Kirklees Council officials have agreed a deal with their counterparts to allow them to tackle taxi drivers who break the rules.
The five West Yorkshire authorities and City of York have agreed to joint enforcement scheme which will make it more difficult for the small minority of taxi drivers who are determined to breach licensing regulations or break highway laws.
Until now, if a Kirklees Council licensing officer stopped a taxi or private hire vehicle from another area there was little they could do to stop it being driven illegally or unsafely.
Thanks to this partnership approach, if a driver is found to be carrying out illegal activities in any of the six areas, they could be stopped and appropriate action can be taken against them by licensed enforcement officers.
The cross border enforcement is the first of many projects the six authorities are working on to support the taxi and private hire trades and improve the safety and comfort of the travelling public
The range of offences covered include:
• Driving without insurance
• Pick up passengers on the street that haven’t pre-booked
• Driving with vehicle defects such as faulty brake lights or bald tyres
• Displaying incorrect signs so that it is not clear the vehicle is a taxi or private hire vehicle
• Smoking whilst sitting in the taxi
• Driving without the right licence
Councillor David Sheard, Chair of the West Yorkshire Licensing Chair’s Committee said: "When you get in a taxi you should be confident that the vehicle is safe, well maintained and that the person driving is licensed, insured and trustworthy.
"The only way to guarantee that is to have a strict set of rules that are regularly enforced.
“It makes absolute sense to carry out cross border enforcement – when we travel by taxi we do not restrict our journeys to one area; so we as authorities shouldn’t restrict how we enforce the rules around driving those vehicles.
“It is worth saying that the majority of taxi and private hire drivers and their vehicles are safe, and comply with the law.
"For them this change will have no impact.
"It is those who believe that the law doesn’t apply to them, who selfishly drive without considering the safety of their passengers, who will notice a change."
