IN THE NEWS
PLYMOUTH TAXI SHORTAGE AS ONLY TWO BLACK CAB DRIVERS ARE AGED UNDER 30
Plymouth’s taxi driver shortage is likely to get even worse as it emerges the city has only two black cab drivers aged under 30 and many are over 60 and heading towards retirement. Accorcing to the Plymouth Herald, the Plymouth Licensed Taxi Association (PLTA) said it is struggling to find young people who want to work in an industry beset with unpopular regula- tion and expense - and botheration from drunk passengers. Martin Leaves, secretary of the hackney cabbies’ PLTA, said the city should have 349 hackney drivers, but there are only 309 at the moment - and 81 of them are aged over 60. He said: “We need younger drivers, there are only two that are under 30. I’m 48 and most drivers are 50-plus.” Plymothians have been reporting extensive waits for taxis since the city unlocked following the Covid pandemic restrictions. In 2021 Plymouth Live reported that dozens of cabbies had quit the trade during the pandemic, lured away by delivery driver jobs or returning to Europe post-Brexit. It was estimated as many as 400 hackney and private hire drivers had left the industry. Figures showed the number of private hire drivers had slumped from 803 to 690, but the numbers include several that are not working full time. Mr Leaves blamed many factors includ- ing mounting costs and bureaucracy and said there was a particular shortage of drivers prepared to work nights, especially at the weekend because of “intoxicated customers”. Mr Leaves said: “There is a lack of drivers that want to work at night. Some drivers are saying there is too much aggro to work Saturday evenings.”
He said other factors were making life difficult for black cab drivers too. He said: “There are overheads. The vehicles are getting more expensive.
MAY 2022
£250 if you have a white cab, but to wrap a black cab is more. How many white ones are out there?”
And the red tape imposed on taxi drivers is not helping.” This includes Plymouth City Council’s recent approval of the Hackney Car- riage and Private Hire Licensing Policy 2022. The policy removes the limit on hackney cab numbers and insists the famous black cabs are coloured green and white by 2027 - something Mr Leaves said will cost money. Mr Leaves, a taxi driver for 18 years, said he had been told by the council it would cost £250 to change the livery of a taxi. But when he contacted one garage he was quoted £2,700 to wrap a black cab.
He said 85% of cabs made by the LEVC are black and those by Mercedes are “mostly black”. He said: “We believe it’s
Cllr Chaz Singh, chairman of the council’s Taxi Licensing Committee, said more drivers were needed and explained: “We need loads of drivers, especially as the economy is picking up and events are starting to come on again. We have to make sure we can meet the demand of the public.” Cllr Singh said he was confident drivers would be recruited and said moves have been made to encourage former members of the Armed Forces, for example. And he said that as chair of the taxi licensing committee he had been instrumental in the increase in fares for hackneys in a bid to encourage people into the industry But other incentives may be needed and Cllr Singh said: “We want people from all walks of life to become taxi drivers, because we have got a lot of aged drivers. “So it is how do we incentivise people into the trade? Can we give them some kind of incentive from a financial point of view? The licences are not cheap.”
THREE LONDON BIKE TAXIS PROSECUTED FOR PLAYING MUSIC TOO LOUDLY
Three London bike taxi drivers have been fined for playing music too loudly in the West End. Metro reports that the unnamed trio were hit with total costs of £1,273 between them for causing annoyance, Westminster City Council said. The fines, recently handed out at City of London Magistrates Court, were at least double those given for previous offences. The riders were found to have played excessively loud music late at night, which disturbed locals and had ‘a negative impact on the health and
well-being of residents, businesses and visitors’, according to the council. Since the local authority and the Metropolitan Police teamed up to ‘tackle nuisance pedicab drivers’ in November last year, more than 45 have been reported for prosecution and hundreds have been moved on for blocking pavements. Most of the issues are thought to be occurring at Covent Garden, Soho, Leicester Square, Chinatown, and Mayfair. There are growing calls for the vehicles to be properly regulated.
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