FUTURE INDEPENDENCE OF LICENSED DRIVERS
TRANSFER OF LICENSING CONTROL TO PRIVATE SECTOR We have seen in recent years, a general trend towards increased use of online methods to pre-book licensed vehicles, for immediate travel. This has been coupled with a trend of reduced reliance on availability of hackney carriages at ranks and fewer hires from ranks. Hackney carriages have become increasingly reliant on obtaining pre-booked hires. In some localities, this has given rise to small numbers of large operators dominating the market, controlling the operation of both private hire and hackney fleets. As the dominance of large operators increases in some areas, this can limit the options for some licensed vehicle owners and drivers. The scope for competing independently can become more limited.
Coupled with the rise in dominance of some major operators, the burdens placed upon licensing services has increased in recent years, with officers asked to undertake more duties with fewer resources. As such, reduced enforcement resources and reduced regulation (such as removal of numerical limits to hackney carriage numbers) have helped to reduce the cost of running licensing services.
There is concern amongst some in the industry that reduced resources for licensing services coupled with increasing control through large corporate influences, is effectively passing much of the control of licensed vehicles into the hands of the private sector. Whilst licensing authorities can control maximum fares charged by hackney carriages, there is no such control of private hire fares. Indeed, increasingly, there is scope for large operators to control both the licensed vehicle fares charged by private hire and the availability of vehicles in certain areas. In the future, it could be the large operators who effectively control how many vehicles operate in particular areas and what fares are charged.
PROSPECTS FOR PASSENGERS AND ACCESS TO BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN BCP
The long term impact of deregulating hackney carriage numbers in BCP could potentially be counter intuitive, leading to reduced levels of service to the public at taxi ranks. The public hire sector is restricted to hackney carriages, however, demand in this sector has reduced in recent years. This reduction, together with anticipated future contraction in demand and coupled with increased supply of hackney carriages is unlikely to result in an ever more plentiful supply of hackney carriages waiting at the ranks.
Leaving aside the fact that there is no additional rank storage space proposed, increased reliance on pre-booked hires will limit the scope of the expanded fleet to service rank demand. We have observed examples in other places where an over supply of hackney carriages has led to limited availability of hackney carriages to service rank demand, whilst they are engaged in satisfying pre-booked hire demand.
68
Availability of a hackney carriage plate for all who want one, offers opportunity and unfettered access to a more diluted market, competing with an increased number of suppliers, in a more expensive vehicle than those operated by holders of existing hackney carriage licences. It has been seen that two- tier licensing conditions for hackney carriages can lead to plate values attached to older licences, where newer licences are limited to wheelchair accessible vehicles.
There are many authorities where this and other similar nuances in licensing mean people find a way to add value to their business that is not directly related to money-earning potential. We have even heard of private hire vehicle licences having such ‘plate’ values, mainly from ignorance, but also through limitation.
Are we heading for a national taxi licencing regime, perhaps run privately? The Law Commission review introduced the notion of the ‘public value’ test across a wide range of taxi licensing matters. This was widely lauded as sensible but has not moved forward. Any company of worth to its customers would be happy to substantiate such tests as it would most likely be doing this as part of its business model in any event.
So let’s open up the debate. Let’s ensure we put in place clear public value tests of any proposed changes in policy. Let us expect regulators to fulfil their duty of providing for the public interest. And then see them feel much more fulfilled in their career as they are able to prove and support elected member decisions as being right, proper and valuable as we move forward and ‘build back better’ as the new mantra that is starting to appear.
You can contact us by first emailing:
ian.millership@
lvsa.co.uk or
iain.macdonald@
lvsa.co.uk.
LVSA (Licensed Vehicle Surveys and Assessment) is a joint trading name of CTS Traffic and Transportation and Vector Transport Consultancy
www.lvsa.co.uk MARCH 2021
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96
