Alarming rise in illegal taxi drivers since Covid
Black-market ‘boom’ sees convictions against unlicenced operators up 70%
CRIMINAL prosecutions against unlicensed taxi operators jumped by almost 70% to 135 last year.
However, representative bodies say these numbers are just the tip of the iceberg amid a post-Covid boom in the black-market economy, with illegal taxis now operating in ‘most towns in the country’.
And registered drivers say unlicensed taxis are making a national taxi and hackney shortage even worse.
Taxi Alliance of Ireland chair Gerard Macken said licensed drivers ‘just can’t compete with’ unlicensed ones anymore.
Aside from buying an expensive taxi licence and passing a test, taxi drivers pay a lot more for insurance – and pay tax on their earnings.
Illegal operators often have no overheads apart from the usual costs of running a car and – unless they wish to incriminate themselves – will not declare their earnings to the taxman.
Mr Macken, who is also a member of the National Transport Authority Taxi Advisory Committee,
said illegal operators, who usually operate on a word-ofmouth basis, are often facilitated by publicans.
He said that, while Dublin has enough demand to cope with the situation, the ability to find a taxi in small towns and villages ‘has just been ruined by illegal operators’.
Mr Macken told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘If you have a lad at the end of the bar eating a packet of crisps and drinking lemonade who is there to bring people home illegally, then you’re just feeding the system and you’re never going to get a proper hackney, taxi, limousine or any sort of public [transport] service in the area.’
The experienced taxi driver said he knows of one small village that has one hackney driver, one taxi driver and eight illegal operators.
The National Transport Authority (NTA) and the gardaí can prosecute an illegal operator only after they have evidence the person has received payment for offering the lift.
This happens through roadside audits and reporting from the public.
But Mr Macken said publicans can call a licensed taxi instead of ‘Jimmy down the road’ if a stranger – who could be an enforcement officer or undercover garda – needs a taxi.
A taxi driver who operates in a medium-sized town said he has been reporting illegal operators for ‘a couple of years’, and said that the situation has
now ‘got out of hand’. The driver, who did not wish to be identified, said gardaí ‘weren’t taking me seriously’, until eventually one did and initiated a sting on an illegal operator.
‘His number was going through all the pubs and the regulator rang him,’ the licensed driver said. ‘He came and picked them up and accepted the money, and once you accept the money, you’re caught.’
The licensed driver said he started his business a few years ago at ‘tremendous expense’ after some other local drivers retired.
‘I only had this machine bought and Covid hit, so I had a bad two years. Then I got going and then the illegal guys came.’
Figures provided by the NTA show they 135 initiated criminal prosecutions last year relating to the operation of an unlicensed taxi service accounted for 61% of all prosecutions it launched.
In 2022, there was 80 prosecutions against unlicensed taxis – just over half (55%) of the total number of prosecutions taken by the NTA.
Vinny Kearns, who is CEO of
NXT Taxis and a founding member of The National Taxi Drivers Union, said ‘most towns in the country have illegal operators’.
He said the value of this sector of the black-market economy would be ‘colossal’.
Mr Kearns said he himself took a ride from an unlicensed driver on one occasion after requesting help finding a taxi in a pub.
‘It wasn’t licensed in any means or form and [the driver] went on to tell me that she was an unlicensed taxi, not knowing who I was. She drove me from A to B because I was in a hurry and I just gave her what she asked for which was probably similar to a taxi fare, but she had none of the overheads, she was technically not insured.
‘So it’s common enough and especially around pubs.’
‘Illegal operators have no overheads’
‘It’s common enough. Especially around pubs’
Mr Kerans estimates it costs around ‘€18,000 to €20,000’ per annum to run a taxi, counting fuel, insurance, car repayments, maintenance, tax and income tax.
Last year, the NTA received 78 complaints relating to unlicensed drivers.
The majority of these came from Leinster – excluding Dublin – and Munster, with 26 and 21 respectively. A further six came from Dublin, with 17 relating to Connacht and eight relating to Ulster.
A spokesman for the NTA told the MoS: ‘With any allegation of an unlicensed SPSV [Small Public Service Vehicles] service, information is received, assessed in terms of evidence and acted upon wherever possible by NTA compliance officers and/or members of An Garda Síochána.
‘For a successful prosecution, there must be evidence that the individual is operating for “hire or reward”, therefore evidence of payment must be presented to the court.’ Those convicted can be fined up to €5,000.
Revenue said it could not provide figures for the amount of tax receipts it has received for Small Public Service Vehicles (taxis, hackneys and limousines) over the last number of years.
In response to queries relating to unlicensed operators, a spokesman for the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) representing rural publicans said: ‘The VFI strongly supports the licensed, regulated taxi and SPSV sector, which provides an essential service in getting the Irish public home safely.’