WOLVERHAMPTON PHV SIGNAGE
sport provision across the country. They quite rightly point out that PHVs cannot be hailed by the public, but must be pre-booked with the operator. We firmly believe that is the only significant difference.
• The drivers go through the same DBS enhanced security checks, medicals and knowledge/ safe- guarding tests, with licence badges to prove it.
• The cars are inspected according to the same strict regimes every year to ensure safety, quality and insurance and are given licence plates to confirm that they meet the exacting standards.
• The operators go through the same DBS vetting regime and on-site audits on a regular basis to ensure that staff, vehicle and customer records are all kept securely and that all HMRC, Information Commissioner and Companies House requirements are followed.
Traffic can be a nightmare on Sheppey, with only two bridges going on and off the island - one of which rises to let boats through, There are regular traffic jams which can add over an hour to a journey to the nearest mainland town of Sittingbourne. In a taxi the meter is still running and we have heard instances where customers have paid 50% over the standard fare due to traffic. In a PHV the fare is set at the time of booking based on the shortest/quickest route calculated by the computer system. If we get stuck in traffic, the company and driver stand the loss, not the customer.
So why are PHVs being treated as providing a second class service? Why are we being forced to remove our logos and lose the public presence we have worked hard to develop over the last ten years? We acknowledge that there should be a distinction between taxis and PHVs, but there are much better ways to do this, most obviously with the illuminated TAXI sign on the roof, or differentiating colours for taxis, like Swale have.
MAKE IT HARDER FOR BOGUS PHVS TO OPERATE
Removing the signage from PHVs and making them look like private personal vehicles plays into the hands of unscrupulous fraudsters, making it easier for them to turn up at events (often in the dark), and masquer- ade as legitimate PHVs. At least with fake logos the legitimate PHVs operators/drivers in the area can easily identify and report them to get them off the road.
Consider an analogy; if you wanted to buy Marks & Spencers food would you buy it from an unmarked van?
PHTM SEPTEMBER 2024
I think not. Our customers are used to our quality service and quite rightly associate our logos with that service. Are we now supposed to encourage them to expect the same from a vehicle which doesn’t bear our logos?
Now, when it comes to the rest of your Guidelines I find it amusing that the DfT is not considered infallible by the licensing authorities across the country. Section 8.13 relates to the carrying capacity of vehicles, specifically in relation to the carrying of children. You advocate that under 3 year olds should NOT count towards the maximum carrying capacity, whereas over 3s should. Even Wolverhampton Council has gone against this and retained its common sense policy that as soon as a child has a head you can touch, it counts. So, a couple with 3 children aged 6, 4 and 2 could not all travel together in a vehicle licensed for 4 passengers.
I had just such a case last week and I had to apologise profusely to the father and say I couldn’t take him. Instead I got our controller to add on a second job so I could go back for the father as soon as I had dropped off Mum and the children. If I had acquiesced and allowed all 5 to travel together and then had an accident would the police have accepted the DfT Guidelines? Would our insurer have accepted it? Again, I think not. This shows that the DfT’s Guidelines are not infallible and I would urge you to review the entire best practice document introduced by your predecessor, especially the requirement to remove door signage, in light of the extent of the objections.
To quote some of our passengers in the last few days, this loss of livery is: “ridiculous”, “it worries me”, “dangerous”, “stupid”, “not safe”, “it’s not fair”, “that’s staggering”, “are they bonkers?”
On the first day of operating without our full livery we experienced six of our regular customers refusing to get into the vehicle that was sent for them purely because it didn’t have the familiar yellow iCars logo on the side. Are they wrong, or are they smarter than the DfT?
Please feel free to contact us to discuss this further, but more than that, please review your Guidelines. We hope that you have more common sense than your predecessor.
Yours in serving our communities Neil McLennan and Janice Crawford iCars (Swale) Ltd
https://www.icarswale.com
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