ROUND THE COUNCILS THANET:
CALLS FOR TEST TO BE MADE EASIER
Cabbies are calling for strict licensing tests to be relaxed as Thanet has seen a huge drop in the number of taxi drivers operating in the area. Thanet District Council is being urged to overhaul the difficult and “increasingly pointless” local knowledge test requirement to tackle the shortages. Under the current regime, taxi and private hire drivers have to pass a four-part test, with sections on safeguarding, local knowledge, numeracy and traffic signs. The local knowledge section requires prospective drivers to get 18 out of 20 correct to pass. Andy Doody, chairman of the Thanet Private Hire Association (TPHA), represents the three biggest operators in the district. The 60-year-old veteran driver said: “Last year alone there were 101 fewer licensed vehicles in the area. That’s a terrific amount of drivers to lose in one year, and that was 2021-2022. 2022-23 is going to be even harder. Only nine new drivers have been licensed this year. That’s a drop in the ocean. This is why nobody can get taxis.” Mr Doody says the drop in drivers is causing problems for operators. He added: “You cannot physically get enough drivers licensed in a timely manner to get them through. It’s an absolute headache.” TPHA raised its concerns with the district council in a letter, telling the authority: “All three of our companies are now running with roughly 50% the number of drivers we had three years ago.” The council’s licensing board met on March 21 to discuss changing the tests required to obtain licences, with the aim of getting more people qualified. Council documents detailed that in 2022 alone, 101 drivers either closed or did not renew their licences, and 322 have let their licences lapse since 2017. A council officer said: “I would personally like to see it split a bit more so that there’s a private hire test and a hackney test, and then obviously the hackney one can concentrate more on local knowledge or how to get from A to B.” The licensing board instructed council officers to prepare changes to the knowledge test – simplifying the local knowledge needed for private hire drivers – and to report back to the board in the summer. However, Mr Doody said: “I honestly can’t see that happening by June or July.” In November last year Mr Doody and other local taxi operators met South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay
PHTM MAY 2023
(Con) to discuss the state of affairs, Mr Doody backs one of the ideas council officers were told to consider – that of an in-house trainer, hired by the council to teach prospective drivers for the course. He alleges that, since their November meeting, Mr Mackinlay arranged funding through the DWP to help with implementing in-house training, but the council refused this. A TDC spokesperson said: “Craig Mackinlay made an informal offer to the council, to approach DWP regarding setting up a course to train taxi drivers. Any proposed changes to the training process must be presented formally to the council’s Licensing Board. “Also, the council was already in the process of identifying ways of delivering these courses in-house, this has now been approved by the Licensing Board.”
WYRE: POULTON NIGHT-TIME DRIVER SHORTAGES
A shortage of taxis serving the ranks during busy late hours in Poulton during the weekends has been flagged up in a report. That was one one of the findings in the Tri-annual Hackney Carriage Unmet Demand Survey, commissioned by Wyre Borough Council. There has been unruly behaviour when people wait at the ranks, partly due to shortages of vehicles at those peak times on Fridays and particularly Saturdays. Poulton’s main rank is on Ball Street and there were no issues with getting taxis there at other times. Wyre council commissioned this survey to determine whether an increase in taxi licences, which have been limited to 160 since 1974, was required. However, the report said the issue in Poulton is not down to a shortfall in licences but because some drivers prefer to avoid working ‘awkward, late hours’ when things can get rowdy. The report by LVSA found that increasing the number of licensed plates would not solve that particular issue and it was resolved by the council to keep the existing limits in place until the next review. Methods to encourage more drivers to work these hours was seen as a better solution than issuing more licences. Some drivers were asking for more assistance from marshals at busy and rowdy times. A separate survey also identified a reduced level of wheelchair accessible hackney carriage vehicles in Wyre, with this also seen at ranks, finding that action was needed across the industry to address this issue, including a ‘change in attitude and operation’.
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