Whilst most of us sat by and watched the London Trade fight for our livlihoods last week, one Trafford PH driver went down and joined the Demo, he showed real support....err ..unless he went there because he knew UBERK would have been surge pricing whilst the demo was on.
Nobody would be that sly though, would they ?
Well actually they are illegal in Gtr MCR, and elsewhere in the UK where the LGMPA 1976 applies.
-----------------------------------------
ST HELENS Council is to call on government to implement stricter standards for taxi driver licences to protect public safety.
A motion put forward by Cllr Dave Banks at the town hall last Wednesday outlined how changes introduced by the Deregulation Act of 2015 and cross border working are "impacting significantly on the ability of licensing authorities to enforce their statutory functions appropriately".
It says there is no specific legislation to prescribe checks an authority must carry out when considering applications for a hackney carriage or private hire driver’s licence, stating "this is left to the individual licensing authority to determine".
While pointing out St Helens has "stringent checks", the motion says the "nature of the checks carried out by other licensing authorities can vary across the country" leading to "concerns that there may be a risk that drivers and vehicles, that have been refused or revoked in St Helens, may still have access to work in the borough".
It adds as other authorities "may not have the same level of checks" there is concern this could "impact on public safety in St Helens".
The motion, seconded by Cllr Andy Bowden, says the council is to request a set of "robust common standards" that all licensing authorities must adhere to and regulations to prescribe "how the standards should be delivered to prevent ‘weaker’ standards being applied".
It will also seek for drivers to be licensed in the area they live and primarily work with a "minimum requirement" on number of jobs a driver must fulfil to retain a licence.
It adds "safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults in licensed vehicles should be made a priority".
Cllr Bowden said: "In St Helens we set high standards and our licensed taxi drivers work hard to meet and maintain that standard.
"This is not always the case for drivers licensed outside our borough and the current legislation around licensing makes it impossible for the council to take action against them. This puts into question the safety of our public.
"Taxis can be transporting our most vulnerable residents about, from SEN children to young men and women at three and four in the morning who have enjoyed a good night around town, and because of this standards need to be high, drivers are in a position of responsibility, the safety of that passenger is in their hands.
"So we need to be confident about the drivers, their backgrounds and abilities."
He added: "There are good operators and drivers, no question about that, but we also know people are abusing the weakness in the legislation.
"Nationally the case of John Warboys and the Rotherham sex abuse scandal have highlighted the vulnerability of passengers and risk of child sexual exploitation.
Drivers themselves are at risk of exploitation. Licensed hundreds of miles from where they operate, put on expensive and dubious training courses provided by the operators and put in accommodation provided by the operators again at high cost.
"Modern day slavery takes many forms."
Cllr Bowden added: In Parliament there is a private members bill to be presented in February looking for improvements in the legislation.
"This motion therefore sets out what the government needs to do, robust standards across the board."
http://bit.ly/2BjVBOW
-----------------------------------------
Royal Dutch Shell has applied for a private hire licence in London in a bid to pilot its own Uber-style service.
The application was submitted to Transport for London in July for its FarePilot app, which tells drivers where there is high demand for taxis and gives them the option of accepting a fare.
Shell's application, if successful, will expand the app to include a full taxi booking service, marking the first attempt by an oil company to test the waters in the car booking market.
Read more: Shell tie-up with car giants takes electric vehicle charging across Europe
However, City A.M. understands Shell is not intending to directly compete with Uber.
“Drivers often ask us if we could further help them by giving them optional supplementary driving jobs and this is something that we are investigating, but no decisions have been taken to go live with such a product,” a FarePilot spokesperson said.
http://bit.ly/2DpwsnS
No comments:
Post a Comment