Agenda item

Tom Ince (Principal Compliance Officer) has prepared the attached update on behalf of the Taxi Licensing Team as of August 2024.  Danial Farr/Laurie Anderson (Compliance Officers) will give an overview of the update to the Committee at the meeting.

Danial Farr/Laurie Anderson (Fleet Compliance Officers) referred to the update on behalf of the Taxi Licensing team as at August 2024 that was circulated with the agenda and highlighted the following:

·            There had been 38 new driver licence applications and 56 renewals during August 2024 and whist the increasing number of licence applicants and holders would increase the Council’s income from taxi licensing, it also places additional pressure on the small team of 5 having to process them;

·            The total number of licensed hackney carriage drivers at the end of August was 679 which was down 2 on the previous month.  The level of drivers continues to put pressure on the Passenger Transport Unit and whilst numbers were rising, they were not rising fast enough to meet the increased SEND demand Passenger Transport are experiencing;

·            The team also license private hire only drivers and there were 223 drivers as at the end of August bringing the total number of drivers licensed to 902.  Private hire drivers are not restricted by zone and can take bookings for anywhere in the country.  On page 28 of the report it stated that recent best practice has provided the authority with the power to ask applicants from outside of the Council area where they intend to undertake the majority of their work, if they will not be working in Wiltshire, there is now the power to refuse the application.  However, it was to be noted that this only relates to hackney carriage drivers and not private hire drivers which may have been somewhat misleading in the report;

·            At the end of August 2024 there were a total of 860 vehicles licensed with vehicle numbers breaking through 800 for the first time in 2 years since February 2023.  The vehicle split is as follows – 554 hackney carriage and 306 private hire vehicles.   Of the 860 vehicles licensed 13.4% or 115 of them are wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAV), but only 5% of hackney carriage vehicles are WAV which means it was unlikely for the public to hire one from a rank and would need to have booked in advance;

·            The team continue to proactively enforce the Council’s policies in relation to taxi licensing and with a new team member starting on 1 May 2024 this had improved the visibility on the ranks and in towns.  Penalty points were issued to 10 drivers in August 2024, 3 for not wearing their ID badge, 3 for failing to notify of a conviction, 2 for speeding, 1 for smoking in their vehicle and 1 for parking in a disabled bay;

·            The team continue to work on the updated driver and vehicle guidelines and best practice that was issued in November 2023 to further enhance standards within Wiltshire for the benefit of users and the industry.  The team were also considering the impact of the proposed 2020 Environment bill would place requirements on Local Authorities to manage air quality;

·            This may impact taxis and the guidelines around vehicle age and emissions, and the team were reviewing the possibility of removing the current age criteria in relation to licensing vehicles and making the criteria emissions based. The team also need to undertake two large projects and report back, firstly a taxi rank review to evaluate how accessible the ranks are to all members of the public and secondly also look at how they transition their current fleet of vehicles across to hybrid or fully electric vehicles; and

·            The implementation of the new taxi licensing system via Arcus was causing some current challenges as the system is not able to perform a number of the licensing processes and so the team were having to duplicate work within the old M3 system and Arcus.  Work was in progress to fix all system issues so that it could be fully used to processing taxi licensing work moving forward.

The Chairman asked if there was any request from Uber to operate within Wiltshire.  Danial confirmed that there had been no contact from Uber, but that Veezu which was a similar provision was now available in Wiltshire.

The Chairman noted that there would be a review of the taxi ranks and that it there was a move for greener (electric) vehicles then there would need to be necessary infrastructure in place to support that, and if the Council askes its contractors to use green vehicles.  Danial reported that grants for greener vehicles had now been withdrawn by Central Government but that they would of course be looking at that as part of the rank review as well as the suggestions in the best practice about electrification and having covered areas at ranks.  Because Wiltshire has many rural areas which are spread out it may be that electric cars are not viable as taxi vehicles and that hybrid might be the road to go down.  It was confirmed that the findings of the rank review would be brought to the Committee, and they would be asked to consider approval for changes to be made and any budget implications.

The Committee asked the following questions which included but were not limited to:

·            Because of the rocketing cost of second hand cars would the Council be considering lower the age limit of vehicles from a maximum of 5 years at registration to 7 years.  If the limit was lowered this may help with the demand for drivers because of the costs involved in purchasing a car that was 5 years old.  It was noted that Officers had recently reviewed the policies of other Local Authorities and whilst some allowed 7 year old vehicles on registration, some insist that they are only 2 years old.  This would be considered within the review as allowing older vehicles to be used may not meet the Council’s environmental objectives. The WAV age limit was 7 years at first registration.

·            Was there an update on the implementation of the single licensing zone for Wiltshire and the move to just having one depot for vehicle licensing and inspections?  It was noted that the team had not really seen much in way of change with drivers mostly staying in their own areas and as far as they were aware the impact on the trade had been minimal.  The depot for taxi licensing staff and vehicle checks was now based solely at Kennet House in Devizes and whilst there were still some gripes from operators in the south of the county the move to close the other depots had been a success.

·            Could there be flexibility about the cleanness of a vehicle in relation to emissions?  It was noted that the within the review of the vehicle age criteria they would be considering the emissions of vehicles.

·            Would consideration be giving to vehicles being ULEZ compliant?  It was noted that this would be looked into as part of the review mentioned earlier.

It was also noted that as part of the taxi rank review they would also be considering the procurement of CCTV availability at each of the taxi ranks in Wiltshire.  

Resolved:

That the Committee notes the Taxi Licensing Team update and will receive a further report once the planned reviews have been carried out.