London Banter - View Single Post

[email protected] · April 23rd 16, 07:16 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
(JNugent) wrote:

On 22/04/2016 22:50, Mizter T wrote:

On 22/04/2016 20:05, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 19:12:08 on Fri, 22 Apr
2016, Mizter T remarked:

The complaint is they claim minicabs are plying for hire around St
Pancras and KX.

More specifically, uninsured minicabs.

Wrong, that's not the complaint.

Private hire cars (aka minicabs) are not allowed to ply for hire on the
streets, only taxis can do that.

I'd suggest that you'll find very few, if any, TfL-licensed but
uninsured minicabs out on the street in London - being uninsured means
they'll lose their licence.

The lack of insurance is automatic (irrespective of any policy paid
for) if (or perhaps when) the driver of the pirate car plies for hire
by approaching or responding to would-be passengers in the street.

Not always so, actually. In a case I dealt with as a member of the Cambridge
licensing committee, one hire car driver caught plying for hire was driving
for a firm that also had hackneys so insured all its vehicles for both
plying for both uses. This is much more unlikely in London where there isn't
the cross-over in fleets that there s in Cambridge.

It's not like the good old bad old days when anyone could be a minicab
driver in London, when undoubtedly a fair few weren't properly insured.

If (ie, when) they ply for hire, they still aren't. They cannot be.

They can as I said above have insurance that covers plying for hire. They
are still guilty of other offences of course but tend to get fewer points on
their licences because the minimum for insurance offences is six points.

--
Colin Rosenstiel