The Broken Shape of the Local Taxi service in Cornwall.
Cornwall council, have a duty of care to their constituents, and by default that includes ensuring a viable, well run local taxi service that can provide vital services for all, regardless of location. Not one that is constantly having to break the law.
The solution is simple, it has been provided to them. It is within their power and discretion to implement this solution, they just have to do it, but it seems that Cornwall Council would prefer to simply ignore the issue, along with those vulnerable and elderly residents that it affects the most!
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Taxis (Hackney Carriages), traditionally plied for hire on a Taxi Rank or Stand. A passenger would walk to the rank and hire the taxi, or wave/flag the taxi down on the street. The driver would engage the taxi meter, with the passenger paying the total metered fare at the end of the journey. Under the law, the driver cannot not charge more than the metered fare, under the legislation when the journey is solely within its district but agree a different price structure if leaving its district.
As time went on, pre-booking taxis became much more prevalent, so taxis were also having to engage in prebooked or private hire work, which included a small element of dead mileage within its district. This was not a problem as, for example, the boundaries of the town of Newquay were the ‘district’, so you did not have to travel far to go outside of your district, and thus could legally charge to compensate for excessive dead mileage. For example, travelling to St Columb Major to take someone to Fraddon, which gives a total dead mileage of 13.7 miles.
However, in 1997, the six borough councils in Cornwall opted to de-zone the boroughs, which in turn enlarged the districts within which taxis operated significantly. This on its own caused a major clash with the then and current taxi legislation, as lawfully, a taxi could no longer charge for that 13.7 miles of dead mileage (something until a year ago, we were all unaware of).
This issue was not realized by the trade, or the licensing authority until pointed out at a meeting twelve months ago. It is fair to say that licensing officers were as ignorant of this fact as those in the trade. The result of this is that just about every taxi that has been engaging in prebooked or private hire work over the last 27 years, has been doing so in contradiction of the taxi legislation. In other words, breaking the law. A situation created by their local licensing authorities.
In February 2023, Cornwall Council took the decision to remove the numerical limits on the issue of Taxi vehicle licenses in the remaining zones which had them. This resulted in a mass migration of Private Hire Vehicles to Hackney Carriage (Taxi) yet continuing to operate as Private Hire Vehicles. At the same time this swamped the ranks with excessive numbers of taxis and diluted the workflow so much that almost all taxis have been forced to subsidise their income with prebooked private hire work. This was not a known problem until the legality issue was raised last year.
Now, taxi operators are refusing to undertake work where there is excessive dead mileage involved, due to being unable to lawfully seek compensation for that liability from the customer. Often, this will lead to potentially vulnerable people being left without transport links to vital services such as doctors or hospitals. A situation that has become much more the case with ever rising costs, as taxi operators constantly have to balance their decision between breaking the law and being profitable.
Unless this problem is resolved in a practical way which will allow local taxi services to provide transport for all local residents, regardless of location, then more and more rural residents, including the elderly and vulnerable, will not be able to access taxi services because operators have no choice but to refuse services for viability reasons.
This issue is a direct result of poorly thought out policy changes at local government level, whilst not making, and continuing to refuse to make appropriate lawful changes to other policy, such as amending the table of fares like other areas have, in order to protect their residents by ensuring those residents have unfettered access to vital local taxi services.
Cornwall Council created this problem, and the local taxi trade has found and offered the solution, but until the authority decide to accept and pursue a solution, elderly and vulnerable members of the public remain at risk of transport isolation, or alternatively, members of the taxi trade continue to break the law.
This issue and its causes lays solely on the shoulders of Cornwall Council, and if any legal action is ever taken against a taxi operator, then surely Cornwall Council is by default equally liable. The solution has been found, and pleaded for, but the council solicitor simply saying ‘no because I said so’ is surely not acceptable for anyone including the council?