Legal

Safety is key to the taxi fleet and there are rules in place to make sure taxi drivers are fit and proper people to pick up fares, as well as checks to ensure their vehicles are safe to carry passengers.

Whether it is a black cab or private hire vehicle, all drivers must comply in order to work in the fleet, and they must be licensed with their local authority.

Drivers who hit other vehicles and flee without reporting the damage cause huge inconvenience and expense to their innocent victims, especially if they are taxi drivers who rely on their cars to earn a living.

Damage to any vehicle is expensive to repair and being off the road causes huge disruption because it can affect livelihoods and lead to increased premiums if a claim is made.

We all know that using a mobile phone while driving a taxi is illegal, but what about eating a snack, wearing Ugg boots, or having fluffy dice hanging from the mirror?

Will sipping tea or coffee, or driving at night with the interior light on earn a taxi driver points on their licence?

Clean air and low emissions zones are expanding across the UK and taxi drivers whose vehicles don’t meet tougher environmental standards fear the daily charges could force them off the road.

As Glasgow city centre’s LEZ goes live next month, taxi drivers were worried that the £60 charge for older, non-compliant vehicles would stop them operating in the area.

Each person in the UK is recorded about 70 times a day by CCTV cameras in places ranging from shops and streets to our homes and offices . . . but they remain a contentious issue for taxi drivers.

Arguments for and against installing cameras in black cabs and private hire vehicles have rumbled on for years.

Taxi drivers are calling for action to tackle the problem of catalytic converter thefts which can leave their cars off the road for weeks and facing hefty repair bills.

Since the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis, thieves have become more inventive and ruthless as they find new ways to make money.

As more taxi drivers are using dash-cam footage to protect themselves in case of a crash, cabbies are being warned about spies on two wheels recording their every move.

The message comes after ‘sneaky’ cyclists have recorded taxi drivers and other professional drivers doing things that they shouldn’t.

Potholes are a real problem on our roads, and for professionals such as taxi drivers, damage to their cabs is not just an inconvenience, it stops them earning money.

You don’t have to go too far today to find a pothole – in fact, drivers are spending more time trying to avoid them, with the RAC reporting that the final three months of 2022 saw 1,800 call-outs for damage caused by potholes.

It is good to see officials cracking down on motorists who park in ranks designated for taxi drivers.

In the run-up to Christmas, Worcester City Council issued 92 fines in a month to drivers who ignored restrictions and parked in the city centre’s taxi ranks.

Taxi drivers and other motorists are being targeted by unmarked speed traps after a rise in the number of serious and fatal crashes.

Police in Northamptonshire are ditching high-profile camera vans and are using unmarked vehicles to catch drivers breaking the speed limit.

Taxi drivers never know who’s getting into the back of their cab. It could be sports stars, actors, rock stars, politicians . . . the possibilities are endless as this Uber driver found out.

But even with the use of booking apps, drivers don’t really know who they are picking up – or what their passengers are doing.

Passengers are being warned about the dangers of travelling in illegal taxis which is making the most of the surging demand in towns and cities at weekends.

The warning comes after a council in Wales saw a rise in the number of unlicensed public hire and private hire taxis descending on Merthyr Tydfil at the weekends.