Andy Peters Brighton & Hove Cab Trade Association info@bhcta.co.uk www.bhcta.co.uk


Having extracted the audio from the video of the PHTM EXPO 2026 ‘Questions and Answers’ which was presented really well by David Lawrie, Director NPHTA, with guests including government minister Ruth Cadbury and James Button from the Institute of Licensing, I was able to listen to it whilst driving the taxi in my leisure.


There were some interesting comments from the audience and certainly some interesting replies. However, I do have to admit that there were times when I was groaning at what I was hearing. One observation that was very clear to me was that Ruth Cadbury, who obviously has an enormous task to undertake is certainly London-centric. My concern here is this will have an influence on her input and the consequential knock-on effect. Additionally, I was very disappointed that she made it clear that with the use of satnavs she questioned the viability of drivers requiring the ‘Knowledge’.


Thankfully there was an experienced taxi driver in the audience who picked her up on this point, and even though I was listening to the recording from some three weeks previously, hopefully she could hear me shouting my own views on this!


So, with great respect Ruth Cadbury, if you just happen to be reading this, let me tell you that having the knowledge of the streets embedded in a professional driver’s head, with all the back streets and short cuts, is by far superior to any piece of technology that is mainly provided for simple navigation.


A good example of this in Brighton is that our streets have been undergoing continuous excavations to replace the gas pipes. This means that no one really knows in advance which roads have suddenly been shut...or even opened and then shut again. So, this means that with sole reliance on a satnav you could, as an untrained local driver, be completely stuck if you did not know your way around.


I know for a fact that Uber drivers here have been distraught not knowing where to go when there has


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suddenly been an issue in the city where roads have been shut in an emergency. Even Uber customers have told me that their drivers have been fixed to the Uber driver app whilst not actually concentrating on the road itself.


And as I have stated many times before, when I get my boiler serviced I expect to pay a professional engineer to know their way round it and not have to watch YouTube to do it.


It did annoy me when reference again was made by Ruth Cadbury that: “Customers travel cross border….” as some kind of justification to remain with the chaos we currently have. This was also referred to in the Select Committee report, as quoted by Kimberly Hurd, Senior General Manager for the UK and Ireland at Bolt, who stated: “Cross-border is essentially the way people live and work”. This was backed up by the Uber rep, both of whom will obviously say anything to protect their shareholders.


This is because time and time again I shout that it has absolutely nothing to do with anything! People have always ‘crossed local borders’ going back hundreds of years. It’s nothing new at all, even since


the


implementation of the LGMPA 76, and has nothing to do with where we are today with drivers intentionally getting a licence in one area to predominantly work in another area (he says whilst slamming his fist on the table!)


So, I was very pleased to hear David specifically make the point of correcting the continuously misused term of ‘cross-border hiring’ and labour the point that the correct terminology is ‘predominant out-of-area working’ which is something I have written about in almost every article over the years for PHTM.


So, please spread the word on this point and use ‘POAW’ wherever you can when you speak to your councillors or MPs so everyone is on the same page and there is no misunderstanding.


I also have to reiterate again that to date, I still do not know if their intention to ‘rip it up and start again’ applies to both the LGMPA 1976 as well as the London Private Hire Act 1998. I have stated this so many times before and I will state it in every article until I read the answer in black and white.


JULY 2026 PHTM


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