THE WAY I SEE IT
We welcome a new, and hopefully, regular contributor to our pages: Ian Hall, a member of the NPHTA Executive board and long-standing HC and PH licence holder in Southampton.
At this year’s PHTM Expo at Milton Keynes, which I attended with some Southampton colleagues, we took part in some seminars and at one of these I listened to a gentleman from the Derby area, who was greatly con- cerned that when you sign up to an expensive finance deal to purchase a gov- ernment approved electric/hybrid vehicle, only to discover that whatever council you are licensed with, they might have decided to adopt the Institute of Licensing (IoL) document, which is not legislated, it is only a guidance document.
If you read under the heading “Motoring Offences” in this document, paragraph 4.42 states and I quote: “Where an applicant has seven or more points on their DVLA licence for minor traffic or similar offences, a licence will not be granted until at least five years have elapsed since the completion of any sentence imposed.”
So what do you do then? You have a vehicle sitting outside your house which you cannot pay for, because your local council, who might have accepted this document as part of your conditions, has stopped you from driving because you have seven points on your licence. You would have to challenge that in court! And as we all know, we live on a day-to-day basis and the majority of us could not afford a solicitor unless we have taken out an added insurance policy.
If you are not aware of this document, it is called “The Guidance on Determining the Suitability of Applicants and Licensees in the Hackney and Private Hire Trades”.
It is written by licensing solicitors, licensing managers and individuals who in my opinion paint an extremely bad picture of the private hire and hackney carriage trade. Unfortu- nately the Southampton trade in July 2019, with regret and after much wrangling, with only one paragraph slightly changed, had to accept this draconian document.
Here are a couple of paragraphs that you might find offensive:
“3.16 This is reflected in a test widely used by local authorities: ‘Would you (as a mem- ber of the licensing committee or other person charged with the ability to grant a hackney carriage driver’s licence) allow your son or daughter, spouse or partner, mother or father, grandson or granddaughter or any other person for whom you care, to get into a vehicle with this person alone?’”
“3.47 A suitable test would be: Would I be comfortable allowing this person to have control of a licensed vehicle that can travel anywhere, at any time of the day or night without arousing suspicion, and be satisfied that he/she would not allow it to be used for criminal or other unacceptable purpos- es, and be confident that he/she would maintain it to an acceptable standard throughout the period of the licence?”
Surely it would be more beneficial to our industry for the Task and Finish Report on taxi and private hire vehicle licensing to become legislated? The Task and Finish Group was brought together between July and August of 2017. Donna Short, Editor of PHTMand Director of the NPHTA, was one of 11 members who attended these meetings and diligently contributed to the T&F Report.
Let me remind you that there were 34 rec- ommendations in this report and the group heard views from a wide cross section of individuals, also taking written evidence from a range of stakeholders and organisa- tions.
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It was most interest- ing to know that apart from Donna, three other members were from the PH and HC trade: Mick Rix, National Officer for Transport and Dis- tribution GMB Union; Steve McNamara, General Secretary of the LTDA, and Steve Wright MBE, Chair- man of the LPHCA. As far as I am aware, none of these four persons contributed
in any way to the IoL document. However when you read the TFG recommendations it becomes apparent that the individuals from the hackney carriage and private hire sector, their thoughts and knowledge have been recognised.
Here is a brief outline of some of the recom- mendations that were endorsed by Government: • National minimum standards for taxi and private hire licensing for drivers, vehicles and operators.
• Government should update Best Practice guidance and issue Statutory Guidance.
• Licensing authorities should use their existing powers to make it a condition of licensing that drivers cooperate with requests from authorised compliance offi- cers in other areas. (Haven’t we as a trade been saying that for a long time?)
• Passenger safety is highlighted often (and driver safety not often enough).
• Drivers to communicate in English, orally and in writing.
• Better accessibility needed for disabled passengers.
The one recommendation that really inter- ested me was number 26: • That all individuals in the licensing deci- sion making process (officials and councillors) must be obliged to undertake appropriate training. The content of the training must form part of national mini- mum standards.
We are all aware, aren’t we, that some licensing officers are very good at their job whilst others are inept.
It is also important to realise that licensing officers and licensing councillors do not have to have a DBS record check carried out on them and yet if you appear in front of a licensing panel for some misdemeanour, they have the authority to revoke your licence, although let’s be honest - we do not know what skeletons they have in their cupboard?
I will leave you with a comment from Mick Rix of the GMB Union which was made at one of the Task and Finish meetings - “That was part of our argument at Task and Finish, and we made it clear, that DBS and other such checks should also apply to licensing and enforcement officers, and that they should have national minimum stan- dards applied to them also. We believed if it had applied, and people knew the serious consequences, and when properly trained, then the issues of Rotherham etc would have been treated much more seriously and much more quickly.”
Keep supporting the NPHTA and until next time, safe driving.
JANUARY 2020
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