LOCAL AUTHORITY POLICY DURING LOCKDOWN
“Private hire vehicle licences are not capped, so PHV proprietors can lapse their vehicle licences and apply and be granted a new PHV licence after the Covid-19 lock- down has been lifted. Are hackney carriage proprietors in Birmingham being unfairly targeted during the lockdown? Is this the council’s pay-back time for the plethora of hackney carriage demonstrations last year against the city’s CAZ policy towards hack- ney carriages and the non-exemption of hackney carriages from day one of its implementation as in other cities? YOU decide!
“The trade is on its knees; there’s no air- port work, there’s very little work anywhere. You can’t get a medical. I firmly believe it is wrong for any hackney car- riage proprietor to have to leave home to have their taxi re-licensed and thereby protect their business in this way. In the absence of any advice to the contrary on the council’s taxi re-licensing webpage, proprietors have to assume that it is ‘busi- ness as usual; get your taxicab re-licensed, risking death in the process, or loss your business altogether.
“Councils in the larger cities, including Lon- don and Manchester, have suspended their vehicle licensing procedures for three to six months. Their officers have been Covid-19 PRO-active in their advices to their respec- tive committees and thereby protecting their licensed drivers as much as is humanly possible!!”
NOTTINGHAM:
We got in touch with Azeem Hanif, chair of United Private Hire Drivers (UPHD) in Not- tingham, for his views. He told PHTM: “We have had no direction on Covid-19 from Nottingham City Council Licensing (NCCL) other than to be directed to the govern- ment website for further details.
“Procedurally the only thing that has changed is an on-line application for renewals and booking of badges/MoT’s. NCCL are not taking on new applications at this time, which is interesting as this is effectively capping the number of PHVs so if this is “legal”… We have been asking for years for NCCL to cap the number of PHVs but yet they refuse stating it’s not in their hands as an authority. Interesting, that…
“Although the bottom has fallen out of our industry, there are still small pockets of work and as they do their own MoT’s direct- ly, the council’s Eastcroft facility has remained open with one lane as opposed to three, presumably due to staffing issues. But NCCL has not given any
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extensions/exemptions or delays in MoTs and sadly we are still paying the full fees. “NCCL has not lowered fees in any respect but more importantly, the taxi strategy that was given the go-ahead from 2017 to com- mence 1st Jan 2020 for cleaner more lean vehicles and ULEV/Euro 6 compliance and age policy has not been postponed but has been adhered to for PHV. The council has given three months for hackney London style taxis as an extension on replacement vehicles but not as an MoT.
“Rushcliffe Borough, Gedling Borough and Broxtowe Borough have given no clear guidance or given any financial incentives to drivers either, so all the above is true for these boroughs around Nottingham.
“NCCL medicals are carried out by the national company called Merrygold. They closed their surgeries due to Covid-19 and I had agreed with the regulatory commit- tee for self-certification for drivers temporarily during this time. However, NCCL directly approached one qualified Merrygold doctor to perform medicals and he agreed, so out the window went the self-certification and now the payment for the medical is due as well. We have tried unsuccessfully to extend MoTs for three or even six months.
“Many drivers across the city have been angry that they have been left holding the financial can and have had no support from the licensing department. It’s clear to see that its financially driven to keep the rev- enue coming into the council where possible. It’s putting not just financial strain on drivers but the mental health issues and the potential of losing everything is a human tragedy.
“It’s a travesty of justice that at this most vulnerable time when we expect some assistance that we get left behind. I’m sure our sector will not be the only one affected. This is one of many reasons many drivers in Nottingham just don’t trust the licensing department.”
SALFORD:
PHTM spoke with Tom Rook, champion of the wellbeing of private hire drivers in Sal- ford. This is what he had to say:
“As chair of the City of Salford Private Hire Association, I have been keen to get the best possible Health and Safety advice for the trade, including millions of private hire passengers, during this pandemic. I’ve researched what other countries have done and questioned officers on types of PPE we should be using and proposed changes to
Tom Rook
the way we should work, but at the end of the day, I feel the UK private hire trade has been greatly let down by the Government.
“We surveyed the trade locally on a number of issues relating to reducing the chances of catching this deadly Covid-19; the major- ity of those surveyed agreed that there should be a maximum number of two pas- sengers in a PHV and the front seat shouldn’t be used, unless there was a gen- uine reason for doing so.
“One operator wrote: ‘We have had two calls in the last two days asking for a cab for four people; when told they would need two PHV’s, both declined and they stated they would call another operator.’ The trade needs to be guided and enforced by those who should be more knowledgeable - ie. the DfT
“In Spain, motorists are mandated a maxi- mum number of passengers and both driver and passengers should wear masks, yet in the UK there’s no such guidance!
“Salford Council officers have been very good in sending out information on helping the trade with financial and health advice, plus I received some news today, relaxing the ten-year maximum PHV age restriction; also the Greater Manchester emission zone charging has been put back.
“What would I personally like to see?
• DfT Decision - maximum one - two pas- sengers per trip
• DfT Decision - passengers to be seated in rear of vehicle at all times
• DfT to state PPE required • DfT to promote free Coronavirus testing for the trade
MAY 2020
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