GMB PERSPECTIVE A VIEW OF THE TRADE FROM THE SOUTH COAST
This month’s very welcome GMB editorial contribution is from Andy Peters, secre- tary of the GMB Brighton and Hove Taxi Section:
“I have been in the trade for 36 years since I was 21, and have seen a lot of council offi- cers and indeed many local councillors come and go. I will say that in Brighton and Hove we have a very good relationship with our council officers and councillors, and we meet on a regular basis at our Trade Forum Meetings with all the local trade reps.
“I consider our relationship to be extremely lucky indeed as I know that this is not the same in other areas. We don’t necessarily get our own way all the time, but because of the good cross-party relationship we have, we always have the opportunity to present our case. Hopefully this relationship will con- tinue for many years to come.
“I would also like to take the opportunity to state that our council has been applauded by the trade with a recent court win against an appeal by a locally licensed driver where the council’s decision to revoke the driver’s licence [due to alleged sexual acts commited against several passengers] was upheld on appeal by Judge Tain at Brighton Crown Court on February 15, 2019. This was the sec- ond appeal following the Justices’ decision to uphold the council’s action at Brighton Mag- istrates’ Court on December 17, 2018. This is what local licensing control is all about.
“It has been some months now since Uber won its appeal to retain its operator licence in the city and, as in every area where Uber holds a licence, we continue to see the deluge of PHVs and - I am sad to say - also hackneys licensed from other areas predominantly working here beyond the reach of their respective licensing enforcement. The main argument that Brighton and Hove Council submitted for the appeal was based on loss of local control of licensed vehicles and indeed this has escalated. This has been com- pounded by our next-door council, Lewes DC, which looks like it is on its way to becom- ing the next Wolverhampton. Where this once sleepy town had probably a couple of hundred PHVs/hackneys, we have now been told this has recently grown to around 1,200.
“The B&H taxi trade has never had an issue with any new operator wishing to work in the city. However what we continue to object to is PHVs from not only neighbour- ing areas such a Lewes DC but further afield
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complaints we now have trade-specific online complaint forms that our drivers can use to instantly upload with photographic evidence and send directly to the offender’s licensing department. I have even suggested to Havant Council that we should now charge £25 per complaint for acting as their unofficial enforcement officers. Incidentally, I have found that Havant Council is notorious- ly slow in responding to complaints about their licensed PHVs.
from Portsmouth, Southampton, Havant, Chichester and New Forrest and other areas predominantly working here. These drivers do not have to abide by our ‘Blue Book’ of conditions of licensing such as compulsory CCTV or passing the local ‘Knowledge Test’ for both the hackney and PHV trade - which takes a lot of work to achieve.
“Incidentally at one of our trade meetings an Uber legal bod had put in a proposal for the knowledge test to be removed for PHV drivers “as satellite navigation is better”! I then presented this Uber legal bod with a screen shot of an Uber journey in the city which was more than double the distance it should have been. I am very delighted to state that at that meeting the trade and indeed the local councillors didn’t ‘go around the houses’ and put Uber straight on this and our standards remain high!
“We are pleased however that under the infamous ‘Uber Mythical Regions’ the likes of Wolverhampton PHVs are no longer here and sleeping night in and night out on the sea front at the car park near the prestigious Roedean Girls School. And yes, we have videos of these sleepy drivers tucked up for the night in their cars.
“One of the many issues is that the B&H taxi trade is now engaged in acting as unpaid unofficial ‘enforcement officers’ for all of these out of town vehicles, many of which are not even displaying the correct livery to comply with their own licensing conditions. We have reported many out-of-town drivers/PHVs working completely against their own respective conditions such as where they can only strictly be used for chauffeur work under an exemption to dis- play licence identification. Lewes DC has had many of its cars reported for infringements.
“Sadly we also have to constantly report a lot of these out-of-town vehicles actually sitting on taxi ranks, which we all know is totally illegal. Because of the amount of
“We do actually have some sympathy with the licensing officers of all these out-of-town cars that we complain to, but we have now found that there has been a slowdown in responding to our complaints and it now appears to us that ‘out of sight-out of mind’ seems to be the policy now.
“However we are very alarmed at the lack of attention of a specific licensing authority which is even issuing licences against its own conditions of licensing by ‘dual licensing’ TfL PHVs where its own conditions of licensing forbids this, although for some reason TfL allows it. It is only via our own investigations that the respective council becomes aware on each occasion which is quite astonishing! And yes.... this is good old Lewes DC.
“We can only conclude that those TfL drivers must be trying to circumvent the ‘Uber Mythical Regions’ rule to remain as being TfL licensed but also being licensed by another authority and thus being able to work in Brighton & Hove. But... we have a good net- work of eyes in the trade being alert to these types of licensing infringements.
“The only answer to this much disliked cross border hiring is a change in legislation, and the GMB under Mick Rix has been involved with the recent recommendations although we won’t hold our breath for the govern- ment to take action; although knowing how things like this work there will be plenty of lobbying from the likes of Uber to prevent any changes - which means the public has no idea what area the car they are being sent is licensed in.
“That’s it for now but if I am invited back again I can report on our forthcoming fare review, updated WAV policy, electric cabs, and ‘The battle of the Roundabout’!”
Andy Peters Secretary GMB Brighton & Hove Taxi Section
andy.peters@
gmbtaxis.org.uk
MAY 2019
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