Agenda item

Any other business, which by reason of special circumstances, the Chair agrees may be considered as a matter of urgency.

The Chair agreed that the following matter may be considered as a matter of urgency.

Hackney Carriage & Private Hire Policy Revisions.

<AI6>

The Head of Public Protectioninformed the committee via a report which had been circulated from the Executive Director (Operations) advising Members on some of the challenges facing licensing authorities due to the negative impacts of extensive out of area working within the private hire industry, including the decline in taxi and private hire licence numbers in Bury and the approach made by trade representatives for amendments to key policy areas.

It has also been almost 2 years since this Committee approved Stage 1 of the Minimum Licensing Standards (MLS) for Taxi and Private Hire (Drivers and Operators) and over 18 months since the approval of Stage 2 (Vehicles) as part of the harmonisation of standards project across Greater Manchester (GM). These standards are still not fully adopted or implemented across GM in large part due to the continued delay of the Clean Air Plan which has in turn delayed access to Clean Taxi Funds upon which many policy decisions are dependent.

Shortly after the MLS policy positions were initially agreed across GM, the Department for Transport (DfT) issued proposed Best Practice Guidance for Taxi and Private Hire licensing and ran a consultation from March – June 2022. Elements of this draft guidance departed significantly from the MLS that had been initially agreed across GM, namely the vehicle age and private hire sticker policies. The DfT is yet to respond to that consultation and has not committed to a timetable for issuing the final guidance.

With the ever-changing industry, continued licence shopping impacting many licensing authorities, and without final completion of Stage 1 & 2 of the MLS project being achieved (with three districts still yet to approve MLS vehicle standards for their current fleets) some GM districts have already felt compelled to review their position and depart from MLS policies they had previously approved. Consequently, the MLS project is currently under full review.

There are a range of related factors that encourage this behaviour all related to policy, customer service, cost and levels of enforcement. Officers from the Licensing Service have engaged with trade representatives through the trade liaison meetings and the most common reasons cited for licensees leaving Bury or not choosing to be licensed here are:

·         Vehicle Livery including front vehicle licence plates, and vehicle sticker policy.

·         Costs

·         Fire Extinguisher/First Aid Kit

A graph in the report showed how the number of licences issued by Bury has declined over the past 5 years.

The graph illustrates that Bury is continuing to lose licensees and without intervention from the government, with no current plans to prevent licence shopping through legislative change, this trend is only likely to continue. It is important to also note that the pandemic had a detrimental impact on the trade.

Information was provided on the Council’s current policy which requires that council issued non-magnetic stickers were placed in the correct location in and outside the vehicle.

This policy was introduced many years before the introduction of MLS, in order to make legitimately licensed vehicles more distinguishable and safeguard against the risk of individuals getting into unlicensed vehicles with unlicensed drivers of malintent. Vehicle livery also made it easier for compliance and other authorised officers to quickly identify licensed vehicles and note which operator they are working for. However, during the adoption of stage 2 Common Minimum Licensing Standards, proposed additional signage requirements were considered and deferred for a two-year period. It is now the Licensing Service request to remove the (currently deferred) requirement for a bonnet sticker that was initially proposed.

It is important to remember that the way vehicles were ordered and dispatched in the past was considerably different to the most common and modern operating models today where Private Hire Operators use mobile applications, text messaging and live location services to provide customers with details of the driver and vehicle they have dispatched.

Bury’s current operator signage policy, by default, means that our licensed vehicles can only work for one operator at a time. Private hire drivers regularly approach officers explaining that changes to modern operator business models means it is almost impossible to make a reasonable standard of living whilst working for only one operator at a time. This proposed amendment, subject to the consultation, would enable drivers to work for more than one operator whilst complying with operator signage conditions.

Private hire drivers also regularly advise officers that they feel vehicles are targeted with criminal damage and other anti-social behaviour. They have requested reduced signage requirement in order to reduce the risk of being targeted.

The current DfT Best Practice guidance issued in 2010 referred to the benefits of having clear identification on private hire vehicles to ensure the public can distinguish between a private hire vehicle and a taxi (hackney) and avoid confusion between the two modes of travel:

In the DfT’s draft revised Best Practice Guidance consulted upon in 2022, the government changed their proposed approach.

Whilst this draft revised guidance is not yet finalised and published, it gives a good indication of the DfT’s current thinking with regards to private hire livery. The guidance does not address any risk associated with unlicensed drivers and vehicles.

Officers consider that signage on private hire vehicles is still necessary to help passengers identify their pre-booked vehicle, remind passengers that private hire vehicles must be pre-booked, mitigate the risk of bogus drivers and vehicles posing as legitimately licensed, and help distinguish private hire vehicles from taxis.

Whilst having the Operator name visible for compliance and other authorised officers would be preferable, and makes investigating incidents and potential offences much easier, it is accepted that this restricts drivers and is a barrier for drivers being licensed with Bury. In order to mitigate the additional workload any removal of this requirement may produce, private hire operators could be requested to provide weekly data with regards to the vehicles working on their platform. This is a mechanism currently used by TfL.

As such it is considered that the current policy could be revised but still adheres to the following principles:

·         Advise passengers that the vehicle must be pre-booked with the Operator

·         Remain non-magnetic so they cannot be easily transferred to non-licensed vehicles

·         Reduce the required number of stickers to mitigate the risk of vehicles being targeted for crime and anti-social behaviour

·         Not restrict drivers to only working for one operator

Members commented on the urgent report and seeked clarification on some of the information included. It was reported that the topics raised by Members would be included as part of the consultation process. If the report was agreed this could start on the 7^th August and there was a taxi trade liaison meeting planned for the 3^rd August.

Delegated decision:

That the Licensing and Safety Committee noted the report and requested that Officers commence a public consultation on the following policy revisions. Once completed a further report will be brought before the Committee in October 2023 for Members consideration:-

1.   To modify the requirement for Operator stickers on private hire vehicles to replace all existing operator signage with new Passenger Side Windscreen signage (w10.5cm x h8.5cm) indicating operator, which must be updated and changed to reflect operator.

2.   To remove the future requirement for bonnet stickers on private hire vehicles.

3.   To modify the requirement for the current rear passenger door sticker “Private hire vehicle (not a taxi) The driver can only take passengers who have pre-booked with this company” to be replaced with a new Council issued sticker which is to be displayed on the rear door of a private hire vehicle stating, “Private hire vehicle not insured unless pre booked with operator” (magnetic signage is not permitted)

4.   To modify the current knowledge test for the hackney carriage and private hire drivers.

5.   To modify the requirement from mandatory to advisory for the provision of a fire extinguisher and first aid kit and modify the Council’s vehicle compliance testing manual.

6.   To remove the requirement for front plates on Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Vehicles and replace with Council issued windscreen signage which must be displayed at all times.

7.   To remove the pre-requisite requirement of driving standards assessment before making an application to the Licensing Authority.

8.   To introduce a re-application policy in relation to breaks in licence for the pre-requisites and Knowledge tests only.