I’m a Hackney Carriage driver in Scarborough and on Friday night, 24 July 2009, I was a approached by a couple wanting a Taxi.
They asked me if I was available for hire and could I take them to the station. I thought it was a bit late to be going to the station but thought ’a fares a fare’ and said ‘no problem’ at this point they also asked if I was a Hackney or Private hire.
I thought that strange but answered ‘Hackney’. I took them to the station where they got out, without paying the fare. I had noticed a car following during the journey and now the car pulled up beside my Taxi and a Policeman and our chief enforcement officer got out and approached me.
Straight away the policeman warned me not to get aggressive and that they would like to check the car over. I said ‘OK’ the enforcement officer then approached me. She asked ‘where was my badge?’
I reached into the car and produced my badge. ‘Where is your red book?’ she then asked ‘ I haven’t got one’ I replied At this point she informed that it was an offence not to be wearing the badge at all times and I should have a red book (Hackney Carriage by laws) ‘I am suspending your licence till further notice’ she then said.
At this point the Policeman did his ‘Community Bobby Bit’ “are you havin’ a busy night then?” ” well I was” I replied less than heartily.
As luck would have it another Hack was passing and stopped to ask if ‘everything was alright’ as he was an association member I told him the story and he pointed out to the enforcement officer that I had a ‘right to appeal and that I should be able to carry on working until that appeal was heard’ She reluctantly agreed and let me go on my way.
I still never got paid for the fare and was left feeling like I had had a run in with some sort of secret police.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
admin, please dont give newcastle enforcent team any ideas!
toungue in cheek mate.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
Now you’re not using your brain Andy, when it comes to enforcement they need all the help they can get. Ideas are exactly what they need to stimulate an effective approach to their job.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
So:- 1) You have enforcement officers and stooges who dont know the difference between a HC and a PHV and have to ask you to confirm your status.
2) An enforcement officer who feels it appropriate and proportionate to purport to suspend your vehicle licence for failure to comply with ‘Driver’ offences (S68 LGMP Act relates only to vehicles).
3) An association member who ‘advises’ your right to appeal and carry on working – which does not apply to Section 68 suspensions- if the suspension had been capable of being validly applied – with the issue (on the spot) of a notice specifying the defects in your vehicle.
4) A civil debt owed to you by the council stooges, who can be summonsed to appear before the Magistrates for non-payment of a fare due to a HC driver/proprietor.I say this because it was clearly unnecessary for them to be carried anywhere in order to disclose the heinous offences with which they had become so engaged.
I think you could be on a winner here. Apart from not wearing your badge, which as we all know is an offence set out in the Act – not in Council bye-laws or conditions of licence as appropriate.
I believe a recent correspondent to this site may be willing to take up your case for you.
The real issue is that we are ‘policed’, in many instances, by frustrated policemen/women who have only a vague understanding of the LAWS they purport to enforce, in the interests – as they unceasingly remind us – of ‘protecting the public’. Aided and abetted by panels of councillors and legal officers who see us as some form of ‘untermenschen’ not entitled to the norms of legal and natural justice.
How about some action to protect us from the army of ‘volunteers’ taking our living from us and for whom we will be funding the latest wheeze invented to make working in the trade even more expensive – I refer to the ISA Registration process coming to a council licening office near you soon – at the bargain price of just £64.
A fee set to allow the ‘volunteers’ to be registered for nothing.
Instead of fightiong amongst ourselves, which suits the constipated bureaucrats down to the ground, why not concentrate on the real enemy? People who sit around dreaming up ever more lunatic and unnecessary regulations to deny us the opportunity to earn a living at a sensible cost in terms of vehicle and driver licensing.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance and boy do we need to be vigilant at the moment.
Quis custodiet?
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade