Minister has put us in crisis, say taxi drivers

In an open letter to Transport Minister Eddie Noel, which has been copied to all States Members, Mick Tostevin, president of the Jersey Taxi Drivers’ Association, described the changes as a ‘bombshell’ and accused the minister of effectively plunging the industry into a ‘crisis’.

Speaking to the JEP, Mr Tostevin said that industrial action was becoming increasingly likely unless Deputy Noel rethinks the proposals and said his members were ready to ‘go down fighting’.

He added that the JTDA were currently receiving legal advice on how to fight the changes.

The letter was written in response to reforms which state that, by 2019, all rank taxis in Jersey will need to have wheelchair access and distinctive colours and markings and use a specific type of meter.

The changes will also see a new pricing structure put in place so that rank taxis and private hire cabs will have the same tariffs, with certain charges, such as for additional passengers and luggage, being phased out.

In the letter, Mr Tostevin said: ‘I would now state that through some of these radical and unnecessary proposals you have effectively placed our industry into a crisis, with many involved, including their extended families, seriously worried about their futures.

‘You have always stated publicly that you were very concerned and mindful of the effect any radical changes would have on those working in the industry.

‘The minister has brought forward a set of proposals which are a mess and must not only be rejected by the industry but seriously bring into question his ability to be the Transport Minister in the first place.’

When asked by the JEP whether industrial action was likely should the plans come into effect, Mr Tostevin said: ‘I think it would be.

‘The mood of the drivers is that they feel that if they are going to be destroyed, they may as well go down fighting.

‘It is not something that they want to happen, but we feel we are being pushed into a corner.’

Mr Tostevin said that buying a second-hand wheelchair taxi could cost around £14,000, which could put some drivers out of business.

He suggested an alternative of having a small number of specialist wheelchair-friendly taxis and maintaining the current wheelchair provision of 15 per cent of rank taxis and implementing a similar level within the private hire service.

Drivers will also be expected to meet new customer service standards by next year, which will include disability awareness, being a ‘Jersey Ambassador’ and being fluent in English.

They will also be required to undertake regular medicals to ensure that they are fit for the job.

Mr Tostevin also questioned whether Deputy Noel should continue as Transport Minister and said a vote of no confidence should be brought forward.

A vote of no confidence would have to be brought by a States Member to be debated by the Assembly.

‘I’m not sure who can bring a vote of no confidence but perhaps that is something that could be done.

‘He is going against best practice in other places and what he is suggesting goes far beyond what is actually needed.

‘It has been very badly thought through.

‘I think and hope he is starting to realise that some of the things he has come up with might be over the top.

‘I have asked him to give us a few months to properly think about this and come up with some good proposals which would benefit the industry and the Island.’

Dear Minister,

Now that the Taxi-cab Industry has received the bombshell of a review that has taken many years and so far £134,000 of tax payers money to produce.

You have stated in the media that the consultation is over and that the industry has had time to put forward its views and that this is now a done deal.

Myself, our members and others in the industry, both Taxi and cab drivers alike would strongly challenge this statement and counter that much of what you are proposing was never put to us during the consultation process and the reason why we are seeing such a backlash to these proposals.

In the review carried out for TTS by the UK passenger transport specialists TAS Partnership Limited, (specialists in trains, buses and coaches), one of the overriding statements that they make is ” the taxi service in Jersey is not in crisis. It generally offers a reasonable service to the public”.

I would now state that through some of these radical and unnecessary proposals you have effectively placed our industry into a crisis, with many involved, including their extended families, seriously worried about their futures.

Mick Tostevin, president of the Jersey Taxi Drivers' Association

You have always stated publicly that you were very concerned and mindful of the effect any radical changes would have on those working in the industry.

I will state that you Minister, your predecessors, TTS Officers and the DVS, past and present, are well aware of where the main problems are and that much of this could have been sorted out around a table involving the main players from both sides Public Rank and Private Hire.

This could have been achieved without calling in these so called experts and costing the tax payer £134,000 to date.

Furthermore we feel that the blame for much of the public confusion in Jersey must lie mainly with your predecessors. TTS, Public Services and the DVS past and present.

Incidentally the two tier system of Public Rank and Private Hire is still the normal practice in all 374 council authorities throughout the UK, including Scotland.

The rules in these places are enforced with serious consequences for those who do not abide by them.

A reminder here that the Taxi-cab industry costs the tax payer nothing, we are mostly self employed, ultimately a privatised entity and it is only the user who pays.

Furthermore you as the Transport Minister already has control of our (Public Rank) fares.

Somewhere along the way you, your predecessors and advisers appear to have lost the focus that this review of the Taxi and Cab industry was part of the overall Strategic Transport Policy 2010. This States Policy was aimed at reducing the Island’s carbon footprint by at least 15% by 2015, a target which has failed miserably.

We now have our Transport Minister insisting that all 150 Public Rank Taxis should be wheel chair accessible, a subject which we know is particularly close to the Minister’s heart.

You are suggesting that drivers who have recently invested in new vehicles, including eco friendly hybrids, should buy second hand wheel chair vehicles that could be sourced from the UK at around £14,000.

What about the local economy, the local garages and support, what eco friendly wheel chair vehicle can I purchase for £14,000 ?, it would more than likely be a high mileage diesel.

Is the Minister and his advisers not aware that currently there are 34 UK councils looking at banning diesel vehicles from their town/city centres.

If the Minster feels that there is such a demand to insist that all 150 Public Rank Taxis be wheel chair accessible, then why does he not propose an offer to any current PSV licence holder, a specialist licence to provide a dedicated wheel chair taxi service. Surely having 3 or 4 of these specialist taxi-cabs, plus retaining a percentage (as we currently have 15% wheel chair) on the rank, plus the same percentage in the Private Hire (currently not obliged to have a single wheel chair vehicle), would solve the problem.

Surely a fairly reasonable solution to a perceived problem and highlights that when the existing industry is properly engaged in the decision process and not ignored as the Minister is also continuing to do so, especially when a lot of the older and disabled people and the businessman do not want to be transported in a wheel chair taxi.

The wheel chair section of this Taxi- cab Industry review is in danger of over shadowing some of the other important and equally nonsensical and badly thought through proposals. ” Taxi drivers will no longer be able to take a phone call booking”, what possible reason would the Minister want or even be able to enforce this idea.

Personally, and haven driven a taxi for many years and like many of my colleagues, I have a circle of people, including family and friends who phone me from time to time and providing that I am not busy with clearing the rank, I will pick them up.

The Minister is now stating that they would have to go through a “Booking entity” which I am going to have to pay to provide, what utter nonsense.

Then and to make it clearer for the public, he wants to introduce an optional “Booking fee”, that must be stated at the time of booking.

I put a question to the Minister at the recent meeting when he first rolled out these proposals, what happens if the person booking the Taxi-cab is not the person who is actually the passenger, as at a restaurant or hotel for example.

Scenario: The taxi-cab arrives and takes the passenger to their destination, fare on the meter £10 and then the driver asks for a £2 booking fee. ” We were not told about a booking fee”, says the now irate passenger and now you have introduced frustration, confusion and anger from both parties, passenger and driver, what about if this was a visitor to Jersey, what impression will that leave. The Minister’s reply to me was that eventually everyone will have a smart phone to book the taxi themselves. So look out public the Minister is now suggesting that you must all buy a smart phone.

We have pointed out so many times to the Minister, who has actually seen for himself, that a lot of the time we struggle to access the limited amount of space on our ranks. We are the same as many businesses in Jersey where we sit around for long periods waiting for planes to land, boats to dock and large numbers of the public exiting the pubs and clubs on a Friday and Saturday night.

The amount of work is simply not there any more and yet he is suggesting that Private Hire should be allowed to sit on the ranks, providing they purchase a wheel chair vehicle.

This is a further erosion of our limited work which will seriously effect our livelihoods and a further erosion of the phone service that the Private Hire are there to cover.

The Private Hire companies are there to provide a valuable service, which most of the proper established companies do so.

A huge amount of their daily work is providing account work for the Finance Industry, so vital to the Island, this has to be administered and importantly someone has to bank roll this service, what work you do this month you get paid for at the end of next month.

There is a cost to providing these services which we, the Public Rank do not have and so we can offer the street rank service, where people come to us.

If the Minister feels that the amount being charged by the Private Hire section of the Industry is excessive, then he should be talking to those involved to see if their charges and fares are justifiable.

I could go on and on about these ridiculous proposals which were so unnecessary and that many of the perceived problems, suggestions and ideas could have been thrashed out with all side of the Industry around the table without costing the tax payer thousands of pounds.

These proposals have been badly thought through and are discriminatory in so many ways, they are not going to achieve clarity for the passenger, are not considering the Strategic Transport Policy 2010, could be in breach of health and safety, are against the European Parliament directives on wheel chair taxis and UK legislation and best practice and so much more.

The Minister has brought forward a set of proposals which are a mess and must not only be rejected by the industry but seriously bring into question his ability to be the Minister for Transport in the first place.

Mick Tostevin

Q With ranks being available to any vehicles with wheelchair access from next March, some drivers are concerned that the ranks will be now be inundated with more cars.

A ‘Rank drivers will have the 20 per cent private-hire work restriction lifted, allowing them to actively take on non-rank work.

‘In time they will be able to charge a booking fee for such work, thus supplementing their rank-based income.

‘The public, with effect from March 2016, will start to see greater accessibility for wheelchair users.

‘With the introduction of technologies such as smart phone apps it is likely that the behaviour of customers will change, as will the traditional model of taxi provision.

‘Why always walk to the rank when the driver can come and find you using an App?

‘While, of course, rank space will be monitored to ensure sufficient provision, it is also worth noting that it is rare rank space is fully occupied everywhere.

‘For instance, in the evenings, neither the Royal Square or Snow Hill rank is much used at present, but it is known that customers are walking up to Grenville Street to hail cabs, rather than wait at the Weighbridge.

‘In other jurisdictions hailing is the preferred option for getting a cab.’

Q By allowing cars with wheelchair access use of ranks from March next year, cab firms are concerned that many drivers will just sit on the ranks rather than paying them rents to use their depots.

A ‘In time, all taxi and cab drivers will be required to be affiliated to a booking agent.

‘Private-hire drivers who have the appropriate disabled-friendly vehicles will still have to maintain a relationship with a booking agent even when they have access to the ranks.

‘Simple economics state that if all vehicles purely concentrate on what would become an increasingly slim slice of the rank work, the market elsewhere will become disproportionally profitable.

‘But this is a hypothetical argument put forward by individuals and is not representative of all, some of whom see opportunity.

‘It is not my role as regulator to advise the industry how to best conduct themselves to make a profit, but rather to ensure that the supply is sufficient to meet the customers’ needs.’

Q There are concerns that some drivers will not be physically capable of assisting disabled passengers, so use of cars with wheelchair access will be impractical for them.

A ‘They will still be able to offer a private-hire service if they are not able to assist such passengers.

‘However, most disabled-friendly vehicles now come with winches, which removes much of the physical requirements to safely load and unload a wheelchair bound passenger.’

Q Drivers are concerned about the cost of having to buy new wheelchair-access cars within the next three years, especially if they have bought a new car for £20,000 or £30,000 during the last year or two.

A ‘We are phasing in over three-plus years the change-over so that current vehicles in the fleet can be used and replaced towards the end of 2018.

‘Research has proven that suitable wheelchair-friendly vehicles, that are nearly new, can be purchased for as little as £12,000.

‘Such vehicles are exempt from vehicle emissions duty and so the cost of switching should not be too onerous for owner-drivers.’

Q Some drivers feel that they are being squeezed from both ends, with additional charges for luggage, Sunday work and extra passengers being scrapped under the new regulations, while they are going to have to pay for wheelchair-access vehicles, new markings, new meters etc within three years.

A ‘There are currently four different tariffs, depending on the time of day, day of the week and indeed day of the year, plus extras for additional passengers, bags etc.

‘This is confusing and not as transparent to the public as we would like.

‘We are therefore developing a simple two-tier on-peak and off-peak tariff, which will be published in time for its introduction in July 2016.

‘We will be taking into consideration blending in the current complicated system of extras to issue tariffs which are fair to both the industry and the public.

‘My principal role is clearly to protect the interests of the public and ensure a clear and transparent tariff, not maintain the industry’s preferred custom and practice.’

‘I think in this day and age everywhere should have wheelchair access.

‘It is good that taxis should be forced to have wheelchair access. However thinking about the taxi drivers and the taxi companies, I don’t know how much it will cost them and if it would be a huge investment that might not be worth it.

‘I live out in Archirondel and if I go on a night out it costs me between £30 and £40 to get home – yeah, I do think I pay too much for my taxis.’

Hattie O’Connell (24), who runs her family businesses – fashion shop Marc2 Ltd and gift shop Amelie

‘The necessity for wheelchair access has not been looked at properly because only five per cent of the disabled population are actually wheelchair bound so therefore it doesn’t add up.

‘The people imposing these new proposed regulations on us have never ever been involved in this business.’

Danny Kevan (60), a taxi driver from St Helier

‘I use a cab every Friday because I go down to the church at Georgetown for a day out with the ladies and they are very, very good – that’s Yellow Cabs. There are three of us and they’re always very nice and most helpful.

‘There’s three of us that go and they come to me in Columbus Street, my friend up by Social Security and then we go down to Georgetown and that’s usually between eight and nine pounds depending on the traffic.’

Hannah Meloret (85), who is retired and lives in St Helier

‘Obviously it’s a bit unfair if someone is stuck in the rain or can’t get home because they live far away and they are in wheelchairs.

‘I live in Springfield and from there to the Airport my taxi – and I haven’t had it for a while – was about £22. My taxi from the Airport to my flat in Liverpool, which was probably three times or four times the distance, was only £16.’

Paul James (25), a gym instructor from St Helier

Sam Loane (17), a student at Victoria College

‘The most expensive taxi in the world is in Jersey!

‘You can do thirty miles in Italy for €25 and in Jersey you can spend £20 to go to the Airport. That’s crazy.’

Gianni Carratu, a store manager who lives in St Peter

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