In the wake of the brutal GLA inquiry which found our licensing authority woefully inadequate, TfL now appear to be making the knowledge as expensive and unpopular as they possibly can.
At the same time, they seem to be guiding applicants towards a more easier to achieve private hire career. Sour Grapes???
In a recent “Evening Standard” interview, Sir Peter Hendy, TfL’s Transport Commissioner inferred the reason behind the influx of minicabs, was the fact that there are not enough licensed Taxis.
Yet here is TfL’s Finance and Policy committee seeking to put bigger hurdles in front of anyone thinking if a career driving a licensed Taxi.
There is to be a TfL board meeting on Wednesday 4th of February 2015, to ratify increases in Knowledge expenses, while other licensing costs will have a small decrease.
As someone once said….you couldn’t make it up.
See details below:
1 Summary
- 1.1 The purpose of this paper is to ask the Board to approve the proposed changes to taxi driver and vehicle application and licence fees and note the proposed changes to the Knowledge of London appearance and examination fees, from 1 April 2015
- 1.2 At its meeting on 22 January 2015, the Finance and Policy Committee endorsed the recommendations in this paper.
2 Recommendations
2.1 The Board is also asked to
(a) approve the proposed changes to taxi licence fees effective from 1April 2015:
- (i) 60 per cent increase of £30 to the Taxi Driver application fee;
- (ii) 3.5 per cent decrease of £7 to the Taxi Driver licence fee;
- (iii) 1.5 per cent decrease of £1 to the Taxi Vehicle application fee;
- (iv) 8.3 per cent decrease of £3 to the Taxi Vehicle licence fee;
- (v) 0.8 per cent decrease of £1 to the Digital Taxi Top advertising application fee; and
- (vi) 8.3 per cent decrease of £3 to the Digital Taxi Top licence fee.
(b) note the proposed changes to the Knowledge of London appearance and examination fees effective from 1 April 2015:
- (i) 14 per cent increase of £50 to the Knowledge of London appearance fee; and
- (ii) 14 per cent increase of £25 to the Knowledge of London written examination fee.
For full details, please see these PDF files:
For full details, please see these PDF files:
>tfl.gov.uk part-1<>tfl.gov.uk part-2<
