Cross-border Taxi Licensing: What is it and why is it a problem?

Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, has again appealed to the government to close a legal loophole allowing private hire drivers to be licenced in one area whilst predominately working in another. Last month Mr Burnham, and authority leaders from Birmingham, Portsmouth and Sheffield, sent an open letter to the Secretary of State for Transport, asking for this issue to be investigated. This is despite repeated calls for the issue to be reviewed.   

Enforcers of taxi and private hire licensing regimes have long been calling for this loophole to be closed, but why is it an issue? Well, licensing leaders fear that by being licensed in different areas, drivers are potentially avoiding the stringent checks they have in place to protect the public. Following the industry's failings, highlighted in the Jay and Casey reports, this is completely understandable.  

The other issue this creates is a lack of funds for councils. Licensing authorities rely on licensing fees to cover the administrative costs of the regime, as well as its enforcement. Having hundreds of cross-border licensees operating in an area means these administrative costs increase despite less income from the licensing fees themselves.  

This loophole arose from a change of the legislation in 2015 meaning drivers didn’t need to be licensed in the area they were working. This has led to licensing officers in one area not being able to effectively discharge their duties against licensees from other areas. The Statutory Taxi & Private Hire Vehicle Standards, published June 2020, have attempted to mitigate this issue by providing a foundation for building a shared responsibility between authorities for enforcement. Mandating that licensing authorities should jointly authorise officers to enforce the rules should help considerably.  

Following recent crackdowns in Merseyside, it seems joint authorisation does make it easier for regimes to be enforced. Merseyside police have been working with local licensing officers who have used their powers to stop and investigate several drivers from out of the area. Several were found to be in breach of both licensing and Covid legislation.   

While this success demonstrates a positive step forward, in practice it seems that this is only going to be effective in areas where borders overlap. The problem is that cross-border licensing isn’t restricted to areas that border one another. Many licensing authorities in the North East of England have repeatedly complained about the number of local drivers licensed by councils elsewhere in the country.   

It remains to be seen how the Department for Transport will respond to the most recent open letter calling for an investigation of this issue. Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up to date with TaxiPlus’ coverage of the industry news that matters.   

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