday.
A more meaningful and effective way to ensure safety and reliability of licensed vehicles would be to require them to be serviced in accordance with the manufacturer’s recom- mended schedules. No bureaucratic burden would be placed on the driver or proprietor as they would simply keep all receipts and invoices. In the event of drivers under- taking their own servicing and repairs they would simply keep a simple record along with any receipts or invoices for required parts.
Moreover, whilst up-front or financing costs may be higher with newer vehicles, maintenance costs are usually lower. Also, when a vehicle breaks down, the driver faces not just the cost of repair but also loss of earnings while the vehicle is off the road.
Newer vehicles are more reliable, the Best Practice Guidance document even acknowledges that.
VEHICLE CONDITION CHECK
The proposed check sheet amounts to four pages and would likely take around 15 to 20 minutes to complete. This is not only burdensome and therefore a breach of the Regulators’ Code, it is also a fine example of gesture politics which is defined in the Cambridge Dictionary as: “any action by a person or organisation done for political reasons and intended to attract public attention but having little real effect.”
It is obviously intended to act as a substitute for setting vehicle age limits. Compliance with such a requirement is likely to be very low and it would therefore act as a big stick with which local authorities could beat their licensed drivers. In a matter of days, the temptation to tick the boxes without actually undertaking the checks would become overwhelming.
This is actually a reminder of the hourly cleanliness check sheets found in some pub toilets. The signatures match and align perfectly which suggests that the sheet was completed, not on an hourly basis but at the end of the day. The toilets themselves may or may not have actually been checked...
Of course, vehicles should be regularly inspected for many JULY 2022
Examples: [Date, mileage] Oil and filter changed. [Date, mileage] Front discs and pads changed.
The main body of this response has been written and submitted by: Steven Toy (NPHTA board member and occasional writer for PHTM)
Detailed additional sections on the tinted windows and CCTV elements were written and submitted by David Lawrie, Director of NPHTA.
Both Steven and David are also members of the Institute of Licensing (IoL) as delegate members representing the taxi and private hire industry as one of the largest representative bodies and stakeholders with a membership which exceeds 40,000 and which consists of drivers, operators, and local associations nationwide.
0161 280 2800
info@nphta.co.uk 53
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