Facebook  Twitter  Linkedin  YouTube
Monday , 25 March 2024

UK Taxi industry Cherting out a new path

The National Association of Taxi Users (NATU), www.taxiuser.com, was formed in late 2010 to represent the interests of taxi users. As far as we are aware, it is one of the first such organisations in the world. One reason for its establishment is that Passenger Focus, the government agency responsible for representing the interests of public transport users, covers rail, coach and bus but has no remit to include taxis. Taxis are licensed by local licensing authorities according to national guidelines but these often cover a smaller area than that for which local transport strategies are produced and in several aspects, there are no consistent national standards for taxi licensing.

NATU, launched with a conference aimed at local authority licensing officers, aims to design a realistic manifesto to improve taxi services. It campaigns for the provision of good quality taxi services throughout the UK and also wants to make the process of finding information and booking taxis easy. Its prime movers are consultants who do tremendous work in the field of public engagement and consultation with taxi users and taxi industry stakeholders and therefore, understand the problems regarding the provision of taxis.

In general, the standard of regulation and enforcement in the UK is high, and there is an emphasis on providing full equality of provision to all users, including those with disabilities. Nevertheless, NATU is also working on providing solutions for several problems that taxi users have discussed with it on issues relating to both quality and quantity. Quality issues relate to matters such as vehicle condition, lack of accessible taxis for disabled users, overcharging by drivers, confusing fares and drivers being unable to speak English or not knowing their way around an area. The last is a controversial issue because taxi drivers are expected to know a local area intimately and local authorities often make such local knowledge a necessary requirement for gaining a hackney carriage driving licence. In London, there is a particularly rigorous ‘Knowledge of London’ Examination System which hackney carriage drivers must pass before they can drive a London hackney. Such a system leads to distinguishing hackney carriage drivers licensed by one local authority from those licensed by a neighbouring local authority. Yet ITS systems, including satellite navigation and GPS technology, are developing to such an extent that the formal ‘local knowledge’ may eventually become unnecessary.

Another area of complaint from users relates to confusion between hackneys and Private Hire Vehicles (PHVs). Different standards apply to the two and legislative regimes existing for both are different too. Yet, with the development of ITS and mobile phones, it has become possible to effectively book a PHV on the street through phoning the PHV company’s number (even through simply seeing it displayed on the side of a nearby PHV). There are a large number of smartphone applications through which taxis can be located and booked. The taxi technology industry sector is quite large and well-developed in the UK, with a number of UK technology companies serving this sector in the areas of taxi dispatch, signages, accounting, free phone equipment and taximeters. Also, a major Private Hire & Taxi Exhibition is held each year in Coventry, the birthplace of the British motor industry.

As regards the quantity and service integration issues, NATU has also received reports from consumers about lack of sufficient taxis in areas where the number of licences is controlled, lack of sufficient taxi ranks in the right places, and a lack of integration of taxis with other methods of transport such as trains or buses. There has been a gradual improvement over the years in the web-based information available on taxis at transport interchanges. The private company ‘TrainTaxi’ (at www.traintaxi.co.uk) shows the names and contact details of three taxi companies for each railway station in England, Scotland and Wales, and the government-run Transport Direct website (www.transportdirect.info) is rolling out a programme to extend this to other major transport hubs.

At NATU’s launch conference, training was also raised as an issue which required improvements. In response to a general concern over many years regarding poor standards of training, stakeholders in the hackney and PHV industry have recently set up The Taxi Academy to address this issue.

Another area where changes could benefit consumers is the promotion of taxi-sharing over corridors where separate and independent passengers travel at the same time and in the same direction. UK legislation does not allow taxis to generally carry passengers at separate fares, unless they are operating as a registered and authorised bus service (as above), or the local authority arranges a taxi-sharing scheme. Without such formal local-authority controlled schemes, the split of the total fare between individuals on any shared taxi has to be agreed informally by the taxi passengers. There are two regular and two seasonal formal taxi-sharing schemes in London, and a scheme has recently been set up in the city of Milton Keynes for travelling to and from the railway station at peak hours. But without such formalisation it appears that the British cultural approach to life does not naturally favour taxi sharing with strangers, as an article on the BBC’s website pointed out two years ago: the article can be read at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8091028.stm

But perhaps, such attitudes will gradually change as taxi use continues to increase. As the UK’s already large taxi sector moves forward and takes advantage of the new opportunities open to it in the 21st century, particularly those emerging through ITS, we can expect it to develop in several ways, and move to play a larger and better-recognised role in the UK’s public transport provision.

John Austin
Managing Consultant
austin Analytics

Share with: