I read with interest the Mayor of Poland’s competition regarding the number of expired Berwick plates. Although this is humorous on the face of it many people will now regard this as an issue worth closer inspection in the light of recent events.
We all know which office employs the majority of the drivers with ‘out of town’ plates, with the rest being dispersed among the remainder of the Newcastle and North Tyneside firms. It is common knowledge that there are still a huge number of these cars trawling the streets at night supposedly on their way to their ‘booking’.
The major issue here is that while we all know that only a very few of these cars are picking up a genuine booked fare, a much larger number are approaching the EXPIRY DATES of their out of town plates.
What we would like to know, is, WHO is responsible for removing that car once the plate has expired and WHO checks that it is not still being used as a taxi?
When the Berwick council was still operating it was hard enough at that time to get either Newcastle or Berwick licensing to agree on who would take responsibility for the proper enforcement of all these extra cars on our streets.
It is not clear now whether the Operators themselves have a responsibility to ensure that every driver that they employ with an out of town plate is complying with the licensing conditions and that each plate is still valid.
We all look forward to the day when every single Berwick plate has finally expired so that along with Tynedale and all the rest, these drivers will eventually toe the line.
It is only right that they should be made to sit a locality test, provide all the necessary documentation and undergo an enhanced CRB check.
The council must honour its duty of care to the public and an honest demonstration of this would be to employ a greater number of enforcement officers and police the huge number of Hackney and Private Hire taxis around the clock as this is now an urgent requirement.
The taxi drivers (and members of the public) themselves can still bring a private prosecution against the council if they persistently fail to take full and proper responsibility for the mess they have created in this city.
Berwick Related Posts:
Berwick/Northumberland situation: Questions Answered
{ 39 comments… read them below or add one }
alot of berwick drivers came from newcastle but sick of getting robbed off newcastle council wiyh prices and all berwick drivers still get crb checked
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
still dont know why everyone is going on about getting rid of berwick plates, i mean i have a berwick plate cause its cheaper than a north tyneside one even though i have a north tyneside badge aswell. i would be more than happy for berwick plates to be stopped in newcastle as along with another 400 drivers i would just get a north tyneside plate and be a few hundred qud out of pocket,other that that whats the big deal?
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@stupot, Berwick plates ave been here that long people are thinkkin it;s noormal but its not and a Judge said so! berwick plates are no longer allowed in Newcastle offices and NT is sure to follow suit soon. I understand you gettin a Berwick plate cos it’s cheaper but because of the councils losin revenew due to all the drivers goin berwick those of us left have to suffer more increases and when you finally got to come back you will have to pay even more so really you gained nothing more than gettin it stuck up all of us! Well done mate!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@stupot, Berwick is no long cheaper then North Tyneside after they put their prices up, once they goto 2 to 3 MOT’s a year depending on car age you will be even more out of pocket
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@stupot, blue line busy ? is that why they are knocking 50p off a 3 quid ride. dont make me laugh.
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@jonny x, thats true about the vouchers but what most dont know is that we cannot redeem the vouchers for our rent,we just have to take it on the chin.Two vouchers a day adds 30 quid a montyh to our rent.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@BLT Driver (not berwick), u got to be joking shanksy is taking the pi55 there how does he expect u to make any money running round on 1985 fares and then knock money as well that man is a joke !!!!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@BLT Driver (not berwick), i know mate,have a couple of pals at blt.it stinks.the rich get richer the poor get poorer. thats why the country is in the state its in.
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Ive heard a rumour that blueline are sniffing around northumberland taxi firm’s.Anybody shed some light!
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Ive heard a rumour that blueline are sniffing around northumberland taxi firm’s.
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Ive heard that blueline are buying a northumberland taxi firm!
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@delboy,
is that not so he can keep berwick plates and have them working out of northumberland office. heard another rumour that he offered noda (sully) alot of dosh to buy out company £1 million +, but you know what crap taxi drivers make up?:
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
Is that not to push his bewick plates up their? Heard that he offered sully (noda) in excess of £1 million for noda aswell, but you can’t take taxi drivers seriously
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@davey ncle hack, I heard Noda got offered £1m to scrap the shit radio adds “pay d dwiver”
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@davey ncle hack,
Ive seen blueline cars with the new Northumberland style plates on.
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@Delboy,
your right there are cars working at bluline with the new style plates on them. There is a blue skoda supurb with a new style plate (ex berwick) used to be a gateshed plated car and he has never worked for any where else other than gateshead firms prior to getting his berwick plate and going to blueline .so i wonder how hes getting round it?
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@hacking jacket, Out of Town plates can still work out of a North Tyneside office,that’s what the consultation is about: http://www.toomanytaxis.com/2010/06/29/consultationconditions-of-licence-for-licence-for-nt-ph-operators/
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage TradeNT is making it their policy that: vehicle,driver & operator are all licenced by the same Local authority i.e. North Tyneside offices will only be able to have NT licenced cars & drivers. This will be challenged in court by interested parties but for the time being you will still see out of town plates working around the region.
Wot’s gannin on like, this site has proper died on its arse. There must be one or two of us left who can read and write English. While on the subject how come arle wa taxis are parked up ouside corner shops and off licences -ye na those businesses that keep selling counterfeit tabs and booze to OUR under age kids.
Do you think it’s gonna take a Tory government or something a bit stronger to insist one man, one plate and kick out the greedy sods who allowed some individuals to own twenty, thirty, even forty or more plates and force daft sods like us pay rent to them?
The England team is not ours, the taxi trade is not ours and the Country is no longer ours.
Some people will not like what I’ve written here but at least it is the truth.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@Edward Douglas, Do you really think any goverment really care about the taxi trade ?plus the way things are going with all the expected job losses think of all the extra money they will be getting from new taxi driver applications .so all these people with multiple plates will be in a win win situation by hiring out there vehicles to these new to the business drivers ,and using the rent they get from them to help buy more plates KERR CHINGG. just a thought .
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
if the polish and the asians want to work for a office in north tyneside, why dont the operators say that you go on a four week back to school training course and learn the rules and the routes and then apply for a north tyneside badge. and they must speak semi fluent english
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I think I must live in a different universe – can somebody tell me what the Stockton case is about
please?
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@ Millie T’ante, The stockton case is about Berwick plates working from a Stockton PH firm and they were took to court by Stockton Council.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
its time the truth was told, so called modern up to date caring offices are conning the public, in their advertisments they are whiter than white and only employ/use crb checked drivers etc. so how come they use drivers who have not got a clue and who have never been crb checked. finally, for all you mugs who are lining the office owners pockets can we have a table of office rents, i hear the average is now over £100 per week, is that true ?
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@jumpinjack:
There are good offices who go nowhere near ‘bandits’ and offer value for money to their drivers. I hack and also work an office because it is in MY best interests, and I can make £100 per day for 8 hours graft daytime through the week no problem. You need to have a good look around and find a decent one!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@davey:
dear me davy, you can make £100 per day for 8 hours graft. i wonder if like many other office hacks (and airport cars) you remove office decals etc and head for the coast on weekend nights.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@jumpinjack:
I have never hacked a fare outside of my own area – ever!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@davey: sorry davey, i wrongly assumed you were a north tyneside hack.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
Breaking News 10 jan 12
BLT v Newcastle council, No Council can prevent the use of out of area Hackney Carriages for Private Hire.
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SHIT
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SO does that mean out of town hacks can work @ newcastle private hire offices ?
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
The easy answer to that is “Yes they can”
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
The Judge said: No Council can prevent the use of out of area Hackney Carriages for Private Hire use. We will publish the full judgement as soon as we get it.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
Well Admin,
As the BLT bandwagon of Properganda has not been straight on to Admin, I fear they may not have anything to shout about & your extract release was not as it seems?
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It’s not like you to be behind the times Transport Manager…..oh yes I suppose it is!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
Well Admin,
behind the times you say I am, so where is your copy of the Judgement? Its not like you to not Post it for all to read, that is? if you have the Draft Copy!!!!!
You have NO Idea who I have been talking too……ha ha ha…..& I am not going to post anything on here, as you Only want to Use Me to get people reading this site, because without vocal comments this site gets NO VISITORS!!!!!!!
As I said before, I wait to read the Official Court Transcript!!!!!!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
Transport Manager, if I wanted you here why would I keep deleting your posts and slanderous comments. Give yourself another self imposed ban will ya!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
On Wednesday, 11 January 2012, Transport Manager appeared as the spokesperson for those petitioning Northumberland County Council to reverse the decision to de-zone hackney carriages.
The petition failed! But then again this has not been published by Transport Manager either here or anywhere else that we know of. Should we take it to mean that this colossal failure on your part never happened because no one has published it? Further more next time we meet you can explain to me everything you know about this sites stats and you can advise me of your ability to gain the site even more visitors because I just don’t see how you can attract more visitors for us, are you an SEO expert as well as a qualified transport manager? I will admit we are a small site but we had over 300,000 worldwide visitors since December 1st I would love to have 300,000 per week but honestly Davy I don’t think even you and your snide comments could achieve that, by the way we can afford to lose one of those visitors so JOG ON MATEY!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
Hello Admin,
I have read your response with interest here, but you fail to answer my point…..Do You have the Official Draft Transcript or Not?
On Wednesday you are right I did attend Northumberland County Council with the Petition Organiser, who allowed me to speak on their behalf , as a Qualified Transport Manager who understands the Scrapping of the Six Taxi Zones in Northumberland.
When we arrived Graham Noticed when the Council Officer saw it was me, he was physically shaking with FEAR of what I was going to say?….. because I was then given Graham`s 5 minutes to explained to the Local Authority Councillors the background to the problem was Berwick upon Tweed Borough Council ceased to exist in April 2009, therefore why? when the 1847 Act states in Section 43 the Issued Taxi Licence only last for a 12 Month Period…..Therefore why have the Licensing Department Staff failed to collect the Green Plates Issued by Berwick upon Tweed,….. when clearly these Taxi Licence`s have expired in 2012 by some 2 Years….. since 2010 because in North Tyneside we get a £1000 Fine…. if the Expired Plate is not returned to the Council in Extreme Conditions & 3 Years after 2009, when Berwick upon Tweed Borough Council Ceased to exist is what I would believe Extreme?
The Chairman asked me to stick to the point of the Six Taxi Zones at a number of times, because the Liberals & Conservative Councillors are Scared to do anything about the Problem,…… because of Colusion by Council Employed Licensing Staff with the Green Berwick upon Tweed Taxi Proprietors.
I told the Chairperson Watson, I would not stop saying what was the Major Problem behind the Scrapping of the Six Taxi Zones & why had 200 Licences migrated after signing a declaration that they worked in Berwick upon Tweed Zone, then been Transferred to Blyth the BV Zone where the Number of Licences had risen from 45 Taxi Licence`s to around 317, when Berwick BT Zone has reduced from around 700 to around 375 meaning Northumberland still has the same Number of Taxi Licences & Revenue?
Now the basis of my arguement was that people living in the lesser populated areas of Northumberland were at risk of loosing there Transport Provisions not only the Bus & Rail Services, but the more vunerable who need Taxi & Private Hire Provision will see the Taxi Provision Migrate to the Honey Pot Area in South East Northumberland should they scrap the Six Taxi Zones? Unfortunately the Councillors are scarred of being Sued by the Taxi Proprietors who hold Licences, because the Licensing Department staff say the Government through the DFT say Zones should be Scrapped & things will find there own level?
Now I wrote down exactly who was at the Meeting & therefore as your source of Information clearly has only heard a rumour!!!! because clearly they were not in the Room at the Time, therefore how did you come by your Information I have to wonder?
Nothing was Decided on Wednesday, Only a decision to continue to look at working on Scrapping the Six Taxi Zones was taken with the Vote being 7 in Favour of continuing the work involved, 2 Abstentions to the Vote, as 1 Councillor stated her intention to abstain was because she did not attend the Original Meeting Earlier in 2011 & there was 1 Councillor who arrived late who was told by the Solicitor he could not take part in the decision Process as he was Late, therefore was the Meeting Quorum Fullfilled? By this I mean there has to be a set amount of Councillors Present at the Start of the Meeting to allow the Decision to be Lawful & this is being Investigated, if the Decision was indeed Lawful…..ha ha ha
There was only ONE Person from the Public Present, as the Only other person in the room was another Female Licensing Office, therefore has a Council Officer Released Information to Colusion Friends?
The Properganda Machine is in Full Swing & you have been USED TO THEIR ADVANTAGE I FEAR ADMIN!!!!!!!!!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@Admin,
Thanks admin.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade