ROUND THE COUNCILS NOTTINGHAM:


GLASGOW: DRIVERS GET HUNDREDS OF PENALTY POINTS


Taxi drivers have racked up nearly 700 penalty points since a controversial scheme was launch- ed by Nottingham City Council to cut bad behaviour from the trade. Nottinghamshire- Live reports that drivers say officials need to be lenient and allow them more time when dropping people off. Parking in bus stops, on double yellow lines, and switching off the meter can see taxis issued with penalty points. Drivers can receive up to 12 points over a three-year rolling period before their licence will be reviewed. But if they exceed 12 points, action is taken and their licence can be suspended. The Driver Improve- ment Penalty Points Scheme


(DIPPS)


was introduced by the city council on April 1, 2017. The aim of the scheme was to improve overall driver be- haviour, customer service and passen- ger safety. Points are handed out by the council’s community protec- tion


officers


(CPOs). Between April and December in 2017, a total of 301 DIPPS notices were is- sued. But the number has risen this year: between January and August 2018 392 DIPPS notices have been issued and 19 drivers inter- viewed.


22


Chander Sood, 59, acting chair of Unite, said that drivers had become “easy targets” and there is “less space to park” in the ranks. He said: “In the city centre we have a 411 fleet and in the day- time there are 60 to 62 spaces - so how can you justify that?” However, the city council said there are more than 90 hackney


rank


spaces in the city. Mr Sood also be- lieves trade has dramatically dropped from drivers making £250 to £300 a week to now earn- ing between £100 and £140. He blames private hire drivers who are snatching trade by illegally plying for hire on the city streets at night. This year, 14 Not- tingham City Coun- cil-licensed drivers have had their licences reviewed for illegally plying for hire, using infor- mation gathered from police-led operations and evi- dence from CCTV. Five drivers who received their li- cence from Gedling Borough Council have also been reported for illegally plying for hire as well as one Rush- cliffe


Borough


Counci l - l icensed driver. Mr Sood added: “The night work is dying out so more hackney drivers are coming out in the morning. There are


two reasons for this - plying for hire is not under control and people are not coming out into the city so much.” Javeed


Akthar,


senior manager for Nottingham Cars, which represents 400 private hire drivers, said: “The penalty point sys- tem is a good idea and it does keep drivers on their toes. “But some of them are being targeted too harshly and CPOs are not giving them enough time to drop off. They need to be lenient. It is affecting trade because drivers can be potentially sus- pended after


12


points.” A Nottingham City Council spokesman said: “The DIPPS was introduced on April 1, 2017 with the aim of improving driver behaviour, customer


service


and passenger safe- ty.


If the driver


receives 12 points within a three-year period, they are sub- ject to a review of their licence by the reviewing officer and a decision will be made whether or not to take formal action based on the individual circum- stances of each case. “The ‘Mytaxi app’ was introduced in Nottingham to help hackney


drivers


reduce the amount of time they were parked on ranks waiting for fares – many have reported this to be the case since.”


PRICES COULD RISE AFTER BLUNDER


Taxi fares in Glasgow could be set to rise again next year after the Traffic Commis- sioner for Scotland ordered a review saying the city’s pricing structure is “out of date”. Commissioner Joan Aitken upheld an appeal by cab driver Thomas McMahon, who claimed a 2.49 per cent increase, introduced in March this year, was based on flawed and out- dated information. Mr McMahon argued Glasgow City Coun- cil had breached rules after it took more than 18months


to implement fare rises recommended in a 2016 review. Under the Civic Gov- ernment (Scotland) Act 1982, councils are required to make price changes within 18 months of a fare scale review. But Ms Aitken found councillors increas- ed fares based on recommendations made by research body, Taxi Research Partners, more than two years ago. She upheld the appeal on


the


grounds the council had failed to comply with contemporane- ity rules and that


fare scales were fixed using out-of- date material. The council agreed to immediately re- view the scales based on informa- tion up to and from the beginning of last month. The council made the changes in res- ponse to concerns that app-based firms were taking busi- ness from traditional taxi companies. Cus- tomers now have to pay a £3 initial fee – up from £2.80 – plus additional costs for the remaining dis- tance and time spent in the cab.


WEST YORKSHIRE: CROSS BORDER CRACKDOWN BEGINS


A new partnership will see local author- ities in the area working together to make it more diffi- cult for taxi and private hire drivers to break the law. The five West York- shire local auth- orities and York have agreed to a joint enforcement partner- ship scheme which will ensure that action can be taken againstany driver licensed by any of the six councils where- ever they are operat- ing within the com- bined borders. Until now if one of the authorities check- ed a PH or HC vehi- cle licensed by an- other authority there was little they could do to stop it being driven illegally or unsafely.


But due to the new partnership, appro- priate action may be taken against a driv- er by the authority they are working in at the time. The cross border enforcement is the first of many pro- jects


the six


authorities – Brad- ford, Calderdale, Kirklees,


Leeds,


Wakefield and York - are working on to support the taxi and private hire trades and improve the safety and comfort of their passengers. Cllr Sarah Ferriby, the Council's execu- tive member


for


healthy people and places, told the Tele- graph and Argus: “It makes


absolute


sense to carry out cross border en- forcement – when


we travel by private hire or taxi we do not restrict our jour- neys to one area, so licensing authorities shouldn’t restrict the way we enforce the rules around driving those vehicles.” Shabbir Master of Bradford Hackney Carriage Owners and Drivers’ Associ- ation welcomed the move, but called for drivers who passed a check in one authority to be given a seven-day receipt which could be pro- duced to enforce- ment officers in other authorities. This would prevent the same vehicle and driver being checked multiple times in the same week as they trav- elled through dif- ferent council areas.


OCTOBER 2018


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