BLACK MARKS

The London Assembly’s plans for the taxi and private hire trade has met with a lukewarm reaction from the sector. In particular, top-end operators are annoyed that there is no mention of chauffeuring as a separate branch of the trade – though the report does include references to pedicabs.

The London Assembly Transport Committee published what it called a “comprehensive set of recommendations” to London Mayor Sadiq Khan last month. But the report is couched in management-speak, and seems to skirt round addressing any issues of genuine concern.

In a letter to Mayor Khan, Keith Prince AM, chairman of the Transport Committee, spelled out eight key proposals aimed at modernising the industry through a so-called Taxi and Private Hire Vision plan.

The letter includes input from trade bodies as well as TfL and a number of operators, though the efforts are, as is often the case with TfL taxi plans, heavily skewed toward providing assistance to the black cab sector.

In the letter, Prince wrote: “The Committee agrees that there is a need for a new Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Plan as the current Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Action Plan was last updated in 2016. The taxi and private hire industries have changed significantly in the past decade, with significant growth in numbers of private hire vehicles, and a decline in black taxis.”

Indeed, between 2013 and 2023, PHV numbers almost doubled from 49,900 to 89,600, while the number of black taxis in London fell by almost a third from 22,200 to 15,100 in the same timeframe.

The decline in taxi numbers is of considerable concern to LTDA head Steve McNamara, who argued that policies to prevent older, more polluting taxis being driven had contributed to the reduction in numbers. Basically, McNamara argues that drivers should be allowed to continue using some of the most polluting vehicles on London’s roads, and this should be prioritized over environmental issues.

McNamara told the committee: “The last Taxi Strategy we had was in 2016 and then historically, very shortly after that, we started talking about how we can decimate the fleet even further than we had already done by reducing the age limit on vehicles yet again. I estimate that we lost about £35 million through the lost residuals in secondhand vehicles that were wiped off when the age limit was reduced from 15 years to 12 years.”

Despite availability of the LEVC hybrid-electric taxis, around half the vehicles on eth road are still old diesels. TfL’s pre-Covid figures estimated that the black cabs contributed around 16% of London’s vehicular NOx pollution, while the entire private hire fleet contributed less than 4%. Even with a fall in numbers and the arrival of cleaner vehicles, the black cabs will continue to produce a disproportionate amount of harmful emissions until the last of the diesels are replaced toward the end of the decade.

Prince said TfL told the Committee that any new Taxi and Private Hire Action Plan would look at both taxi and PHV industries at the same time. However, he then goes on to detail a number of issues that again centred around the taxi sector, not private hire.

These included ages limit of vehicles, again quoting McNamara; the fact that there is only one current Zero Emissions Capable (ZEC) taxi available that meets the approved specifications; ways to make the taxi more affordable, including the continuation of the Plug-in Taxi Grant (PiTG); and whether the accessibility features of the black taxi should make it eligible for exemptions such as the use of all bus lanes, or being VAT-exempt.

When the vehicle requirements were changed in 2016, it was McNamara’s protestations about being forced to buy cleaner taxis that prompted TfL’s ill-thought-out decision that all PHVs would have to be “zero-emissions capable”, thus at a stroke removing clean non-plug-in hybrids from the list of acceptable cars.

Now the various representatives of the black cab sector, including Asher Moses of Sherbet and Marius Zabrocki of FreeNow, are complaining about the high cost of the LEVC cab.

Zabrocki bemoaned the high rental cost of the Black Cab. “That is £400 a week, equivalent to £20,000 a year. This is an awfully high cost, and that is because there is no competition. We need more vehicle models available. Maybe we need to look at some of the requirements such as the turning circle, to make sure we have more models, because executive class vehicles for PHV, they cost around £230 a week. That shows you how crazy is this price.”

Moses was equally critical: “I am the largest electric taxi fleet and I cannot afford to buy them any longer. I am seriously considering, among my colleagues, whether we should continue to invest in a vehicle that is over £100,000, that cab drivers cannot afford to rent, let alone buy.”

McNamara acknowledged it was difficult to create more competition in the market as there was only limited demand for such vehicles.

What little discussion there was about private hire seemed to centre around cross-border hiring and the potential to license taxi apps. Among the taxi-heavy recommendations was just one concerning private hire, which stated vaguely that it “could include revisiting discussions around capping PHV numbers and cross-border hiring”.

Meanwhile Pedicabs received a greater amount of the discussion – rendered irrelevant now the Government has approved legislation to licence and control the London pedal-rickshaw segment.

Prince wrote: “The Committee supports the plans going through Parliament to regulate Pedicabs, and considers that zero emission forms of transport, including forms of cargo bikes that transport passengers, should be incorporated within the scope a new wider strategy.”

Further discussions included ideas of how to streamline the process of “the Knowledge”, perhaps by introducing modular learning. And McNamara had a lengthy complaint about the perils of 20mph speed limits.

Slim pickings for anyone hoping for some radical changes or assistance for the private hire sector. And inevitably, the complete absence of any discussion of chauffeuring has caused distress among operators already having to fight off TfL’s attempts to force unwanted and unnecessary in-cab signage on operators.

Martin Cox, managing director of London chauffeur operator Gerrards, took to social media to voice his displeasure. “You’ll notice absolutely zero reference to the chauffeur sector in London,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “That’s because we fall under private hire regulations. Being only 10% of the PH industry, we are simply not represented. We transport all the decision makers but we have no voice, no influence, so we never get heard.”

He continued: “Guess what? They discussed bloody Pedicabs, who seem to be worthy of debate and they’re not even licensed!”

He called on TfL to give chauffeurs a stronger voice in such discussions. “If you can have three panelists representing the taxi trade brilliantly, a London chauffeur representative shouldn’t be too much to ask?”

The London Assembly's 8-point vision for taxi and PHV

• 1 TfL should set out an engagement plan for developing the updated Taxi and Private Hire Vision. This should be a participatory process, including engaging with Assembly Members and the London Assembly Transport Committee.

• 2 The Mayor and TfL should consult around including Pedicabs, and other forms of transport, in the new Taxi PHV strategy.

• 3 The Mayor should work with Government on any legislative changes required to achieve the vision. This could include re-visiting discussions around capping PHV numbers and cross-border hiring, the content of pedicab legislation, and the potential to license taxi apps.

• 4 The Mayor should look at what steps he can take to increase competition in the approved London taxi market.

• 5 The Mayor should continue to liaise with the Government around support for the Plug-In Taxi Grant, and push for the Grant to be extended beyond April 2025. The Mayor should also continue to make the case to Government that all accessible vehicles, including taxis and wheelchair accessible PHVs, should be VAT-exempt.

• 6 The Mayor and TfL should further explore making the Knowledge more modular, allowing people to complete the programme alongside their jobs. In response to this letter, the Mayor and TfL should set out what steps it is taking to encourage and support more women and people from a diverse range of backgrounds to enrol in the Knowledge.

• 7 TfL should review its approach to how it deals with breaches of 20mph speed limits, to focus on behaviour change and achieve safe speeds and remove perceptions of unfairness. It should monitor the number of cases and trends over time and review awareness of 20mph limits and see if more can be done to reduce offending. TfL should write to the Committee with an update on this and how it has changed the tone of correspondence to drivers.

• 8 TfL should assess their new driver policy and reorganisation of the appeals process to ensure it is fair, independent and transparent.