Trustworthy: Southampton's White Taxis

Recently The Daily Echo ran a letter from The Southampton Hackney Association's Chairman Ian Hall in their Soapbox feature. Ian's letter was to quash the misleading comments in the Echo's previous article of 28/7/14 about 'clause 10', and the proposed relaxing of rules surrounding private hire vehicles. Here is the content of the letter featured:

"Some of the Statements within the [Daily Echo] article titled "For Safety's Sake, don't relax taxi driver rules" are extremely misleading and it is disapopointing that yet again taxi drivers come under the microscope for being a risk to customers. 

This present Government's Deregulation Bill which was passed through the House of Commons, now on its way to The House of Lords has three proposed reforms connected within our industry.

The contentious one being Clause 10, which would allow persons without a Private Hire Vehicle Licence (PHV) - what is commonly called a mini-cab in London - to drive one when the vehicle is off-duty, threatening to place passengers, in particular women at an increased risk.

Tara Duel from Southampton Rape Crisi stated in the article: "It will no longer be possible to know whether a person driving a cab is licensed to do so." She then goes on to say, "Making people reluctant to use cabs as a trusted form of transport."

We pride ourselves in Southampton that under the 2000 Transport Package we have a corporate colour of white for all 283 taxis, whilst the private hire trade colour scheme is any colour but white.

The Unite Union Southampton taxi branch chairman, Perry McMillan, is pictured in this article with five Southampton white taxis in the background. He knows full well that there has been widespread criticism of Clause 10, which is all to do with private hire vehicles and not taxis".

As the Daily Echo quite rightly states in their Soapbox section, Southampton's White Licensed Taxis are Trustworthy, with only the licensed taxi driver legally allowed to drive the vehicle. Find out more about the safety and training of Southampton Hackney Carriage drivers here.

Below a copy of the SHA chairman's letter as it appeared in the Daily Echo.