Source: BBC News
BBC Don’t know difference between PH and Hackney Carriage shocker
A private hire “taxi” with roof sign
Private hire drivers say the signs make cars easier to identify at night
Private hire “taxi” drivers have criticised a plan by Shropshire Council to remove roof signs from cars.
The new plans come into force on 1 October and only affect private hire taxis.
The move is designed to distinguish them from hackney carriages, which operate under different licensing arrangements.
Driver Pat Henderson said the decision would make the cars difficult to identify and put people at risk.
Some private hire companies operating in Shropshire currently use illuminated roof signs to identify their cars and advertise their numbers.
Under the new arrangements, from October, those applying or reapplying for a licence would only be able to distinguish their cars by door signs.
‘Vulnerable girls’
Ms Henderson said: “Coming out of a nightclub how many people are going to walk up and down looking at stickers.
“It’s going to make young girls very vulnerable at nighttime.
“If you get into a taxi with a roof sign, whether it’s ours or whoever, at least you know you’re in a legitimate taxi.”
Paul Mc Greary, Shropshire Council’s group manager for public protection and enforcement, said the authority was following national good practice guidance and had carried out a six-month consultation.
“We’re trying to avoid confusion. Black cabs can stop, pick up people, take them. Private hires have to be pre-booked. The primary focus is around public safety.”
Oswestry black cab driver Tim Higgins said the key issue, in terms of safety, was insurance.
“A hackney vehicle is insured for public hire, which means it can be hailed from the roadside… if you do that with a private hire vehicle, you’re travelling in an uninsured vehicle.”
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Transport Act 1980
Section 64.
Roof-signs on vehicle other than taxis.
(1)There shall not, in any part of England and Wales outside the metropolitan police district and the City of London, be displayed on or above the roof of any vehicle which is used for carrying passengers for hire or reward but which is not a taxi—(a)any sign which consists of or includes the word “taxi” or “cab”, whether in the singular or plural, or “hire”, or any word of similar meaning or appearance to any of those words, whether alone or as part of another word; or (b) any sign, notice, mark, illumination or other feature which may suggest that the vehicle is a taxi.
This kind of reporting by Journalists is just typical of people who do not do there research into the Law, therefore bad reporters cause the public to think a Private Hire Vehicle is a Taxi, the Department for Transport should do more to educate the British Public, because since Time immemorial a Hackney Carriage has always been a TAXI Vehicle, with the lower downgrading CHEAP AS CHIPS OPERATIONS since 1976 being legislated for, now often operating at less than actual running cost in some areas causing problems for Local Bus Operations, who struggle to provide bus services in unprofitable areas now meaning the public lose their cheap public transport system of bus services. These vehicles are nothing more than PRIVATELY HIRED VEHICLES WITH A DRIVER, that should display no signs at all, because the public hire them by telephone in advance to be DISCREET, when picking them passengers up.
A TAXI is a Hackney Carriage.
A PRIVATE HIRE VEHICLE is something completely different under SECTION 80 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 it states;
PRIVATE HIRE VEHICLE, means a motor vehicle constructed or adapted to seat fewer than eight passengers, other than a Hackney Carriage or Public Service Vehicle, which is provided with the services of a driver for the purpose of carrying passengers.
This description proves without any shadow of a doubt that a TAXI and a PSV/PCV Vehicle (BUSES) are Hackney Carriage Vehicles under 9 Passengers for a TAXI and over 9 passengers for a Passenger Service Vehicle (Bus) and a PRIVATE HIRE VEHICLE will never be the same.
Therefore they can never look like a TAXI, that the reporter clearly does not understand the facts or the LAW, meaning BAD JOURNALISM to blame for this problem!
Thanks for reading this post.