Source: Taxi Driver Online
The Equalities Act 2010 will stop all restricting councils from refusing to license a new taxi WAV application, if they have a lower ratio/percentage of taxi WAVs to taxi saloons than a percentage to be set by the Secretary of State towards the end of the year.
With that in mind TDO has sent out FoI requests to all 88 councils that currently restrict. To date 74 councils have given TDO their ratio of taxi WAVs to taxi saloons. 14 councils have either missed their FoI act deadlines and have been reminded of their duties, or have replied saying they don’t know. The don’t knows have been requested to re-look.
TDO has coloured coded those that have replied. Those councils in the green have more than 70% of their taxi fleets as WAVs, most of those are 100% WAV, and will not be effected by the new powers in the Act. Councils with a taxi fleet of between 40% and 70% WAVs have been coloured orange. Until we receive the actual percentage by the Secretary of State we will wont know what effect it will have on these councils, but it’s fair to say it will more than likely effect those nearer the 40% mark than those nearer the 70% mark.
Those councils coloured red are the ones at most risk of losing their restricting status, two LOs from large councils have told TDO that they see de-limitation as their only via option. Even if de-limitation isn’t the option taken up, it’s clear to see that in some areas many hundreds of new taxi WAV plates will have to be issued.
Of the 74 councils that have so far replied;
Green 70% to 100% WAVs = 25 council (34%)
Orange 40% to 100% WAVs = 8 councils (11%)
Red 0% to 40% WAVs = 41 councils (55%)
The 88 Councils who have made a decision to retain quantity control.
1. Aylesbury Vale. 57 WAVs out of 57. 100%.
2. Barnsley. 15 WAVs out of 67. 22.38%.
3. Barrow in Furness. 7 WAVs out of 151. 4.63%.
4. Basingstoke. 55 WAVs out of 55. 100%
5. Bath and North East Somerset.
6. Bedford. 41 WAVs out of 70. 58.57%.
7. Birmingham. 1405 WAVs out of 1405. 100%.
8. Blackburn Darwen. 68 WAVs out of 68. 100%.
9. Blackpool. 180 WAVs out of 256 (motorised taxis). 70.31%.
10. Bolton.
11. Bournemouth. 45 WAVs out of 249. 18.07%
12. Bradford.
13. Bracknell. 83 WAVs out of 86. 96.51%.
14. Braintree.
15. Brighton and Hove. 126 WAVs out of 530. 23.77%.
16. Calderdale. Eight zones only Halifax zone restricted. 37 WAVs out of 37. 100%.
17. Cardiff. 493 WAVs out of 893. 55.2%.
18. Carrick.
19. Chester le street.
20. Chorley. 7 WAVs out of 36. 19.44%.
21. Colchester. 32 WAVs out of 130. 24.61%.
22. Congleton. 13 WAVs out of 42 (currently only 38 licensed). 30.95% (34.21%).
23. Corby. 114 WAVs out of 114. 100%.
24. Derbyshire Dales.
25. Dover. 10 WAVs out of 69. 14.49%
26. Durham.
27. Ellesmere Port. 51 WAVs out of 51. 100%.
28. Exeter. 25 WAVs out of 61. 40.98%.
29. Halton. 58 WAVs out of 267. 21.72%.
30. Harrogate. 17 WAVs out of 149. 11.4%.
31. Hastings. 7 WAVs out of 48. 14.58%.
32. Havant. 5 WAVs out of 40. 12.5%.
33. High Peak. 10 WAVs out of 131. 7.63%.
34. Hyndburn. 9 WAVs out of 62. 14.51%.
35. Kingston upon Hull. 170 WAVs out of 170. 100%.
36. Kirklees. 50 WAVs out of 250. 20%.
37. Knowsley. 240 WAVs out of 240. 100%.
38. Lancaster. 15 WAVs out of 109. 13.76%.
39. Leeds. 276 WAVs out of 537. 51.39%.
40. Leicester. 338 WAVs out of 338. 100%.
41. Lincoln. 30 WAVs out of 31 (one horse and cart). 96.77%.
42. Liverpool. 1426 WAVs out of 1426. 100%.
43. Maidstone. 48 WAVs out of 48. 100%.
44. Manchester.
45. Mid Sussex. 32 WAVs out of 154. 20.77%.
46. Newcastle on Tyne. 441 WAVs out of 780. 56.54%.
47. Newcastle under Lyme. 14 WAVs out of 51. 27.45%.
48. North East Lincs. 94 WAVs out of 235. 40%.
49. North Tyneside. 101 WAVs out of 204. 49.5%.
50. Nottingham. 411 WAVs out of 411. 100%.
51. Oldham. 16 WAVs out of 85. 18.82%.
52. Oxford. 107 WAVs out of 107. 100%.
53. Pendle. 5 WAVs out of 71. 7.04%
54. Penwith.
55. Plymouth. 366 WAVs out of 366. 100%.
56. Poole. 13 WAVs out of 78. 16.66%.
57. Portsmouth. 84 WAVs out of 234. 35.89%.
58. Preston. 187 WAVs out of 187. 100%.
59. Reading. 214 WAVs out of 214. 100%.
60. Restormel.
61. Ribble Valley. 1 WAV out of 53. 1.88%.
62. Richmondshire. 6 WAVs out of 65. 9.23%.
63. Rochdale.
64. Rotherham. 13 WAVs out of 52. 25%.
65. Scarborough. 6 WAVs out of 105. 5.71%.
66. Sefton. 196 WAVs out of 271. 72.32%.
67. Sheffield. 857 WAVs out of 857. 100%.
68. Southampton. 59 (77 by Dec 2011) WAVs out of 267 (283 by Dec 2011). 22.09% (27.2% by Dec 2011).
69. Southend on Sea. 96 WAVs out of 276. 34.78%.
70. South Tyneside. 25 WAVs out of 236. 10.59%.
71. Stevenage. 30 WAVs out of 100. 30%.
72. St Helens.
73. Stockport. 120 WAVs out of 120. 100%.
74. Sunderland. 177 WAVs out of 349. 50.71%.
75. Tameside. 149 WAVs out of 149. 100%.
76. Test Valley. 11 WAVs out of 35. 31.42%.
77. Thurrock. 11 WAVs out of 100. 11%.
78. Torbay. 3 WAVs out of 169 (including 7 seasonal taxis). 1.77%.
79. Torridge. 5 WAVs out of 49. 10.2%.
80. Trafford. 143 WAVs out of 143. 100%.
81. Tunbridge wells. 4 WAVs out of 100. 4%.
82. Wakefield. 33 WAVs out of 115. 28.69%.
83. Warrington. 56 WAVs out of 154. 36.36%.
84. Weymouth. 6 WAVs out of 80. 7.5%.
85. Wigan.
86. Windsor and Maidenhead. 37 WAVs out of 96. 38.54%
87. Wyre. 15 WAVs out of 160. 9.38%.
88. York. 41 WAVs out of 179 (from July 2010). 22.9%.
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Does this mean that their is a strong possibility that I could apply for and get a Newcastle WAV hack plate?
@Private hire driver NCLE,if Newcastle have a lower ratio/percentage of taxi WAVs to taxi saloons than the percentage to be set by the Secretary of State towards the end of the year,then the likelyhood would be that there will be WAV applications accepted until the set percentage were met. Considering Newcastle is already swamped with Hacks,the only sensible answer is for a number of saloon hacks to change to WAV thus meeting the balance required by the secretary of state.
@Admin, You couldn’t say a truer word. We’re definitely swamped, but then so is the Private Hire trade and this is the same in just about every major city in England.
No doubt our caped crusader stands to make a lot of money out of this. You know the one I mean, wears his tights on the outside and has ‘DW’ on his chest. If he does get involved he will have yet another fight on his hands just like Berwick.
@Ollie Beak, Private Hire operators might not gain that much from too much de-limitation. It is a fact that hackney carriages don’t need an operators licence to run a taxi firm. If the majority of the trade became hackney carriages they could develop into strong competition for established private hire companies.
@Admin,
how many wheelchair plates would newcastle have to issue to enter the green zone, 70% ? Or NT for that matter.. 66?
it’s a safe bet to say those in the red will have to increase the number of wheelchair vehicles first, as to what the percentage will be, we can only specualte as at this time a cabinet hasnt even been formed and we wont even know who the secretary of state will be, if i am right in my thinking…
i wonder if the equalities act takes into consideration all those elderly people who are unable to get in or out of most wheel chair vehicles as they are to high?
@Private hire driver NCLE,
probably not, as if i’m right and 66 would need to be issued to take newcastle into the ‘green’ zone, then i reckon there would be at least 1,000 applications for these then i reckon your odds would be 6.6 – 100 of getting one. throw into the equation someone with a wad of cash doing a deal with a wheelchair excessable firm to land as many as he could would probably mean that you would have some wait on your hands to even get a car! even longer if most of these regulated councils have people in there areas scowering the country for a wheelchair vehicle.
i’m just speculating here mind, how do we know that those in the ‘orange’ zone wont be told well they really should but shows us why you cant, que more surveys etc etc…
but goodluck mate, hope you get you W plate, most likely on a 20 odd grand plus car, as all they have to do is say w plate plus 5 passengers, which rules out most the tat or smaller cheaper options, then i hope you can keep up the payments when your sitting one tuesday afternoon 327th car on the central motorway waiting for your next job which should come about friday tea time.
piece of friendly advice mate, get your badge, hire a hack, get out there through the week or friday nights for that matter, and see whether you would be so keen to go rushing to cabmobility with your 20 grand cheque in your hand should they put more plates of any kind on the road.
suppose nostradamus and the mayans may be right afterall, the end of teh world is nigh my friends…
i probably get one wheelchair a year if i’m lucky, most people with wheelchairs pre book there taxi, so therefore use a private hire firm.
but the most common complaint i see from wheelchairs is that there isnt a vehicle on the rank able to accomodate them and 5 or 6 passengers. or every now and again an electric wheelchair comes along with all the gadgets on and is too long for some of the w plated vehicle cars to take, not the driver or cars fault, it’s just that the manufacturer designed the vehicle to accomodate a standard wheelchair.
private hire driver newcastle, just walk round newcastle city centre, and see if you can find a rank where there isnt a wheelchair accessable vehicle available or passing by. unless your talking about some obscure rank, at even more obscure times there isnt one. the reality is that while there may only be 56 % w plated vehicles, 90 % of them are out all hours trying to earn a crust…
@Andy Warhol,I would think that both Newcastle and NT are within whatever percentage they come up with,but who knows.The dangerous thing about this is that if a council has 100 saloon cars and they want 50% WAV,that makes 150 cars and 50 cars is no longer 50% so they then issue a further 25 WAVs to make 50%. Now you have 175 cars and still the 50% is not reached so they issue another 13 WAVs and another 6 are required to reach the 50% ….by this time the number of cars has doubled….So basically I don’t think there is any fear of Newcastle being brought into this as there just would be no room left at all for all those cars.
If it were 70% for example I think that would raise the number of hacks in newcastle to around 1200..not sure as i got dizzy after a while working it out.
@Admin,
Excellent point, so a benchmark of 50 % then becomes infinate…
Don’t think i’d be first in the que to buy a w plated car if i was aware that the trade could end up with 1200 hackney carriadges!!!! I’ll leav that for private hire ncle, i’ll turn to playing the accordian outside kfc for my living!
@Andy Warhol, Don’t knock the accordian it’s helping to keep the Romanian economy afloat.
@Andy Warhol, I know what your saying, but if I was able to get a W plate of my own I would still work for the office that I am now working for but have the added advantage of being able to take flag downs or to pull onto a rank at peak times. Thanks for the friendly advice but I already have a dual badge and did have on occasions hired a hack so I know exactly what I would be letting myself in for.
@Private hire driver NCLE, how many flagdowns a week would you expect to justify your shiney new w plate stuck on yiur 25,000 car? Not sure what you drive now, but i bet it’s not 25 k’s worth. And flagdowns mate? Rarer than rank spaces now!!!!
And you know exactly what you would be letting yourself in for, if you DO know please give me next weeks lottery numbers while your at it! It’s impossible to know what would happen, except the signs would not be good… Not sure when you last hired a hack, but do it not and you will see there isnt nough out there for 780 never mind in excess of 1,000!!! And once we all HAVE to work an office, thats when bits go up… But hey hat do i know, perhaps you will get a 100 quids of flagdowns a week, no problem getting on a rank, and when your office gets swamped get cheaper bit instead of it going the other way! But for that to happen you’ll need to pick up every penny, cross every black cat, get crapped on by birds every day. Goodluck though…
@Andy Warhol, Ok, if things are as tough as you make out, why are you still driving a taxi in newcastle?
And as for £25k outlay, new wheelchair accesible doblo’s cost less than that. The office I work from has plenty of work for wheelchair cars so for me, if I could get a WAV plate for just the fee to the council (and not have to pay approx £240 pw to rent a hack) I wouldn’t be any worse off than I am now.
There is plenty of work in newcastle during peak periods, just ask any flimper.
ohh and 80 ranks for 780 no make that 840/50 cars, now that sounds fun….
wasnt that allready posted by Andy Warhol ? on another note there seems to be quite a few gateshead hacks now working for blueline (do they know something we dont?)
There’s a consultation going out to the trade on North Tyneside in the next few weeks,on the new Hackney carriage & Private Hire policy.(the one that states ‘driver,vehicle & operator all to be licenced by the same authority’…when this policy is passed it will most likely be appealed and ultimately challenged in the courts. So the out of town fiasco goes on!
with regards to the consultation in North Tyneside with regards to `out of area` plates. Before anyone starts shouting `foul`,I am a Newcastle driver,and have been for some time,this whole sorry mess was brought about because those in `authority` who could have stamped it out….didnt,and because certain operators,having found a loop hole in our antiquated laws,took full advantage of it to make themselves a `nice little earner`at the expense of anyone who dare stand in their way.
We are now at the stage,where ANY change to the law,rules and regs,will most certainly be challenged in the courts,as certain operators have already seen how they can get around the laws,by frightening councils with huge legal costs should the LA`s dare to challenge,or attempt to change the system to the detriment of the operator.
Everyone likes to think they can get something for nothing,and due to inaction by both LA`s and HM Gov,we have a situation where certain companies run fares so cheap that nobody in their right mind would not use them. The driver piles milage on the car like theres no tommorrow,the company gets his rent,so they are happy,the driver pays fuel,insurance,test,and god knows what…and the driver ends up the loser. Not the best way to run a business.To the Council I would just say this….after pissing around for so long and allowing this farce to develope,yes by all means put the mess right….its never to late to do that….BUT…only do it if you are prepared to go all the way and do the job properly,even if that means putting men out of business,and make no mistake,you will be challenged through the courts,as these operators will do everything they can….and more to get their own way.
Not only should the `out of area` plates be stopped,drivers should also have to demonstrate a sound knowledge of the area they will work in,but also a resonable knowledge of english,since this is the accepted language used in this country,and should not be allowed interpretors in any such knowledge test.
This is done in London,why not here..and please dont anyone give me the `crap`,that the LA cant adopt such a system,its a matter of have the council got the `balls` to do it.
re john dodds..well said mate.. a standing ovation and a pat on the back.wish we had a taxi union with you at the helm..
We have received replies from 82 councils so far, so if this site’s admin wants to up-date the article please feel free.
Take care Alex
alex@taxi-driver.co.uk
Check this out:
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/178787/Cabbies-wages-threatened-by-foreign-workers
How long before another hard working taxi driver finally snaps?
@Edward Douglas,
“if theres a job they’ll do it, they arnt bothered how long thy work”
Just says it all really, that office owners dont care one bit how long or little you spend with your family, what stress is caused, they expect you to work DANGEROUSLY long shifts and then be happy with the amount you take home… And the message ftom this guy seems to be clear, like it or lump it or i will find someone else…
@Private hire driver NCLE, £17,000 for fiat freedom and nearly £18,000 for peugot partner, whatever way you look at it a newcab will add £100+ to your weekly spend and you can be sure that if this comes in new applicants will be required to produce a new vehicle. The work will get thinner with every new plate issued and Andy is right we would all end up in offices and bit would rise.This is why office owners lobby the house of lords to get these things passed.
@Ollie Beak, aye, i was thinking that, what about hanging about in bogs then spraying people head to toe in joop, hoying them a bit blueroll nd lollipop then asking for a fiver