On Feb 20, 5:31*pm, Paul Terry wrote:

In message , Roland Perry
writes

In message , at 14:52:11 on Sat,
20 Feb 2010, Paul Terry remarked:
Nothing to do with insurance - he was more likely referring to his
private hire licence. He'd be in serious trouble if he picked-up
anyone who had not been pre-booked. In the case in point, where only
one passenger had been booked, it would be necessary to get back to
the operator and have the booking changed to two people.
I've never heard of that before. Is it a London thing?

Yes - London has its own act for private hire vehicles ("The Private
Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998"). To quote TfL's guidance for drivers
and operators:

"PHV drivers who pick up passengers that have not been booked
through their PHV operators are plying for hire and are therefore
committing the offence of touting for which they may be prosecuted and
their PHV driver’s licence suspended or revoked."

I think that the driver in the case concerned was applying the real
letter of the law in order to extract a bit more cash for the fare,
since he wasn't actually touting. But I suspect he was technically
correct because the passenger who made the booking had presumably only
booked for one person.

Sorry Paul but I have never come across a minicab firm in London that
demands to know how exactly many passengers are being picked up for a
normal booking - obviously if it's five or more people then you're
into booking a people carrier territory, that or two minicabs, but
never has the minicab office wanted to know whether it was one, two,
three or four passengers. Nor have I ever come across a minicab that
has turned up and refused passengers because there's too many
passengers (if the number of passengers is higher than one but no more
than four, of course). Minicab firms book "cars" (i.e. carloads) , not
individual passengers.

I really don't think it could possibly count as "plying for trade"
when a minicab picks up three passengers instead of two. Nor does
picking up someone else en route count either i.e. someone else known
to the existing passengers. All sorts of completely normal
arrangements would be considered null and void under your above
reading of the rules.

The whole anti-"plying for trade" rule is about prohibiting minicab
drivers from roaming the streets looking for a non-booked job - i.e.
those minicab drivers milling around outside a club or bar at kicking
out time, or those who do slow drive-bys next to night bus stops
trying to pick up a fare. Both of which still happen.