Taxi!
Legal professionals work all over the country, but predominantly law firms gravitate towards big cities. In London, travel for legal professionals with a physical impairment almost always means the use of the traditional black “London” cabs usually called Hackney Carriages. According to Transport for London, approximately 85% of all Hackney Carriages are accessible to wheelchair users, but outside the capital, the number of Hackney Carriages is considerably lower than this and the accessibility of such vehicles is questionable to say the least.
In a piece of research conducted by Equal Ability CIC, we have calculated that the number of Hackney Carriages and saloon-style private hire vehicles in major Yorkshire cities in comparison to those in Greater London are as follows:
In terms of the accessibility of saloon-style private hire vehicles for wheelchair users, less than 10% of these vehicles are accessible in Greater London and less than 5% in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
For GSD members, the lack of Hackney Carriages outside the Greater London area is particularly difficult for staff working in the regions or for those travelling to the regional offices of legal firms using public transport to reach large cities outside London where blue badge parking is notoriously scarce.
According to the DisabilityNow article “Taxi travel is still not fare” (August 2007 p.39.), RADAR is attempting to get an early day motion tabled at the House of Commons urging the Government to introduce regulations on taxi accessibility. The motion has cross party sponsorship and has received 108 signatures thus far. Although this motion is unlikely to receive debating time in the house, it will demonstrate the extent of parliamentary support.
In view of the pace of such governmental action and the extent of current research, it is difficult to see a solution to the Hackney Carriage scarcity, but one particular local authority in Yorkshire has created a situation whereby wheelchair access to such vehicles has been greatly improved.
Clive Stephenson, the Acting Chief Liaison officer of the Sheffield Taxi licensing department has initiated a novel system centred on the removal of quotas for the number of Hackney Cabs in the city.
In the year 2000, it was decided by the Sheffield City Council Licensing Board that there was no need to limit the number of Hackney Carriages within the city as they had done for decades previously, and that a free market system for drivers was fairer. This change partially came about as a result of the number of taxis adjudged to be of substandard condition within the City and a resultant upsurge in complaints. The Private Hire trade strongly opposed this decision by the Licensing Board but after a year’s delay as a result of their legal challenge, the limit was scrapped.
After the initial removal of the limit, take-up of new Hackney Carriage Licences was low. The stringent system employed by the Council which stated that only official London-style or newly designed Euro-style cabs under five years old could be classed as satisfactory for licensing, ensured that prospective new licence holders needed to order new or nearly new vehicles, the new ones taking a minimum of 6 weeks to order. From that time, new Hackney Carriage licences have been granted at approximately 85 per year and have reached a plateau at around the 700-800 mark, dictated by market forces.
During my interview with Mr. Stephenson, I asked if passengers with a physical impairment had been complimentary about the extended and improved Hackney Carriage service. Very sensibly he replied that most comments continued to be in the form of complaints, as compliments were always scant in the world of taxi licensing. One of the main complaints continued to be the lack of ability to book Hackney Carriages in advance. As GSD members will no doubt be aware, Hackney Carriages operate from ranks and therefore making pre-bookings from home is difficult, if not impossible, even in London. However, although Mr. Stephenson could not force Hackney Carriage owners to work for radio cab companies, anecdotal evidence pointed towards a number of drivers operating during the day who also worked for radio cabs in the evenings to maximise revenue, and that these Hackney Carriages were being employed by radio cab operators for bookings made by passengers with physical impairments.
Although present Governmental policy encourages the suspension of Hackney Carriage quotas, other big cities in Yorkshire, such as Leeds, an area renowned for its large concentration of law firms, have reinstated their quota systems after a previous suspension. This may, Mr. Stephenson conjectures, be simply down to the fact that Leeds does not have the same strict regulation over what constitutes a Hackney Carriage, and that as a result, the explosion of applications for Hackney Carriages licences may well have been from saloon style private hire car owners, making the suspension of the quote system fairly academic and of no appreciable benefit to customers with physical impairments.
However, no matter what other cities in the area may think or say about Sheffield City Council’s system, one thing is certain; all of Sheffield’s Hackney Cabs are modern and wheelchair accessible. As Mr. Stephenson himself concludes,
“It’s not utopia, but much better than it ever was before”.
Daniel Park