Issues relating to the licensing of taxis and private hire vehicles

Written evidence from Milton Keynes Council (TPH 39)

On behalf of this Council, I submit the following information and observations to assist the Committee in its deliberations.

1. Hackney and Private Hire Vehicles – General

1a). Figures 09/10

Milton Keynes Council currently licence 203 hackney carriage vehicles and 659 private hire vehicles

Licensed drivers total: 1034 (some drivers have both types of licence)

Operators for Private Hire: 69.

1b). Milton Keynes (new town area) has a highway network based on a gird system where most of the roads are designated as ‘Clearways’. They cannot be used to ‘ply for hire’ by hackney carriages. The hackney carriage drivers therefore have to trade mainly from designated taxi ranks, particularly at Milton Keynes Railway Station. They service the night time economy working from ranks within the Central Milton Keynes ‘city centre’ area i.e. night club / bar venues.

Milton Keynes Council has a policy of no limit on the number of hackney carriage vehicles that can be licensed. This approach is in accordance with advice from the Office of Fair Trading and prevents artificial trading barriers. Many local authorities have policies in place that artificially cap the number of hackney carriage plates issued. As the local authority has no powers to make those who leave the trade surrendering their licence, this means the holder can sell it on often giving an unearned windfall of many thousands of pounds to the holder. It also means that the local authority cannot license new applicants as the only way to enter is to pay this ransom. Authorities who limit numbers have to pay for unmet demand surveys to justify this approach.

1c) There are considerable tensions within the hackney carriage / private hire sectors in Milton Keynes because both parties are seeking business from the same customers. This results in claims of alleged illegal ranking up, plying for hire (blagging). The situation is exacerbated by private hire drivers from the adjacent administrative areas to Milton Keynes operating illegally on occasions with the tacit agreement of their operators.

There is tension between Milton Keynes Council licensed private hire and the hackney carriage trade over perceptions relating to private hire drivers waiting for pre-booked fares that give the impression that a ‘Plying for Hire’ offence is being committed.

2. Cross Border Activity

2a). There are several private hire operators based just over our Council boundary in South Northamptonshire. The largest of these is just 600 yards away and directs some 350 vehicles towards Milton Keynes. They are based there for a number of reasons some of which relate to local authority discretion. All the companies advertise as serving Milton Keynes through the use of multi-media channels. This approach inevitably attracts a lot of custom from our residents, and visitors as we have are a far larger population. - 237,000. They have both Milton Keynes postcodes and telephone numbers. We are aware that 95% of the largest company’s bookings are for work within the district of Milton Keynes. This approach creates friction between operators as they have to be very aggressive in their marketing and pricing. However it could be argued that the customer benefits from this approach which is commonplace in other areas of business. The hackney carriage trade generally do not adopt such techniques and rely on traditional metered fares and that fact they can ply for hire rather than be prebooked.

2b). Of the circa 1200 private hire vehicles covering Milton Keynes 29% (350) are licensed by South Northamptonshire Council the majority of their licensed drivers do operate legally but a significant proportion of our enforcement officer’s resources is spent monitoring the South Northamptonshire vehicles because of the level of complaints from our licensed drivers alleging suspected illegal activity; in the main ‘plying for hire’. These offences are at times difficult to prove beyond reasonable doubt as the South Northamptonshire Council licensed vehicles are waiting for a fare allocation in the Milton Keynes area.

A legal requirement to return to their own licensing authority boundary after completing a pre-booked journey would go some way to dealing with the issue.

3. In Terms of Enforcement Activity

3a) Between 2002 – 2008 a total of 58 drivers were prosecuted of which 33 (56%) were South Northamptonshire Council licensed drivers.

During 2009 – 2010 a total of 36 drivers were prosecuted of which 21(60%) were from South Northamptonshire.

3b) Police Checks – Vehicle Test Failures

Between 2007 – 2010 total of 157 vehicles failed 42(27%) were South Northamptonshire licensed Vehicles.

3c). Costs: The cost of properly resourcing comprehensive enforcement activity is considerable and we are only able to recover monies from South Northamptonshire operators and drivers when our legal proceedings have been successful. It is inequitable that Milton Keynes residents have to fund enforcement against companies and individuals who pay their fees to our neighbouring authority. The situation is exacerbated by the absence of any standards of good practice that could be used by all relevant licensing authorities. The trade would welcome this approach as it would create a level playing field from an administrative and enforcement perspective and it would make life a lot more straight forward for local authority officers

It is fair to state that Magistrates do take into account driver’s personal circumstances when sentencing and it is rare for full costs to be recovered by the enforcement authority so our fee structure needs to reflect this outcome as cost neutrality is a required outcome for the vehicle licensing service.

3d) Legislation caters for the licensing of vehicles, drivers and operators and there is an implied requirement to take the necessary enforcement action in accordance with the Council’s own enforcement policy.

4. Operators

4a) Within the private hire trade there appears to be tensions between the operators and their drivers. Most private hire drivers are self employed but they are required to undertake a contract with an operator in order to trade under their brand. They pay a weekly fee for the appropriate equipment to receive fares/bookings etc. this is sophisticated equipment and includes GPS tracker ands satellite navigation capabilities (hackney carriages generally do not have such equipment). The operators are therefore happy to maximise the number of drivers on their books whereas the drivers are looking for the Council to make it harder for new drivers to obtain a licence, once they have obtained their own, which is somewhat hypocritical.

5. Plying for Hire Offences

5a) the law in this area is difficult to enforce and requires complete reform following a ‘root and branch’ review of the current position involving all stakeholders and interested parties.

5b) There are many occasions when up to 65,000 people attend the Milton Keynes ‘National Bowl’ venue for a music concert. However when they are outside the venue and seek to get home, to a hotel or a transport hub, the outdated inflexibility of the current legal position works against those trying to provide a good ‘customer experience’.

Given that the local highway infrastructure has to cope with closures – public safety / traffic management ; the taxi ranks quickly become empty, then the drivers have difficulty in returning to pick up other people that expect a service – queues of 100’s soon form and stay into the early hours ! Hackney carriages returning to the rank are hailed and boarded before they can return to the agreed facilitation area for the waiting public. This also applies to drivers of private hire vehicles as the general public see all the vehicles as cabs or taxis. If a private hire vehicle is not pre-booked the driver will be very tempted to take on board non pre-booked passengers who are then travelling without any insurance in the event of a road traffic incident. This is when the safety of the travelling public is compromised and legislation breached.

5c) Hackneys that are licensed out of district can now work under the direction of an operator within another area on a pre-booked basis, which allows hackney carriages to travel and trade throughout the entire country. This will create even more discontent and confusion for the trade and the local authorities that receive complaints and allegations of ‘plying for hire’ out of district. In effect these hackney carriages are operating in a similar manner to a private hire vehicle except that the hackney carriage drivers do not know who their passengers are, whereas the private hire operator has accepted a booking from a named person, it is recorded and can provide some traceability to enforcement officers.

6. The need for reform

6a) Is there is still the need to have two types of licenses for this industry Our view is not, the edges of the two strands have become blurred in recent years and there is both confusion and apathy from the paying public. We need to respond positively to the customer desire for good service with an easy to understand structure.

6b) The various testing criteria for both sets of drivers and vehicles are similar. The key objective for both hackney carriages and private hire is to provide a safe transport option for the public. The vehicles sometimes even look similar. All the user wants is a ‘cab’ at a reasonable price that meets his / her travel plans. Greater weight should be given to customer requirements over the vested interest of drivers and operators. I would support a single status "Public Service Taxi" with streamlined legislative arrangements augmented by a Good Practice Guide that deals with the detailed arrangements. This will reduce red tape and enhance customer satisfaction. A similar model is used in the licensing of the alcohol / regulated entertainments and gaming sectors. Local authority practitioners, licensees and their legal representatives are used to this approach which works and can have the necessary safeguards.

6c) The licensing authority has discretion to require a ‘Knowledge test’, which can lead to significant variation to cross border standards. It would be helpful if there was some commonality. This could include requirements to meet customer care standards, meeting disability requirements, act in a non discriminatory manner, use of language, minimum arithmetic ability and other basic requirements for a taxi driver / operator. An enhanced driving attainment standard could also be considered as it is required for other public service vehicles.

Finally, this Council welcomes the opportunity to participate in this formal process and would be willing to provide expert evidence in person if considered appropriate.

December 2010