GREEN MEANS GO...
NOTTINGHAM TAXI DRIVERS REFUSING TO BUY LOW EMISSION VEHICLES AFTER MAKING AS LITTLE AS £15 A DAY
More than 120 Not- tingham taxi drivers are refusing to buy new low emission cabs after making as little as £15 a day during the corona- virus pandemic. Nottingham City Council wants around 400 hackney cabs to be upgraded to low emission vehicles to improve air quality. Taxi drivers said they have been told the
vehicles must be in place by June 30. Drivers will have to take out loans to buy the new vehicle, which can cost between £32,000 to £75,000. But taxi driver associations have blasted the decision for the council to push ahead with the plans when no money is being made from the profession to pay for them.
Chander Sood, 61, of Wollaton, has been a taxi driver for 26 years in Nottingham. He is also the former secretary of the Not- tingham City Hack- ney Carriage Own- ers and Drivers Association. He said out of the 411 fleet there were more than 120 drivers who have refused to buy the new vehicles during the pandemic.
He told Notting- hamshire
Live:
“Where is the money going to come from if you are not mak- ing any money? How are we going to pay the instalments? It is a high investment.” He said hackney drivers were already facing tough times before lockdown, with illegal plying for hiring. He said: “Most drivers are taking
LEVC TX AWARDED INNOVATION OF THE YEAR BY THE GERMAN DESIGN COUNCIL
LEVC’s TX electric taxi has been award- ed Innovation of the Year 2020 by the German Design Council at the Auto- motive Brand Con- test 2020. Honouring outstand- ing product design, the international contest highlights the fundamental im- portance of design in the automotive industry, focusing on the integral and consistent use of the brand across a busi- ness. TX is the result of a £500m investment by LEVC’s owner, global automotive company Geely Hold- ing Group which, along with the con- struction of a state- of-the-art manufac- turing facility in the UK, enabled the brand to create the world’s most ad- vanced zero emis-
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environments. Drivers can save c. £90 a week on fuel costs and more than 30,000 tonnes of CO2
have been
sion taxi. Key styling features that are integral to the black cab’s 70- year history are carried forward to the new TX, creating a modern design evolution with un- mistakable family resemblance – and ensuring the iconic black cab remains instantly recognis- able. Joerg Hofmann, CEO of LEVC, com- mented: “We are delighted to have won this award and our thanks go to the German Design
Council for honour- ing TX. LEVC is at the forefront of a reinvention, trans- forming an iconic British taxi brand to a leading electric vehicle manufactur- er and forging a new path in green mobil- ity.” TX’s highly praised eCity technology combines a pure EV range of 102 km (63 miles) with a total flexible range of 485km (301 miles) and its ultra-tight turning circle pro- vides unrivalled mobility in busy city
saved from entering the atmosphere since its launch in early 2018. Passen- gers benefit from a comfortable and lux- urious cabin capable of seating six people complete with a panoramic roof, wheelchair accessi- bility and onboard charging points. Jury Member, Jürgen Lewandowski from the German Design Council said: “The famous London cab has always offered lots of passenger space and fantastic accessibility, but what LEVC has done is transform the orig- inal into the most advanced zero-emis- sion taxi in the world.”
£15 to £20 a day under lockdown. They can’t afford it. We need help from the council.” The council placed orders for a small number of the low emission vehicles to lease back to drivers, as well as investing £700,000 of Government funding into electric charging points around the city. Taxi driver Wasim Amin, chairman of Nottingham Licens- ed Taxi Owners and Drivers Association, which represents more than 300 drivers, said: “These are difficult times, not just for taxi drivers but for everyone. We do want to put these vehicles in (to the city) but how are we going to make it pay? It is common sense. How is it going to work for the per- son who has taken that burden on? “We are all up for these changes and the air quality on taxis but it is not feasible because of finances. The council must reconsider.” Portfolio Holder for Growth and the City Centre, Cllr Sam Webster, said: “We understand it’s a dif- ficult time for taxi drivers. There has been a lead-in time of more than two years to respond to new rules requiring only Euro 6 diesel or ultra-low emission vehicles to be eligi- ble for a licence to
operate in Notting- ham. “130 drivers have already made the change, but unfortu- nately a minority still haven’t done so. We have taken a flexible approach and intro- duced some leeway by allowing owners approaching the end of their licence to retain their plates for six months, instead of the usual one month, to decide whether they wish to buy a compliant replacement vehicle or not. “We are also giving six-month exten- sions to those drivers who can show they are in the process of buying a replacement vehicle but can’t take deliv- ery because of lockdown. We will continue our dia- logue with the trade and keep the exten- sion period under review. Taxi drivers are also eligible for Government sup- port as self-emp- loyed sole traders. “We are not going to reverse our policy on clean vehicle requirements, since this helps us meet our duties under the Clean Air Act and it would be unfair to those who have already invested in new vehicles. We are all committed to improving the quali- ty of the city’s taxi services and these changes will benefit both the local trade and our residents in the long run.”
JUNE 2020
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