Parliamentary debate or debacle?

Mark Bursa

Does the private hire sector need more regulation? Undoubtedly. But more importantly, it needs the right regulation, and if that is to happen, those responsible for drawing up the legislation need to understand what they’re trying to achieve.

Judging by the standard of last month’s parliamentary debate into cross-border hiring, I wouldn’t hold my breath on that front.

If an experienced and diplomatic a figure as NPHTA’s David Lawrie should feel the need to call the debate “poorly researched and presented”, and containing many “misleading and incorrect” points, we are in trouble.

It's a shame to waste the opportunity to put the private hire sector at the top of the agenda for a couple of hours, though at least the debate has shown that the government needs to sharpen up its act here and build a proper understanding of the issues at stake.

The Deregulation Act is a sensible piece of legislation that allows operators to sub-contract jobs to other operators to avoid having loads of PHVs shuttling around empty half the time.

Part of that plan would be to allow local authorities to enforce those standards on all cars and drivers operating in their area, regardless of where they are registered.

Getting free of the shackles of “local” thinking is the key to making a better and safer system of licensing. The NR3 database needs to be rigorously applied, and there should be no loopholes that allow unsuitable individuals to become private hire drivers. Safeguarding must be paramount, and the mechanisms are already there to ensure that is the case.

If there was a true national standard –just as there is in bus, coach and truck licensing – the argument that an “outof-town” driver is somehow of a lower standard than one licensed in a “home” town would disappear.

PSV-licensed bus drivers who passed their tests in Wolverhampton or Manchester can drive a bus in any town. The same should apply to PHVs.

Now it is being conflated with the issue of out-of-area licensing, which has suddenly popped up on the agenda of politicians. ‘Why is Manchester full of Wolverhampton-licensed cars?” wails Manchester mayor Andy Burnham. “Something must be done!”

The reason is simple: Wolverhampton offers a better licensing service than Manchester. Those Wolves-plated cars are not drivers from the Black Country commuting to the north-west every day to steal jobs from local cabbies. No, they are Mancunian drivers frustrated at the 10-month wait to get a license issued locally.

Manchester could stop the practice immediately if it followed Wolverhampton County Council's example and invested heavily in systems and manpower in order to speed up the licencing process.

Alternatively, take Professor Button’s plan seriously and put all licensing through Wolverhampton, having agreed on a standard that keeps everybody happy.

We could call on the Government –and all other politicians with an interest in a safe and healthy taxi and private hire trade – to consult more widely with real industry experts. People who work within the trade and have its best interests at heart.

The fact that the ludicrous concept of the “ABBA principle” still has currency in these debates is deeply concerning. Regardless of basic minicab journeys, chauffeurs are also governed by private hire regulations, and there is absolutely no way that with modern B2B chauffeur working patterns – inter-city travel, airport runs, and so on – journeys can end in the same place they started.

Working “as directed” remains a major feature for many chauffeurs, and it is vital that the nuances of executive car services should be factored in to the debate, perhaps with a separate class of license for chauffeurs that includes some form of vocational training, as proposed by the Guild of Professional Chauffeurs and others.

This industry has the people and the mechanisms to make proper changes, done correctly. It’s up to us to make some noise, and get our view on to the Government’s agenda. Before somebody does something stupid. And on the face of it, that’s a genuine risk.