When it comes to bending the licensing regulations it truly is way too easy for some fraudulent operators to do.

Bending the accreditation rules is very easy for various deceitful private hire operators to accomplish. One respected operator that takes great pride in professionalism sent some agitated and unhappy emails. Near London Stansted Airport is where this corporation is found, and when it comes to being sure its rates are indicative of its service levels it has worked very, very hard. This firm likes to think that any tourist or business traveler that visits will find value in that service.

However, just recently they've been losing a lot of business to a different "operator" that's behaving very much like a broking service, which is our old favorite. These people register other private hire operators from all of the main U . k . international airports which includes London Gatwick, London Heathrow, and London Stansted. Then these people concentrate on a very general pricing strategy and the "partner" licensed operator will either accept the booking or deny the fee offered by the broker. Pretty much the cost effective price. Once the fee is charged to the chauffeur or operator this price normally will be £20- £27 less expensive than that operator would charge any other time. Just give the offer to the next company on the list if they refuse the job.

I learned after I called and briefly talked to them that the only thing they ask for is a copy of your operator's license when dealing with "partners". These guys never do any type of check, never visited the "partner companies", and never asked for any chauffeur documentation. I was told that they love to use non-VAT register drivers, which is much more intriguing. In addition, they claim that clients are able to pay a "meet and greet" fee, which means it's within the terminal where they're met. If people choose not to pay that in order to keep costs reduced it's possible for them to be met and picked up on the outside of the terminal, which we all know now a days is against the law at many international airports.

When it comes to this service provider the most interesting thing about it is the fact that it's located in Somerset and nowhere close to Heathrow, London Stansted, Gatwick LGW, London Luton airport, or any other airports. Reportedly, the firm's accreditation authority (Sedgemoor District Council) is thrilled for them to operate in this fashion and is actually - through the key phrases from the fellow spoke to Mr. E Halil -"very much protected".

This highlights once again that local accreditation authorities don't have a clue when it comes to their own rules. How's it possible for operators located in Somerset to ply for business from Stansted airport, when other authorities won't even let operators acquire bookings from outside their own legislation? Right now we've got far too many tiny kingdoms where licensing officers like to create their own policies as they go and wave their authority all over. Obviously, this makes it much tougher for respected private hire operators to be effective and much easier for the deceitful operators to keep working without having to be monitored. They claim it's because they don't have enough manpower, which could be true. For instance, take Great London. We've got 11 area boroughs and 18 adjoining boroughs and districts and every last one has different guidelines, rules and expenditures relating to Private Transfers or Hackney Carriage licensing.

Even so the school managed legal contracts for Great London are maintained and operated by Great London County Council-one section, one massive staff for the whole area. Why isn't it a good idea to do the same thing with the PHV accreditation and taxi? Bring together your resources and have a single license issued by the County. It should just be one cost, the same exact rules for every person and a much more bigger team on a whole to get the admin done and to be out there checking operators and drivers, which will make it harder for illegal drivers and private hire operators to continue. In order to make certain out industry is operating on a honest and appropriate platform for everybody these County Licensing Departments can then liaise and work with their counterparts all around the Britain.

Regardless of all the hard work of LPHCA campaigning it The National License just won't do the trick, as it is going to descend into politics and infighting because a great number of people will wish to run the thing. However county accreditation would have the desired effect and those county accreditation departments can also speak to one another to establish standardisation in relation to cross-border regulations.

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