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[email protected] · June 18th 14, 11:40 PM posted to cam.transport,uk.transport.london

In article ,
(JNugent) wrote:

On 18/06/2014 15:02, Roland Perry wrote:

Jun 2014, JNugent remarked:

[in response to:]
I don't think the same vehicle can be licensed as both a hackney
carriage and hire car.

What need would there be for it?

so they can "pick up" from a rank at the new science park station

Why would the vehicle need to be licensed for private hire for that?

It doesn't, but it needs a hackney licence for the station area
(currently SC).

If the vehicle is licensed as a taxi, it creates no further advantage
for it to be additionally licensed as a PH car.

Indeed so.

Hackney carriages can lawfully be used [for private] hirings, whether
within their licensed area or outside it.
There are no circumstances in which a taxi being additionally licensed
for (so-called) private hire conveys advantage to anyone.

Agreed. (Assuming of course that a hackney licence allows you to pick up
outside your area, without a private hire licence for that area).

Only on private hirings.

Indeed so.

You seem to have missed the problem here.
Because (it appears that) there are currently no ranks in South Cambs
and nowhere that driving around looking for a hire is worthwhile,
there are no licensed hackney cabs in SC. They all content themselves
with operating as mini cabs offering their pre-booked (5 minutes
before by phone) service both in SC and Cambridge City.

I can see that that is a problem *if true* - but a whole district
without a single taxi-rank - not even outside a railway station -
seems unlikely.

South Cambs is a collection of what we call "necklace villages" and
their stations. I'm quite prepared to believe none [village High Streets
or stations] are big enough to warrant a taxi.

Arguably Whittlesford station would most likely merit a taxi rank. There
might be one of the station forecourt of course. That would be non-statutory.

The problem should be addressed by the district council appointing
some taxi-ranks.

I think you mean Hackney Licences. They can. but currently there doesn't
appear to be any demand from the potential drivers.

But Roland (and others), not unreasonably, think that there will be
business customers arriving at the new SP station thinking that the
20-25 minute walk to the company that they are visiting is too far,
expecting to jump in a un-booked cab.

One would think so.

But SC cabs won't be able to pick up there because none of them are
licensed to ply for hire and City cabs won't be able to pick up there
because (by a few 100 yards) the station is in SC.

What (when it's at home) is (the chimera) a "cab not licensed to ply
for hire"?

A minicab. (aka private hire).

A cab is a cab. A private hire car is something else.

The public outside London regard both as taxis, hence the use of the terms
"hackney" and "private hire car" to distinguish them clearly.

Because of the long standing standard vehicle requirements in London,
combined with the lack of a legal framework for hire cars for so long after
the rest of the country got one, I accept that is probably different in
London.

If a vehicle isn't licensed to ply for hire, it isn't a cab (or taxi,
or hackney carriage, or any other synonym you prefer).
So does the area which contains this railway station have any cabs
licensed (and "licensed" means "licensed under the Town Police Clauses
Act 1847")?
If the answer is "yes" - then they can ply at the station (if there's
a rank).

It's "yes", but there are only a handful. Not enough even for a rank at
one station.

if the answer is "no", then the council needs to licence some cabs.

No, the drivers need to apply. But isn't it a bit of an imposition for
drivers to have to get themselves licenced so they can pick up from just
one two-hundred yard street in an entire half-a-county?

No.

The law demands more of taxi-drivers than it does of private hire
drivers.

Not necessarily. Outside London the requirements may be essentially the
same. They are in Cambridge, including a knowledge test for both.

So people are suggesting solutions to this problem.

Be sure that there is one first. And be sure that the answer ("licence
some cabs under the 1847 Act" isn't quite so obvious.

There are cumbersome solution. We are looking for a simple, common-sense
one. For example, a way to allow the hundreds of City Hackneys to be
able to operate at this new place, which just happens to be a landlocked
island of South Cambs just outside the City (and only accessible by a
road to the City).

If that is the solution, it can only be achieved by a local
government boundary change.

Or a joint taxi licensing authority. I talked to my Labour successor as
licensing chair tonight. He indicated no change in council policy under the
new regime and that he will be taking the idea forward soon. Good I say.

--
Colin Rosenstiel