AND ITS EFFECTS ON LICENCE HOLDERS
website as regards driver renewals. It is as well:
“You can only renew online if you're not due a DBS check, medical check or DVLA check. If you haven’t completed these checks before your licence is due to expire, we may not be able to renew your licence.”
PHTM asked Mr Gunn how he was going on during the lockdown: “Mine is rather a niche business; my passengers are mainly shipping agents in the Bristol ports, whom I meet at the local airport.
“That business has disappeared completely so I’m not working at all. I’m deciding whether to keep the car licensed for when more work becomes available again, but that won’t happen until flights start to resume of course.
I’m twelve months away from pensionable age, so do I hang on in there…?”
LONDON:
Hundreds – nay, thousands – of taxi and private hire vehicle drivers have turned to Transport for London for guidance as to how to carry on in the capital… and TfL has provided just that, in a seven-page Notice 05/20 which we’ll try to summarise here:
• Taxi/PHV vehicle licences which have expired or are due to expire between 23 March and 30 June 2020 will remain licensed for six months pending the full resumption of vehicle inspections and a decision by TfL on the grant of a new licence.
• Any vehicle licence that expired on or after 23 March and for which a booking was made for an inspection can continue to work.
• Limited capacity available at some inspection centres to license a taxi/PHV that is new to licensing… on a case-by- case basis… for licensing “in exceptional circumstances, to carry out critical work”.
And of course TfL provides a full list of links in order to read the various Government notices relating to how to carry on during the lockdown, whether to self-isolate and so on.
PHTM spoke to a couple of London drivers – both GMB members, incidentally - who’ve been in the trade a long time: the first is Mike Tinnion, a hackney carriage proprietor and driver for over 18 years. As Mike said: “Where to start? Quite honestly TfL can’t do any more than they’ve already done: they’re extending licences, carrying over medicals… But frankly the bulk of our business is over, for the rest of this year at least.
MAY 2020
“I’ve had four weeks off taxiing so far; I start- ed doing courier work, and deliveries for supermarkets. That means no contact with other people, which suits me at this time. I’ve seen quite a few minicabs about, but you don’t know if they’re carrying a friend, or taking the wife to the supermarket.
“There are the few isolated jobs, for NHS workers and other key people… but you go halfway across London for £10 and it’s not worth it. In these circumstances taxis and PHVs always take a hit. Sure, the big com- panies will survive, but one wonders about the future of the smaller firms. The require- ments for transport will no doubt change forever after this: when a company pays for the transport that’s fine, but when you have to pay for it yourself… different story.”
… AND FROM THE PRIVATE HIRE SIDE…
We also spoke with Simon Rush, a TfL licensed private hire driver who’s been in the trade for 30 years. PHTM asked him how he thinks the future stacks up for London’s private hire trade: “Badly! Actually I’m one of the lucky ones: my wife is on full salary and we have a small mortgage… but most drivers are hand-to-mouth and if they can’t drive, they can’t pay – end of.
I’ve got no problems with TfL in their approach to the Covid-19 lockdown, and their communication with the trade. Medi- cals might be a problem going forward; we’ll just have to see. I work on about half a dozen different circuits, mainly within the executive market. Some of these have had to shut their sites down.
“When your business is centred around air- port work, conferences, tourist activity and bespoke corporate tours, this situation is desperate. Also, how do you do ‘social dis- tancing’ within these fields? Not in the executive market… Getting back to ‘normal’ – whatever that will be – is going to be a very slow process. The Government’s 80 per cent contribution based on net, and not gross, isn’t covering the trade’s expenses sufficiently at all.”
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE MIDLANDS BIRMINGHAM:
Well, Birmingham City Council is getting a roasting. Why? Because all they seem to have supplied to the trade on their website is the general information about keeping safe, washing hands, self-isolating if you have symptoms yourself… and “Where pos- sible, asking about symptoms before a passenger is picked up”. ??? How do you do that exactly: “Have you got a cough?” “Have
you got a temperature?” “Are you struggling to breathe? – well, I can’t take you then…” How does that stack up legally with a hack- ney carriage refusal? A sure-fire way for the licensed driver to get a smack in the mouth? YOU decide!!
There is actually a standard clause under the driver renewal section which reads: “If you have an expired medical certificate or DBS please complete and submit the driver renewal application below as this now requires you to make a declaration of fitness / no new convictions.” Is this because of the Covid-19 lockdown? – or is it standard pro- cedure.
Zak Kowalski – a long-time Birmingham hackney carriage proprietor - has expressed more than a large degree of concern over the lack of communication emanating from the council. He’s worried that the vehicle testers are not wearing masks; you have to leave the cab outside the testing station and you don’t know which, or how many, testers have been inside the vehicle.
He’s tried no end of times to get a response as regards relicensing his taxi, even enlisting the assistance of a councillor, and has got nowhere. We know the feeling!
The NPHTA attempted to contact Birming- ham licensing on five different occasions: 19 March, 23 March, 14 April, 16 April and 23 April, in respect of their up-to-date proce- dures during the Covid-19 lockdown. We got no response to any of these emails.
As regards hackney carriage vehicle licence renewals, Zak told us that if the vehicle licence lapses beyond a month of the vehicle’s renewal date during this deadly Covid-19 lockdown period, you have to go in front of Committee - and there is no guarantee that they will renew the licence. And because Birmingham’s hackney plates are capped, you could lose your plate and there would be no new plates issued.
Zak Kowalski 27
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 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112
