AND ITS EFFECTS ON LICENCE HOLDERS
• Financial help from the point of initial lockdown to help drivers stay at home!”
BASILDON:
According to the local press in the area, taxi drivers in Basildon say they are being put at risk during the crisis by having to complete MoTs and pick up their taxi licence in per- son.
Michael Guyll, chair of the Essex Taxi Propri- etors’ Association, has called on the council to follow Government guidelines and sus- pend MoTs for six months.
He said: “Our taxis have their MoTs at Barley- lands recycling depot where the mechanics who test them are the same mechanics who service and repair our refuse trucks. Why risk the health of cabbies and contract mechanics by forcing us to have this second MoT within a year?”
PHTM spoke with Keith Beadle, secretary of NPHTA affiliated Basildon Borough Hackney Carriage Association.
Keith told us: “Basildon Council is different from most areas as they use the council depot, staffed by an outside company to do the twice-yearly tests. The depot is fully maintained with appropriate PPE and disin- fection regimes in place. This has led to drivers continuing to work having to attend tests.
“Drivers who have been advised to not work due to their own or family health issues or just not working, can contact the council and on case by case basis, have the test put back until they are due to work.
“Again on a case by case basis, the council can give you the option to pay the licence fee by standing order over a six-month period.
The licensing staff are available during work- ing hours, either working from home or one being at the office. Visits can only be made by appointment. Payments online and copies of documents can be emailed in, to ease visits required to the Licensing Depart- ment.
“The council has been issuing as much infor- mation as they can to the trade and we as the HC Association have been in regular contact over operator/driver concerns, including PPE, perspex screens for saloon cars etc. They have inspected a saloon vehi- cle that had a screen fitted across the vehicle, to separate the front from the back and passed it and this has now been fitted to a number of vehicles. We are just waiting for a vehicle to have the driver-only shield to be fitted and approved.
“The council has decided to take this profes- sional and pragmatic approach to ensure driver and passenger public safety. They are reviewing the actions taken regularly and may well follow other councils if this turns into a long-term lockdown. But by allowing us to also keep our members informed and advising on benefits etc, it has kept com- plaints down to a minimum.
“They will not stop drivers wearing face masks, but have not issued formal approval. If a customer complains they will review on a case by case basis and unless the driver can be proved to be abusive, will usually go along with the driver because of safety and if the driver is an association or union mem- ber, they will allow representations at any review
“As with most licensing authorities in the country, Basildon Council is awaiting firm guidance from the Government on safety for drivers and the general public, every- thing from PPE usage to safe disposal of same and therefore are treating all issues on a case by case basis without issuing written instructions.”
CORBY:
The trade in Corby is suffering the same level of financial setbacks as are most licence holders across the country; their tak- ings are already 75 per cent down during the lockdown. However, the Corby drivers’ main complaint with the council is lack of communication.
Taxi drivers in Basildon say they are being put at risk by having to complete MoTs and pick up their taxi licence in person
MAY 2020
The Corby Hackney Owners Association, in tandem with the local branch of Unite, wrote a very strong letter of complaint to just about everybody in the council, the local press, and their MP Tom Pursglove – who appears to have been the only person
who has acknowledged and replied to this particular, very powerful message.
They maintain that no advice or support has been offered by the council; reduction of services (only two days per week) is seri- ously hampering the required vehicle testing; emails are taking roughly a week to be responded to and phone calls are not being returned.
CHOA chair James Lafferty told PHTM: “I requested from the council procedures for the management of taxis in the borough during Covid-19; they organised a shutdown instantly for 12 weeks without informing anybody, and during this period of concern hackney and private hire vehicles were due to be tested. We discovered that other bor- oughs had adopted the policy of suspending council testing for at least three months as long as the vehicle has a valid MoT.
“An email was sent to Iain Smith, Head of Planning and Environmental Services, to alert him of the situation. He replied that he was aware of this, and suggested that the hackney and private hire [proprietors] of Corby could not be trusted to maintain their vehicles during the requested three-month suspension.
“Also, drivers who have been trying to get their eyesight test and medical have been cancelled; they did not respond to that mat- ter either.”
This is just a sample of a few licensing authorities’ Covid-19 lockdown policies, and the reaction from licence holders in those districts. The hue and cry from every- body within these pages, both licence holders and council officers alike: we’re desperate for more Government guidance.
You’ve seen more such reaction on the PHTM and NPHTA Facebook pages, and we would encourage anybody who wishes to contact either organisation with their views and experiences to do so, either through Facebook or email. We shall endeavour to make sure those views are heard by Government.
https://www.facebook.com/
phtm.newspaper
https://twitter.com/ phtmnewspaper
info@phtm.co.uk info@nphta.co.uk
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