PROPOSALS FOR a standard colour or branding for all taxis, and the reintroduction of an age limit for vehicles have been released for public consultation by the National Transport Authority.
The proposals are part of plans to introduce new vehicle standards for the taxi industry from 2012. However drivers’ representatives have warned the measures could put an unjustified financial burden on struggling drivers.
The authority is seeking the views of the public and the industry in relation to the changes by August 5th, which would see tighter regulation in relation to the type and condition of vehicles which can be used as taxis.
The planned changes follow the decision last February of the newly formed authority to scrap the nine-year rule, less than two months after it came into force.
The rule, introduced by the Commissioner for Taxi Regulation Kathleen Doyle before her office was subsumed into the authority, required a taxi driver seeking to renew the licence on his car to have a vehicle less than nine years old. Approximately 6,500 of the 23,000 taxi and hackneys in the State would have had to be replaced this year under the rule.
The options now put forward in relation to vehicle age include having no upper limit for licence renewals, but vehicles over nine years would be subject to six-monthly licence with a roadworthiness and suitability test, or a 14-year age limit, with the same six monthly test.
Driver representative organisation Tiománaí Taxi na hÉireann, which had taken a case to the High Court to challenge the age rule, yesterday said no age limit should apply to the industry and six-monthly tests would be a cost drivers could not afford.
“No other public transport vehicles are subject to this requirement,” spokesman Frank Byrne said. “Buses . . . are not required to pass biannual tests.”
Siptu taxi branch spokesman Jerry Brennan said drivers would find it almost impossible to get bank loans to change vehicles. “There are already two tests out there – the annual NCT and the suitability test. If a vehicle passes both tests there is no good reason not to allow it to continue on the road.”
While measures in relation to the age of vehicles were expected, proposals in relation to a standard “branding for the taxi fleet” were thought to have been abandoned several years ago due their particularly high cost. The proposal was part of a 2005 report on the industry by Goodbody Consultants but was never adopted.
Other proposals include the prohibition of tinted windows in all taxis and hackneys; the exclusion of pick-up trucks for use as taxis; the inclusion of new regulations for hybrid and battery-powered electric vehicles; more stringent requirements for vehicles which are modified for wheelchair use; and changes in relation to the vehicle size rules.
