TfL Press Release – Consultation on exemptions to taxi and private hire vehicle age limits

Consultation on exemptions to taxi and private hire vehicle age limits

* Consultation begins on Monday 23 May
* Decision on exemptions to age limits to be made later this year

Transport for London (TfL) is asking for the opinions of the taxi and private hire trade in a consultation on proposed exemptions to age limits which will be introduced for both taxis and private hire vehicles (PHVs) in 2012.

The consultation will begin on Monday 23 May 2011 and will run for eight weeks. Responses to the consultation will be considered by the Director of Taxi and Private Hire, and a decision will be taken on exemptions later this year.

John Mason, Director of Taxi and Private Hire said: “The Mayor is implementing a wide range of initiatives aimed at reducing emissions harmful to Londoners’ health”.

“Transport for London has consulted closely with the taxi and private hire industry on elements of this affecting the black cab and private hire trade and we now welcome comments regarding the proposed exemptions to vehicle age limits”. (See editorial comment 1.)

Road transport is responsible for around 80 per cent of airborne pollution (PM10) in central London where air quality is worst, with black cabs contributing 20 per cent of this. (See editorial comment 2.)

Age limits for taxis and PHVs are being introduced from January 2012 as part of the Mayor’s air quality strategy. These plans include a range of measures to clean up transport including cars, buses, vans and lorries as well as taxis and PHV vehicles.

The age limits will be in force from 1 January 2012 for vehicles already licensed as Taxi and Private Hire in London, while minimum emission standards for newly licensed vehicles entering the taxi and PHV fleets will apply from 1 April 2012.

EDITORIAL COMMENT...

1. “Consulted Closely”:This statement alone contradicts the stance taken on behalf of the Mayor, in the original statement about Taxi age limits. It was made quite clear that TfL believed their were no systems for the retro fitting to Euro 5 standard available for taxis to extent the life span of the vehicle! No garage we spoke to, who offer this service, have been contacted by the Mayors office or TfL. So just who have the Mayors office been consulting with? The DoT have also said that if a vehicles passes as fit for service it should not be excluded by way of an age limit!
2. “Black cabs contributing 20 per cent”. This is purely a guesstimate with figures pulled out of the air. There are currently 2.8m private cars registered in the Greater London area, 7k buses and over 70k PHV's, plus an unknown number of lorries, coaches and foreign vehicles using London’s roads daily. That makes Taxis under 1% of the vehicles in central London and the Mayor is saying we are responsible for 20% of the pollution! Sorry Boris, your figures are unacceptably inaccurate. To arrive at an accurate figure the total amount of diesel consumed by the trade as a whole would have to be sort. This you have not done.

The Licensed Taxi Trade is being made the whipping boy for the failure of both the Mayor and TfL to keep up with developments in clean engine technology. We are being held back by the current conditions of fitness to find a cleaner, cheaper vehicle. 

There has been plenty on time for TfL to insist that manufacturers put cleaner engines in vehicles. The same manufacturers who were included in the consultation group who made the offer of a 15 year age limit to the Mayor on our behalf.

New York's 18K yellow cabs were retro fitted with hybrid engines some years ago and have just announce a ten year contract with Nissan, who will provide the next generation of cleaner vehicles for the city's Taxis at £18k per vehicle, while we are looking at £33-42K per Taxi.

Our trade is being run into the ground and is currently on the brink of financial ruin, by a licensing authority riddled with inefficient, unqualified and inept failures. There are currently no senior figures at TfL/LT&PH that have any connection with or knowledge of, our trade and its traditions. Most officers come from a bus or tube background.

Over the passed 18 months we have seen a plethora of top officers removed from their highly paid posts and if the rumours are to be believed there are more to follow.

As Mary Dowdye is finally shown the door I will end this post with a quote from the current chairperson of the LCDC Grant Davis who said:

“The LCDC are very happy to announce  the departure of Mary Dowdye from her post at LT&PH.

Since becoming Chairman of the LCDC I can honestly say that every meeting I ever had in her company, I left thinking what job does she actually do?

I firmly believe that she never really understood or tried to learn about the licensed taxi trade, and as such, will not be any loss to the trade.

Au revoir Mary”