Private Hire

Drivers of older, more-polluting vehicles in central London have had to pay the Congestion Charge, Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) and/or Low Emission Zone (LEZ) charges, which has already had an impact on professionals such as taxi drivers. 

But from today, the ULEZ scheme has been expanded to include the whole of Greater London within the M25 – adding a further 5 million people.

Range is everything when it comes to EVs and is a big issue for taxi drivers every day – will they be able to take a fare wherever they want to go and what happens if they need to charge on the way?

These problems will disappear as battery technology improves and electric vehicles will be able to travel further on a single charge, which is good news for people who earn their living on the road.

As technology and innovation continue to drive the taxi industry forward, drivers and fleet owners need to make sure they have the right taxi insurance in place for the work they do.

The traditional industry model was black cabs or Hackney carriages, which required public hire insurance, and private hire vehicles or minicabs, which needed private hire insurance.

An illegal taxi driver who picked up fares across Liverpool city centre was asked ‘was it worth it?’ after being banned and fined hundreds of pounds.

The Liverpool Echo reports that Liverpool City Council officers observed Mruan Elkehya posing as both a private hire driver and public hire driver over a period of two months.

As the drive for cleaner motoring continues, taxi drivers are already ahead of the curve when it comes to using less-polluting vehicles.

The Government’s Taxi and private hire vehicle statistics, England: 2023 report, which was published last month, offers a fascinating insight into the makeup of the taxi and private hire fleets.

Over the past 18 months, Just Stop Oil protesters have brought roads across the UK to a standstill with a variety of demonstrations.

These have included gluing themselves to roads in towns and cities to block traffic, protests on motorways causing huge disruption, as well as slow marches through London which hold up traffic.

There have been calls for national taxi legislation to ensure standards across the UK, as well as closing loopholes that benefit some taxi drivers over others.

One of the biggest issues has been legislation which allows taxi licences to be issued by one authority while the driver is actually operating in another. A consequence of this loophole has been that some drivers have benefitted from some licensing authorities charging different fees.

Taxi drivers can ask passengers to pay their fare at any point during a journey – even before the ride has begun.

The biggest reason for this is to stop passengers leaving without paying or refusing to pay the full fare for a journey which, to be clear, is theft. They are using a service they know they have to pay for but are cheating the driver out of the rightful fare.

Plans to give Newcastle’s black cabs a distinctive makeover have been parked for now following concerns from the city’s taxi drivers.

Newcastle City Council planned to introduce white bonnets to the city’s fleet of almost 600 public hire black taxis – to reflect Newcastle United’s famous black and white shirts – in a bid to make travelling by taxi safer for everyone.

Plans for a £36 million city-centre pedestrianisation scheme have come under fire from private hire taxi drivers who would be banned from the area, while black cabs would still be allowed to operate.

And STV News reports that Edinburgh Council could face legal action from at least one private hire boss who called the decision to ban PHVs “ludicrous”.

Taxi drivers spend most of their time in their cars which must be able to do everything they need to earn a living.

As technology improves, there are more gadgets and features to make life on the road easier and more enjoyable. So, what could you not do without in your next taxi or private hire vehicle?

Like several other cities, Newcastle has introduced a Clean Air Zone to cut pollution – and is offering financial assistance to help taxi drivers meet the cost of replacing older, more polluting vehicles.

The Clean Air Zone was introduced on January 30 to help to improve air quality by reducing the number of high-polluting vehicles on the roads both within the zone and in the surrounding areas.