MARCH 2009
CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
mately 85,000 licensed taxis in Great Britain, it is also clear that none of them meets the enhanced standard, because nobody has made a vehicle at that level yet. To my mind, nobody ever will. However, the document also says that this enhanced standard vehicle is going to cost £30,000. I’m going to put rather a large question mark against that; estimates that I have received suggest that it’s going to be nearer the £40,000 mark. But what- ever... 85,000 times £30,000 is to my reckoning £2,550,000,000. Two billion, five hundred and fifty million pounds.
Of course if the vehicle were to cost £40,000, this would amount to £3,400,000,000. That’s three billion, four hundred million pounds.
As I write this article, the latest news is that the Royal Bank of Scotland are reporting a record loss of £24.1 billion pounds. It looks like they may need a bit of assistance. And I am here to say that if this ultimate vehicle ever does arrive, not only will the trade not be able to afford it; but even if you could get the loan to build it, the banks haven’t got the money to give it to you. If you ever did get a loan to build it, it is certain that no taxi driver would be able to show an income which was large enough to repay the loan to acquire one.
So obviously major motor manufacturers and taxi builders are definitely going to be chasing the ultimate vehicle.
Paragraph 2.11 in this 60-odd page document embodies the situation which has existed from the moment this legislation was passed by the House. In case you have not seen it, I will set it out below:-
“It is clear from the data [about the makeup of the current licensed taxi] that there are certain risks that the Government wishes to avoid in tak- ing this work forward. We do not wish to pursue any policies that might lead to fewer wheelchair accessible taxis being available. We do not want to create any difficulties for a local licensing authority who may have already adopted a policy of only licensing wheelchair accessible taxis.
“We also do not want to implement a policy that might mean licensed hackney drivers transfer en masse into the private hire sector, or leave the industry altogether. What we do want to achieve is an improvement in technical standards, for more taxis to be available to disabled people so that they can have access to jobs, services and social networks, and for the taxi trade to remain viable.
“We also want to continue to permit local licensing authorities to impose their own conditions to suit their own local circumstances, and for other aspects of the journey to be improved, for example boarding, driver assistance, and interchange with other public transport modes.”
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At the end of that section a question is posed: What is your view of the analysis and data included here, and the impact assess- ment? Do you have any further or more accurate data that you would be able to send us?
I’m not quite sure how the guys on the rank are going to cope with that question, but we’re sending the Department for Transport a collection of calculators in the hope that they can re-visit a lot of the sums in their doc- ument.
In short, this is a total mess, and we don’t know where to go. When I say “we”, I mean just that: the Department for Transport, the Government, local authorities, disabled groups, and the taxi trade.
The document then goes on to set out in similar unclear terms three pos- sible options:
A do-nothing option. That is followed by two questions: Q2: What do you think are the potential impacts, costs and benefits of the do-nothing scenario? Q3: Do you have any further or more accurate data on potential costs and benefits of a do-nothing scenario that you would be able to send us?
Question 2, if put to the average taxi driver in a saloon car, might raise a thumbs-up from him because if nothing was done, he’s the only person in this country who is not impacted on if indeed we do end up doing noth- ing. But if you then go on to ask him question 3, and he provided a breakdown of the time and costs that he is already experiencing, the num- ber of hours he has to work to earn a very small income, that might just persuade some people to choose the do-nothing option, especially at this moment in time. It’s possibly the only way to go.
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