The RMT, Unite and GMB are making you aware of the serious dangers of three amendments affecting the Taxi & Private Hire Vehicle trade, which the Department for Transport (DfT) have added to the Deregulation Bill at the last minute, with no proper consultation with stakeholders having ever taken place.
Amendment 8 – Allowing anyone with an ordinary driver’s licence to drive a private hire vehicle (PHV) when it is “off-duty”.
• This proposal will make members of the public vulnerable to illegal pickups when the (licensed) vehicle is being driven by an unlicensed driver.
• Enforcement against illegal use would be much more difficult with the local authority having to first prove that the vehicle was being used for hire and reward rather than social and domestic purposes.
• It also increases the potential for a member of the public to be picked up by an unscrupulous individual purporting to be a legitimate driver in a licensed vehicle.
• The DfT quotes London as an example of how Amendment 8 would work. However Police figures show that 214 women were sexually assaulted and 54 raped in the capital last year after getting into illegal minicabs.
• Amendment 8 makes the possibility for illegal pickups, sexual assaults and rape more likely and more difficult to police.
Amendment 9 – Making the standard duration for all taxi and PHV driver licences three years and five years for all PHV operator licences.
• Whilst the vast majority of Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle drivers and Private Hire Vehicle operators are persons of high integrity, it is unfortunately the case that the industry does attract a small percentage of unsuitable persons.
• Although most local authorities impose conditions on Private Hire drivers licences and Private Hire operators licences requiring them to report criminal convictions and changes to medical status within a specified period of time, this is often ignored.
• As a consequence, it is only the annual renewal process which enables the local authority to ensure that licensees have remained fit and proper for the duration of their licence.
• If this was extended to 3 years (or 5 years in the case of operators) a great many unsuitable and potentially dangerous persons would remain licensed for longer, putting the public at greater risk.
Amendment 10 – Allowing private hire operators to sub-contract bookings to operators licensed in a different district.
• The public will lose their right to choose, which operator they wish to travel with because they call operator A who is their preferred choice and operator B turns up.
• The customer may have experienced a whole number of problems with operator B previously. Surely if a member of the public calls a specific operator because they feel that operator is both reliable and safe to travel with then they should get who they ask for. If they wanted to travel with another operator then they would call them in the first place.
• Also by being able to pass jobs from one operator to another, the role of the local licensing enforcement would become impossible because currently only the licensing officers from a licensing authority area have the power to take enforcement action against the vehicle and driver.
• This proposal would result in vehicles and drivers working literally hundreds of miles from their licensing authority, with no controls putting the public’s safety at risk.
What You Can Do To Prevent This!
The RMT, Unite and GMB are asking you to support our National Campaign by asking your MP to remove amendments 8, 9 and 10 from the Deregulation Bill at the Report Stage for the safety and confidence of the travelling public and for the reputation and livelihoods of the Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle trade.
A number of MP’s have already pledged their support for our national campaign. I support the RMT, Unite and GMB National Campaign Petition and the lobbying of my MP in this cause.
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