But for Wolverhampton to go on and suggest that any private hire driver/vehicle should be able to work for any operator anywhere without the triple lock in place is completely, and utterly irresponsible. Shame on you Wolverhampton licensing. Where is the accountability / paper trail of what the PHV driver is doing or working for?


Anyway, enough of that as it is all too depressing.


that the triple lock of the three licences (driver/vehicle/operator) within the same area, needs to be in place, as well as extending driver licence renewals to three years.


And talking about the triple lock, I was astonished to the point that unconsciously I found my jaw had dropped where Wolverhampton stated:


“To prevent the above Wolverhampton Council would support removing the triple lock, allowing all drivers to work for any operator and drive any vehicle. Operators should not need to apply for hundreds of licences. Licences should allow any operator to accept a booking for any licensed vehicle, driven by any licensed driver anywhere in the country. This will increase the availability of drivers and reduce costs to operators and lease companies as they only have to be licensed once.”


There are times when I would like to lock myself in a sound-proof room and have a friendly chat with the types of people who write such ridiculous things like that.


In my opinion, the only reason why Wolverhampton Council has suggested this is because it has a huge number of operators/companies licensed by Wolverhampton that are not physically in Wolverhampton. Can you guess how many cab companies there are? Over 400 for a population of around 250,00. Put that into comparison with Brighton & Hove that has a population of around 290,00 and has around 50. I wonder where all those Wolverhampton cab companies are in the city, he says tongue-in-cheek. I would imagine these are probably registered at PO Box addresses but if Wolverhampton would like to enlighten me then please do.


PHTM OCTOBER 2025


Chichester If you have been following my previous rants you will know that we have been having a major problem with being swamped with rubber-stamped Chichester driver/PHVs flooding Brighton and Hove, who, without a care in the world illegally use our ranks.


Chichester licensing has yet to address my question of why they do not have an English Language test and do not back council controlled CCTV, the lack of which is making it the ‘soft-licensing’ centre for the south-east, to get licensed there and then head back to predominantly work in Brighton & Hove.


At the time of writing, Chichester licensing has suddenly stopped acknowledging our complaints from the last few weeks regarding their PHV drivers illegally using our ranks. These are always supplied with clear photo/video evidence, so there is no excuse to ignore us. This is even after a warning email was sent out by


Chichester to all their drivers of the consequences of acting illegally.


I am also currently waiting (at the time of writing) for a promised response from the Chair of Chichester licensing as all complaints are now not only sent to Chichester licensing, but also to every councillor on the Chichester Licensing Committee, to ensure that they are fully aware of what is going on. I did have one very poor response from a licensing councillor who shall remain unnamed, but honestly you wonder how these people get onto such committees with so little knowledge of what they are actually in charge of.


Oh well…. let’s see what the government throws at us with the threat of the unknown… and what lady vampire has in mind to suck in every penny from us, so she can to fill the black hole that is now bigger then the alleged black hole that was there when she took over.


I am reminded at this point as to what the late great Kenneth Williams stated: “Oh,what’s the bloody point.”


67


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