Junge Menschen, die gefährdet sind, wenn Taxifahrer zum Lizenzen zum „Easy“ -Rat gehen
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/young-people-at-risk-as-taxi-drivers-go-to-easy-council-for-licences-0299tp2fb
Von ThatchersDirtyTaint
Junge Menschen, die gefährdet sind, wenn Taxifahrer zum Lizenzen zum „Easy“ -Rat gehen
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/young-people-at-risk-as-taxi-drivers-go-to-easy-council-for-licences-0299tp2fb
Von ThatchersDirtyTaint
27 Kommentare
I saw the rarest of rare sights the other day: a taxi in Derby with a Derby council plate mounted on the back! He must have been the last one left, because Derby apparently isn’t an easy council to get a licence from and most drivers here have Gedling (Nottinghamshire) or Wolverhampton plates. There’s so many Wolverhampton licences here that said council sends enforcement/compliance teams to do joint spot checks with Derbyshire constabulary.
Okay, paywalled article but it did flash up briefly about it being Wolverhampton. Seeing loads of them crop up in Liverpool over the last 2 years led me to look into it and basically the rules changed a while back that taxis could get their licence anywhere in the UK and operate in any area, so Wolverhampton charges the least for the licenses and so has thousands of Wolverhampton taxis roaming around the UK as a result.
I’d love to know the details as to why this increases risk to young people as there shouldn’t be any difference apart from the logo on the taxi licence?
This isn’t new, when I was a licencing officer 7 years ago, this was a big point of contention among the taxi/private hire drivers as ours was considered a hard council.
Also, this doesn’t affect just young people, it affects anyone getting a private hire cab or taxi. However, the prevalence seems to be for Uber drivers to go for easier licenses as more local private hire firms prefer to register drivers with local licences. This may be relevant to the age of customers as Uber customers tend to skew a bit lower. Less of an issue for black cabs/taxis as local authorities tend to cap the number of licences issued at any given time and there are still a number of legacy drivers.
Commenting on the headline and pre-amble as article is paywalled and I’m not paying to read about a service I almost never use.
This was basically a non issue until Uber came along, I have worked in the private hire industry for years.
Before Uber, operators could only hire drivers with licences for their local authority. This was basically ignored by Uber, as long as you had a licence you could register and work in any area.
The elephant in the room is the fact that you could have a licence in authority A, which for whatever reason gets suspended, nothing would stop you going to authority B and getting a licence and going back to work in the same area you were just suspended from.
There are hundreds of private hire drivers working on the roads who have had licences suspended for safeguarding reasons in other authorities.
There should really be a national system for licensing taxi drivers. It makes no sense to do it on a district council level.
Do these councils have bus lanes or bus gate that taxis can use? If so then restrict them to being only for taxis licences by that authority.
The standard for taxi drivers are on the floor.
In my area there are a few with the local licence but everyone else’s is from wolverhampton and they all drive like maniacs.
I can’t wait for self driving cars. Since the driving seat will be free I’m gonna install a toilet in mine.
A 2023 article saying the same thing
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-67103201
The is a significant level of corruption that seems to revolve around distinct racial groups supporting each other outside of regulation and law
All thr plates in Nottingham were Wolverhampton and when i was down south all the plates were Croydon
I’ve worked the industry and Wolverhampton does the same DBS checks as any other area.
They just don’t enforce stupid knowledge requirements, punitive vehicle age rules etc.
This is just other councils having sour grapes that their cash cows are going elsewhere.
The amount of taxis I get into in Liverpool with Wolverhampton plates is insane
What’s the point of local licensing if anyone can go to another area and register? There are loads of services that councils provide in an ad hoc way that could be centralised or standardised to save money. This seems to be one of them.
I’ve seen Wolverhampton licensed taxis in Dundee, which is taking the piss a bit.
In Leeds we have a lot of taxi drivers licenced in Calderdale. Then in conversation say they live in Bradford. I’ve not seen a Leeds based taxi driver in ages.
It should be only legal to pick up in the council area the cab is licensed in. I’ve seen that on holiday and it seems to work well for both drivers and customers.
There are 2 separate licenses need for taxi driving and this article conflates the 2.
First a taxi driver needs a personal license, the is involves getting a DBS check amongst other things.
The issue with drivers moving around to easier area is that the areas that have stricter rule to protect vulnerable people are being circumvented, and unsuitable people may be being allowed to drive taxis.
Second the vehicle must be licensed for use as a taxi.
Some areas install on stricter checks, full road worthy test for any cat N for example, not allowing cat C. A specific taxi mot that goes beyond the regular mot, some even insist on 6 monthly checks on the vehicle to ensure it is safe.
Both used to need to be done at the local authority where you mainly worked, now taxis drivers can go anywhere and Wolverhampton have been raking it in by having the lowest standards. Be interesting to see how Wolverhampton plug the funding gap if this is tackled.
Can’t wait for self driving cars to destroy this industry
I wondered why I was seeing so many taxi’s with Wolverhampton (2.5 hour drive away) plates, it’s something I’ve been noticing a lot recently. They really stand out since they are very different to the others in the city.
Pushing people to need a local area knowledge test is pathetic. Needing to know every single road like it’s the back of your hand makes the job near impossible to do.
It’s out-dated and pointless. People gain knowledge from experience, we have sat-navs for a reason.
It’s stupid governing bodies forcing people to learn roads we’ll never travel on or ever heard of. Make it easier for people to get their badges, don’t force men and women willing to drive to have to be tested on local area knowledge when it’s simply not needed.
Remember when a politician got attacked because she was pushing for CCTV in taxis?
If you are a young woman DO NOT ever get a taxi alone in Swindon. Just don’t. DON’T.
Is this related?
[Men delivering TV unit sexually assaulted, girl, 14](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp86xy3zrkgo)
> The men, from Wolverhampton, were found guilty of sexual assault following a trial at Preston Crown Court and each was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison.
I applied & took „a local taxi driver’s test“ in `1973. I was not allowed to trade outside my local area & had a host of rules to follow , I was going to use this as a second job but gave it up owing to the restrictions. which I believe have now changed.
That explains why I keep seeing Wolverhampton licenced taxis in Slough & Maidenhead.
Tbh it’s stupid these days. I understand that in the past it was necessary for a cabbie to know pretty much every road in the city they’re working, because he can’t stop and unfold a map, but it’s 2025 for god’s sake. Everyone has a GPS connected supercomputer in their pocket. The only reason I haven’t got myself a taxi license is because I don’t know every backroad in Coventry and the reality is that it’s not actually necessary to know that these days.