Hackney carriage and private hire news and information

1. Forums

The latest Taxi forum took place at the Runnymede Borough Council (RBC) Civic Centre on Wednesday 30 October 2024.
The next forum will be held in February 2025, date to be confirmed. Forum notes can be seen online.

• Forum

2. Enforcement Operations

Further to the multiagency joint enforcement operation carried out in June, staff from the Licensing Team joined partner agencies at Runnymede Pleasure Grounds on 9 October 2024. Another successful exercise was held with local Runnymede Police teams, Surrey and Sussex Police Commercial Vehicle unit, Environmental Health, Community Safety and the HMRC mobile enforcement team. Over the course of a morning, approximately 40 vehicles were stopped, including 14 taxis, 21 waste carriers and there were 29 fuel tank ‘dips’ to check for red diesel. Of these taxis, a significant number were TfL licensed vehicles.

3. Railway station hackney carriage ranks

South Western Railway (SWR) will take back the control, supervision and contract arrangements for the station ranks from 1 January 2025 onwards. RBC charges drivers in arrears, so will recoup the final costs through HC vehicle licence fees in 2025 - 2026.

Drivers will need to apply for a permit direct from SWR via a website link to be provided towards the beginning of December 2024.

The cost for Egham Station will be £200 per annum, or £55 if paying quarterly. For the first 6 months the use of the other station ranks at Addlestone and Chertsey will not be charged for (until July 2025, with 2 months’ notice being given). There will be no extra charge for using a replacement vehicle provided SWR are advised ASAP (latest on the day) to avoid being ticketed.

The fees will be reviewed annually by SWR.

It is noted that there is a residential development adjacent to Egham Station which will result in a revised carpark layout, but this should not affect the number of available ranks. The timescale for completion is not known at this stage. SWR are keen to work with the trade to see what improvements could be made at Egham Station, such as signage and more targeted enforcement patrols (currently once per week).

Any queries regarding the new arrangements should be made to: register.anpr@swrailway.com

4. Fees for 2025 - 2026

The annual RBC fee review has been carried out and the proposals will be scrutinised by the Regulatory Committee on 6 November before final approval.
Licence fees will increase on a cost recovery basis in line with the legislation which permits Councils to recover the costs of issue, administration and additionally, in the case of drivers, compliance. Indicative fee increases are;

• Vehicles: 7 - 10%
• Drivers: 16 - 17%
• Private Hire Operators: 14 - 16%

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is also planning to increase the cost of DBS checks and the DBS Update Service from 2nd December 2024 (subject to ministerial approval).

5. Stealth / Ghost plates

Under the Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001, it is illegal to alter any characters or apply or use material which makes a number plate retroreflective.

Stealth plates, also known as ‘ghost plates’, or ‘4D plates’ use a special reflective coating on the letter or number characters in order to avoid detection by ANPR cameras. These infrared cameras are used to catch those speeding or driving where they shouldn’t be (e.g. bus and cycle lanes, yellow box junctions and other areas such as London’s ULEZ).

Ensure your registration plates meet the following requirements:

• No reflex-reflecting material may be applied to any part of a registration plate and the plate must not be treated in such a way that the characters of the registration mark become, or are caused to act as, retroreflective characters;
• The characters must not be removable;
• If your number plates were fitted after 1 September 2021, they must be a single shade of black;
• You cannot rearrange letters or numbers, or alter them so that they’re hard to read or less easily distinguishable to the eye or to a camera;
• You can only get a number plate made up from a registered number plate supplier.

Please note that 3D (raised) characters are however permitted.

Wolverhampton City Council is the first local authority to introduce new technology which can detect illegal plates. Drivers caught with them fitted to their cars receive a £100 penalty charge notice (PCN).

A Police Operation was carried out in the Heathrow area in February 2024 and found that 40% of all licensed vehicles tested had Infrared suppressed stealth / ghost plates, which are illegal. Drivers are reminded that they could be fined up to £1,000 and their vehicle will fail its MOT test if driven with incorrectly displayed number plates.

5. Taxi Licensing Policy Consultation

The trade are reminded that the taxi licensing policy is reviewed every 5 years and the public consultation on the draft Policy (effective 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2030) is open until Tuesday 3 December 2024.

Everyone’s views are welcome to be submitted via email: licensing@runnymede.gov.uk

The key changes to the Policy have been made in line with updated guidance, statutory standards, related Council policies, benchmarking with other Surrey Licensing Authorities and practical experience of administering the licensing regime.

A detailed description of each of the main changes, including the part and section number in the Policy document or Appendix, is available on the Council’s website.

The Council’s Regulatory Committee will meet again in January 2025 to review and approve the updated policy.

6. VAT treatment of private hire vehicles

The government ran a public consultation until August this year on the potential tax impacts of recent High Court judgments on transport legislation. One option proposed by the Treasury was to simply remove the requirement for private hire vehicles to be booked through a licensed operator.

Uber had brought a case following a 2021 decision by the Supreme Court that its drivers were ‘workers’, which had an impact on Uber's tax and other obligations. Uber then sought a declaration that private-hire taxi operators enter into a contract with passengers and the High Court ruled in its favour last year. That decision meant that operators outside of London must pay a tax charge on their profit margins (VAT at 20%). However, the ruling was reversed by the Court of Appeal in July 2024, following a challenge by private hire operators.

Responses from the consultation were currently being analysed, however the Court of Appeal ruling stands at this time, but it is currently unclear whether the case will be further considered by the Supreme Court.