One well known operator that takes great pride in professionalism sent some irritated and frustrated email messages. Found right by Stansted Airport, this company has invested plenty of effort to make its prices reflective of its level of service, and makes sure that any business traveler or visitor will benefit dramatically from that service.
However, over the past 3 years another "operator" that's acting much like our old favorite, a broking service, has been consistently taking their business. These guys register other operators from all of the very best UK airports like Gatwick, Heathrow, and Stansted. After that these people concentrate on a very general pricing procedure and the "partner" operator will either accept the booking or refuse the fee given by the broker. Basically the cost effective rate.
Often this price could be £20- £30 less costly after the fee charged to the operator or driver, which is a lot less than that operator would ordinarily charge, Just give the offer to the next company on the list if they refuse the job.
I gave them a call to get a short discussion, and learned that whenever working together with "partners" these people never ever perform any sort of assessment, never go to the "partner companies", and never request any kind of driver paperwork. As a matter of fact the one thing they look for is a copy of your operator's license. Non-VAT register drivers is what I was told they would rather use, which is even more interesting.
Also, they state that clients can pay a "meet and greet" cost, which means they are met within the airport terminal. 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 airports.
When it comes to this company the most interesting thing about it is the fact that it's located in Somerset and nowhere close to Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick, Luton, or any other airports. Evidently, the firm’s licensing authority (Sedgemoor District Council) is thrilled for them to operate in this way and is actually - through the key phrases from the chap spoke to Mr Ed Halil -“very much protected".
Again, this shows exactly how area licensing authorities have zero knowledge of their very own policies. If other authorities won't let operators accept bookings from outside their own jurisdiction, then why are operators in Somerset allowed to ply for business from Stansted airport?
It's very common these days to find little kingdoms where licensing officers enjoy waving around their authority and creating their own rules whenever they please. This makes it much easier for the corrupt operators to keep working unchecked, while the more respected and responsible operators have a harder time trying to work.
They blame it on the fact that they don't have the manpower, which is probably true. As an example, take Surrey. We've got 11 area boroughs and 18 neighbouring boroughs and districts and every last one has distinctive policies, rules and expenses relating to Private Hire or Hackney Carriage licensing.
Even so the school managed contracts for Surrey are maintained and operated by Surrey County Council-one department, one big staff for the whole area. When it comes to PHV licensing and the taxi why not do the same thing? 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 operators to continue.
These County Licensing Departments will then be able to liaise and work together with their counterparts around the UK to help guarantee that our industry is functioning on an acceptable and fair platform for every person.
In spite of all the hard work of LPHCA campaigning it The National License just won't get the job done, as it is going to descend into politics and infighting because a great number of people will want to run the thing. However county licensing would do the trick and those county licensing departments may also speak to one another to establish standardisation concerning cross-border policies.
However, over the past 3 years another "operator" that's acting much like our old favorite, a broking service, has been consistently taking their business. These guys register other operators from all of the very best UK airports like Gatwick, Heathrow, and Stansted. After that these people concentrate on a very general pricing procedure and the "partner" operator will either accept the booking or refuse the fee given by the broker. Basically the cost effective rate.
Often this price could be £20- £30 less costly after the fee charged to the operator or driver, which is a lot less than that operator would ordinarily charge, Just give the offer to the next company on the list if they refuse the job.
I gave them a call to get a short discussion, and learned that whenever working together with "partners" these people never ever perform any sort of assessment, never go to the "partner companies", and never request any kind of driver paperwork. As a matter of fact the one thing they look for is a copy of your operator's license. Non-VAT register drivers is what I was told they would rather use, which is even more interesting.
Also, they state that clients can pay a "meet and greet" cost, which means they are met within the airport terminal. 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 airports.
When it comes to this company the most interesting thing about it is the fact that it's located in Somerset and nowhere close to Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick, Luton, or any other airports. Evidently, the firm’s licensing authority (Sedgemoor District Council) is thrilled for them to operate in this way and is actually - through the key phrases from the chap spoke to Mr Ed Halil -“very much protected".
Again, this shows exactly how area licensing authorities have zero knowledge of their very own policies. If other authorities won't let operators accept bookings from outside their own jurisdiction, then why are operators in Somerset allowed to ply for business from Stansted airport?
It's very common these days to find little kingdoms where licensing officers enjoy waving around their authority and creating their own rules whenever they please. This makes it much easier for the corrupt operators to keep working unchecked, while the more respected and responsible operators have a harder time trying to work.
They blame it on the fact that they don't have the manpower, which is probably true. As an example, take Surrey. We've got 11 area boroughs and 18 neighbouring boroughs and districts and every last one has distinctive policies, rules and expenses relating to Private Hire or Hackney Carriage licensing.
Even so the school managed contracts for Surrey are maintained and operated by Surrey County Council-one department, one big staff for the whole area. When it comes to PHV licensing and the taxi why not do the same thing? 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 operators to continue.
These County Licensing Departments will then be able to liaise and work together with their counterparts around the UK to help guarantee that our industry is functioning on an acceptable and fair platform for every person.
In spite of all the hard work of LPHCA campaigning it The National License just won't get the job done, as it is going to descend into politics and infighting because a great number of people will want to run the thing. However county licensing would do the trick and those county licensing departments may also speak to one another to establish standardisation concerning cross-border policies.
No comments:
Post a Comment