Reviewing the taxi and private hire legislation – have your say!

• Tweet
• Email

• Tweet
• Email

Review of the regulation of taxi and private hire vehicles

Make sure you are heard – Click here to take the LPHCA Survey

On 19 July 2011, The Law Commission announced that it was starting a review of the legislation that governs taxi and private hire vehicles – so basically the law that affects your day to day jobs.  This is a really crucial time for the taxi and private hire industry – particularly when you consider that some of the laws that exist already for taxi and private hire vehicles have been in existence since the 19th Century – so it doesn’t take a genius to realise that these probably aren’t fit for purpose anymore!

When is the review happening?

We are currently in what is called a ‘pre consultation phase’ – this is where The Law Commission gathers information and prepare to issue a consultation paper.  This consultation paper will be issued in April or May 2012 and this will set out draft proposals for the reform of the legal framework within which you operate at the moment.

Following the issue of the consultation paper, there will be a three month review period – which is really when it is your time to respond to the contents of The Law Commission’s proposal – and this period will end around July or August 2012.  Once the consultation is over and all the responses have been looked at a draft bull will be published in November 2013 – and should be become legislation by no later than 2015.

What is the review looking at?

Some of the key issues that the review seeks to address are:

• Safety – not only in terms of vehicles and drivers, but also thinking about our customers.  This is something that could be looked at nationally and then filtered down at a local level
• Availability – This is particularly important, as we are now seeing many different ways in passengers booking a taxi or private hire vehicle
• Quality – the quality of service is an important issue that needs to be looked at
• Responsiveness to local needs – particularly how London is considered in relation to the rest of the UK

You can also expect some of the more recent emerging issues to appear as well:

• Boundaries in the two tier system of Taxis and PHVs – should the current system in the way these operate differently be abolished
• Enforcement in general and cross-border – cross county enforcement and outdated jurisdictions
• Striking the balance – availability and national and local standards
• Access and disabilities
• Overall excessive uncertainty – because it is so outdated there is considerable uncertainty in the legal framework

Make sure you are heard

At Mercury we are eagerly awaiting the issue of the consultation paper – and we will be looking to respond on our customers behalf during the consultation phase.

The Licensed Private Hire Car Association (LPHCA) are currently conducting an ‘in confidence’ survey to start understanding the position of taxi and private hire companies across the UK.  We think that its a good idea to complete this survey and get yourself heard at an early stage – you can visit the LPHCA website and complete the survey by following this link.