IN THE NEWS - THANET
“THE SINGLE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN COMMUNICATION IS THE ILLUSION THAT IT HAS TAKEN PLACE”
The private hire trade in Thanet might well agree with George Bernard Shaw on that point… they’ve told PHTM that not a lot of talking has been going on lately. That is to say, licence holders are continually attempt- ing to get hold of somebody – anybody – in licensing, to no avail.
In fact, the trade were so concerned that they raised the issue with the local press last November, maintaining that passengers were being put at risk because of the decline in ser- vices at Thanet Council’s licensing department.
Thanet Private Hire Association was recently re-constituted to try to tackle the situation. This group comprises Thanet Cars, Central Cars and United Cars, whose companies between them have over 400 drivers on their circuits, and whose proprietors have more than 100 years’ experience in the industry.
Last August they met with the council’s head of Safer Neighbourhoods to discuss various issues, including administrative holdups on knowledge tests; no contact with licensing (apart from an auto-reply that they’ll respond in ten days) in case of emergencies; some drivers being awarded their badges without basic English.. the list went on. Disappointing- ly, nothing has progressed, according to Andy Doody, general manager of Thanet Taxis.
“It’s a shame that, after all licensing said regarding sharing of ideas, the safety aspects that were raised, and the fact that everyone agreed it could be a real danger to the public, nothing has happened since.”
There’s more…
Actually something has happened since that meeting: the council has issued a new policy for taxi and private hire – which has sparked more controversy amongst the trade. The most contentious issue is the revised age restriction on both hackney carriages and PHVs, which is due to affect vehicle propri- etors from the 1st April 2020.
Thanet Private Hire Association wrote to the council voicing their concerns thus: “The biggest issue for us and for hundreds of drivers and taxi leasing agents in this area is… the maximum ages for licensed vehicles. At present there is no age limit on licensed taxis and PHVs, and we do understand that because of emissions and the environment, changes must be made.
“Our [concern is over] the proposed [vehicle] renewal limits of under 12 years for petrol vehicles and under nine for diesel vehicles as
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number of areas in the city where air pollution is a real problem. In contrast Thanet is sur- rounded by the sea on three sides with natural ventilation by wind, sea breezes etc. It is sub- mitted that the risk of pollution is significantly less than in Canterbury and, subject to diesel vehicles passing the emissions test, there should be no discrimination against them.”
One other bone of contention
(l-r) Maria Seager and Rupert Lambert from Central Cars and Andrew Doody and Karl Evans from Thanet Taxis
of 1st April this year, and for new applications under seven years for petrol and under five years for diesel. There is no mention of grand- father rights, which we were assured would be in the policy. We have tried contacting the licensing department for clarification but they will not or do not answer our calls or emails.
“Approximately half the licensed PHVs that are already on our circuits will from 1st April be unable to work or renew, so this will cause unemployment, distress and so many other problems. As I am sure you are aware, a lot of drivers who come into the trade do so as a last resort… or through redundancy. [Many of] these men and women cannot normally get finance to buy a new car so they either buy one that has always been good enough to pass council visual tests as well as strict com- pliance and emission tests every six months, or rent one from the leasing agents.
“Even from these agents/individuals, the cars tend to be nine or ten years old but in good condition with no blemishes or damage, dents externally or internally. These agents at present charge between £90-£110 per week for the cars, but I have already spoken to some of them… some are going to stop leas- ing altogether, and the couple that remain will be charging another £40-£50 per week for the newer cars they will have to supply. This in turn will mean the demand for much higher fares for the public in general in a very deprived area.”
A further observation was made by the Thanet Private Hire Association when group- ing together their various objections to the policy: “This policy is viewed as unduly restrictive in the light of the adjoining district Canterbury City Council’s policy of allowing licensing up to ten years with no apparent discrimination in respect of diesel vehicles.
“… Canterbury City lies in a vale and there are a
In contrast to the private hire trade in Not- tingham, who have just succeeded in their goal of being able to drive on more than one PH circuit (see this month’s feature), the trade in Thanet have other ideas: “The licens- ing department in the past has always insisted for safety’s sake that licensed PH drivers sub-contract/work for one firm at one time only… they are now suggesting that this will change so that any driver can work for any company at any time.
“…the drivers can have ID badges for multiple companies and can, for example, pick up a child from school or an elderly person from hospital and not be a driver for the firm that was originally booked. We have pointed out the huge safety implications of this to licens- ing officers but they only seem to care about how many licence fees they can be paid for…” Ouch!
NPHTA comment: This report highlights the difficulties the government will face when trying – finally, at some point(!) – to establish minimum national standards. There are many licensing districts where working on multiple circuits might be deemed suitable and finan- cially beneficial; the trade in others are strictly against it in principle.
The bottom line here is that communication seems to have broken down completely between the trade and the council in Thanet; they can’t even get a response from the Chief Executive, or to FOI requests, or from councillors on the licensing committee.
How can this deadlock of silence be broken: with strike action? With evidence after the 1st April that licence holders are being driven out of the trade by the new vehicle age restrictions? And if the council was so both- ered about emission levels, why did they choose to go down the route of a vehicle age policy, instead of emission levels (ie. Euro 4, Euro 6 etc) on each type of vehicle?
Meetings where lip service is paid to the trade are one thing; proper constructive communication is quite another. We will watch this situation with interest.
MARCH 2020
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