Abuse and bad driving among taxi complaints
Dozens of complaints were made about Wearside’s taxi drivers last year, according to a new report published by council licensing chiefs.
Sunderland City Council’s Licensing and Regulatory Committee looked at new data linkedtohackneycarriageand private hire licensing matters.
The annual report monitored licensing performance and activity across the city betweenJanuary1andDecember 31, 2022.
Over the year, 346 new licensing applications were considered in total, including 67 hackney carriage drivers licencesand82privatehiredrivers licences.
Other licences included vehicle licences, operators’ licences and transfer of ownership licences, as well as 971 renewal applications.
Aspartoftheannualreport, details were published about complaints related to licensed drivers in Sunderland.
A total of 40 complaints were submitted over the year, witharoundtwothirdsofcomplaintsseeingsomeformoffor mal action.
Around13complaintswere related to behaviour or attitude,withoneexampleincluding “three separate instances of three drivers being abusive towards civil enforcement officers when carrying out their duties, while the taxi drivers were waiting on taxi ranks”.
Another example listed in the report included a “driver sounding his horn and gesticulating to the complainant”.
Around14complaintswere linkedtodrivingabilityorskill, ranging from “erratic driving” andadriverparkingacrosstwo parking bays, to drivers “performing a U-turn” or “pulling outinfrontof[a]complainant”.
A total of nine complaints were linked to fare/card payments, including claims one driver would not accept card payments, as well as four complaints about refusal of fare or not accepting bookings.
Some examples of refused fares were linked to alleged customer behaviour, includingonecasewhereadriver“refused to take three customers as they were being aggressive and shouting at each other before attempting to get into the vehicle”.
Of the complaints across 2022, a total of 12 complaints
saw “no further action”, due to insufficient information to investigate further or “no evidence of any wrongdoing”.
However, a total of 23 verbal warnings and five written warnings were given out, with “information recorded on the respective driver’s file”.
Only one case was linked to a “badge and licence [being] surrendered”.
In 2022, a total of five licensed drivers went before councillors on the Licensing and Regulatory Committee, which meets at City Hall.
This led to three written warningsbeingissued,including two “severe warnings” and
one three-month suspension ofaprivatehiredrivinglicence.
Themostseriousrulingsaw one “non-immediate revocation” of licences to drive hackney carriage and private hire vehicles.
The introduction of the Licensing and Regulatory Committee’s annual report links in with Government guidance andtheDepartmentforTransport’s‘statutorytaxistandards’ document.
Areportpresentedtocouncillors added one of the “key lessons learned is that it is vitaltoreviewpoliciesandreflect changes in the industry both locally and nationally”.