An opportunity for members of the public to make statements and ask questions in accordance with the rules on Public Participation.
Minutes:
Mr Tabrez Khan wished to make a statement to the committee concerning Uber. Mr Khan explained that Uber drivers were waiting around Dacorum in ‘hot spots’ once they had completed their jobs; he said this was easily verified by looking on the Uber App. He said this issue had been highlighted in various other towns which had led to them introducing enforcement which had been successful, and he urged Dacorum to do the same. This would mean drivers would be forced to move on or return to their area of licence. He said the competition for Dacorum taxi drivers was becoming considerably unfair and also highlighted that TFL were not enforcing their licensing conditions which could put the safety of the public at risk. He said the Taxi Association felt that this matter was having a detrimental effect on them and despite them raising these points before, no action had been taken by Dacorum Borough Council. He reminded them of the Council’s duty of care for the public and for local tradesmen and urged the committee to resolve this matter as soon as possible.
The Chairman made the following response:
“We understand that Uber is a concern to taxi trades both locally and nationally. Uber holds a number of private hire operator licences, both in London and around the UK. We understand that cars seen locally are dispatched automatically from the London control centre when a booking is made via the App. As the law stands, we believe that this is legal, as the booking is accepted by a licensed operator in London, and carried out using London vehicles and drivers.
We understand that Transport for London is lobbying the Government to introduce new laws requiring private hire vehicles to return to their licensed area between jobs, which would seem to solve many of the issues currently being experienced around the country, and we wait to see whether this suggestion will be taken forward by the Government.
Dacorum Borough Council continues to carry out enforcement operations against taxi’s not licensed by this Council, in which council officers or plain clothed police officers approach a taxi parked in the street to see if the driver will accept an immediate cash fare. These operations have included approaches to Uber drivers waiting for fares around Hemel Hempstead, and to date all of these have correctly been refused.
However, there are no current legal powers that would allow us to stop private hire vehicles licensed in other areas from working within Dacorum, providing that the booking is made through a licensed private hire operator based in the same area in which the vehicles are licensed.”
Mr Khan said he wasn’t arguing that Uber were allowed to work in the area but queried why operators had to apply for a licence to work in other Boroughs if the Law allowed them to work anywhere. R Hill explained that holding a licence in each of the areas allowed them to use vehicles and drivers from those areas. He understood that Uber currently had around 30k vehicles from London and another 10k from the other 50 or so council areas where they hold operator’s licences. Oxford and Reading are currently the only councils who have received an application from Uber and have refused an operators licence for various reasons but mainly for concern that Uber would not be able to comply with local conditions. He highlighted that so far Uber had not come to Dacorum with an application so they wouldn’t be using Dacorum vehicles.
Mr Khan reiterated that the problem they had with Uber was that the drivers shouldn’t be allowed to hang around once they’ve completed their job in order to get other jobs. R Hill explained he had done some research and there were very few councils nationwide that had a return to base requirement within their licence conditions. He advised that other councils were working on good will with the drivers by asking them to move on but they had no legal powers to enforce them to move, unless the vehicles were illegally parked. He understood it was an issue, and explained that TFL were leading calls to the Government for a legal return to base area requirement which he said he personally would like to see.
The Chairman thanked Mr Khan for attending.