A WEEK IN THE DAY OF THE NPHTA
No, we didn’t make a typo in the header. Apart from the fact that it rhymes, the meaning will be made clear right now this minute: You’ve heard the much-used expression “A day in the life of…” We’ve turned it round to illustrate just how much work, and industry-based activity both for members and non-members alike, the National Private Hire and Taxi Association manages to get through. In fact, very often we do a week’s work in one day, so we thought we’d talk about that here.
Since last month’s PHTM came out, the amount of trade activity generally has been quite remarkable… and we’ve been in the thick of it. For example, last month yours truly was asked to join a selection of speak- ers to address, and field questions from, some 160 licence holders in Bradford who were gathered together by a new trade sup- port group called BTAG (Better Taxi Action Group).
Tell you what: I’ve not seen this level of attendance at a local trade group meeting (outside London) for a good while. It is reported that the group has the full support of five Bradford MPs; it is hoped that similar support can be gained from councillors and the local police.
The inaugural meeting discussed a list of nine items the trade wants to tackle with the council, all of which are both reasonable and achievable – with dialogue amongst the trade and the council. Whilst some of these agenda items dealt with the usual nuts-and- bolts aspects of licensing, by far the most emphasis was placed on driver safety, driver welfare, and overall respect for the taxi/PHV trade locally.
Several operators have joined together under BTAG and affiliated with the NPHTA – thanks guys! – and we’ve already started working through the list. Stand back and watch! Of course we’ll report on progress.
Then a few days later we set sail for London for a series of beneficial meetings and activ- ities. I had been cordially invited to meet with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Nusrat Ghani, to discuss disability training issues within the industry, following on from the Government response to the TFG report. The Minister is both very recep- tive and clued up on the current position, and she is particularly keen to improve dis- ability training for drivers.
We had over half an hour exchanging ideas amongst ourselves and two officers of the DfT. I had brought a small sample of articles (from PHTM of course) highlighting the two main problems for disabled passengers using taxis/PHVs: namely access refusal and over-
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These round table meetings have been ben- eficial from both sides; this third meeting really did stress the concerns and difficulties faced by licence holders in London and the “next five” to be impacted by the Clean Air Zone initiative: Birmingham, Derby, Leeds, Nottingham and Southampton.
charging. I have promised to make up a dossier of more information along those lines.
Ms Ghani asked many questions of us; the main one she asked me was: “What do you think would help the industry the most as regards moving forward on training issues – and industry reform generally?” My immedi- ate answer was: “Change the word ‘Guidance’ to ‘Statute’.” She got that…
The following day afforded three further opportunities for meetings, networking and updating: the first of these involved being in an audience who listened to the current Transport Select Committee, whose eight members spent an hour and a half posing questions to the Chair of the Task and Finish group in connection with his report and the Government’s response.
I had chance afterwards to have a brief word with Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge, whose Private Members Bill had been talked out in February 2018. He remembered that I’d emailed him at the time, expressing my regret at this action and saying that his Bill would be the ideal vehicle onto which so many industry initiatives could be attached to turn them into legislation. He said that this was one of the purposes behind the Select Committee: to get the gist of the most important issues with a view to try to resurrect the Bill. Yes please!
Then in the afternoon I had a long one-to- one meeting with one of the officers from the Taxis and Buses division of the DfT. It is a pleasure to report that our working relation- ship with that department is at an all-time high; we exchange emails on a regular basis, and they are very supportive of trade shows and events. You’ll see two of them at the next PHTM Expo in June. What becomes immedi- ately apparent is that they are very pro-active and user-friendly, always setting out to become more informed from sources “on the street”, as it were… ie. licence holders.
To that end, the final meeting that day was with the Joint Air Quality Unit of Defra, along with the DfT. This was the third of a series of round table meetings on the sub- ject of local Clean Air strategies; there were four officers from JAQU each making a pre- sentation, and then fielding questions from some eight industry stakeholders and group representatives (including yours truly).
We all know that London has now lifted the exemption from the congestion charge for PHV drivers in the capital, at the same time imposing a CAZ charge. Depending on the time of day, this can result in an additional £23 for each journey undertaken in and through the CAZ area. The campaigners in the capital are still trying to get the PHV congestion charge exemption reversed.
Next in line is Birmingham, whose taxi/PHV licence holders face paying a CAZ charge from the end of this year. Same with Leeds. The problems are identical throughout all the first/next targets for Clean Air charging, and inevitably throughout the entire list of 61 local authorities that have to adhere to the Government’s Clean Air requirements. These were stressed during the round table meeting: lack of available vehicles to meet the Clean Air criteria; lack of funding assis- tance to buy/lease those vehicles, and lack of a suitable charge point infrastructure enabling sufficient rapid charge points, which is the only feasible avenue for taxi and PHV drivers to keep their businesses going with electric vehicles.
The JAQU team said they’d take away our questions, suggestions and difficulties for further consideration. You’ll have another opportunity to listen to them, and exchange ideas with them yourselves, at the PHTM Expo on Wednesday 12 June, when two of the JAQU officers will address the initial Seminar of the day.
So this is just a sample of the sorts of activ- ities we get up to around here. Oh, I nearly forgot: two weeks ago we got somebody’s licence back for them on a Friday afternoon so they could work the weekend. This is typ- ical of what we do on a regular basis, without the licence holder having to endure expensive court proceedings: we write to advise our member of his legal rights, send him/her the relevant case transcript backing up that position, and advise them to attend (in person) their council’s legal department and say – in the politest possible terms of course! – “Excuse me, we believe you’ve got this wrong…” You’d be amazed how often that does the trick.
Want to try it out? Join the NPHTA and find out how we can help you.
www.npha.org.uk / 0161 280 2800
donnadale.npha@
btconnect.com
MAY 2019
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