Mini minicabs

[mrcitroen]

In days of old, private hire cars (AKA minicabs doon South) had to be a certain size & engine capacity. Usually Mondeo size & 2 L or there abouts before the council would licence them.

 

Over the last week I have spotted 2 locally that have slipped through The net. First one was a Corsa 5 door with East Dunbartonshire plates and today I spotted a Seat Altea with North Lanarkshire plates.

 

Whissat aw aboot mister? Imagine doing an airport run in the Corsa.

 

Have the cooncils dropped the licencing requirements? It used to be fairly strict round here with 6 monthly taxi tests stricter than MOT etc etc etc.

[cms206]

There's an 11-plate Fiesta PHC on Renfrewshire Council plates...

[Lacquer Peel]

Not keen on those Fiestas but they are surprisingly roomy for passengers.

[UltraWomble]

Ah, the days of phoning Macs cabs and asking for a "bommer" because there were 6 of us off to The Palace of a Saturday night, then trying to get home in time to watch yourself on't Hitman & Her

[Dave_Q]

Theres a polo minicab in Kirklees, and plenty of focus/astra hatchback sized stuff.

In my former stomping ground, Nottingham, minimum seems to be passat/mondeo etc and above.

[bub2006]

Amber taxis seems to be all skoda octavias,a few passats,avensis and mondeo size motors scattered around amber Valley. Dad's old company used sierras then mondeos and vectra/406 sized cars As well as the tourneo and a kia carens. New company uses focus estates and citroen belingo,Peugeot partner mpv. He said the focus estate isn't much different to his mk2 mondy size wise but seems a fair bit bigger than the Sierra he used to have

[Hendry]

There's an 11-plate Fiesta PHC on Renfrewshire Council plates...

Was going to mention that Andy.

 

East Renfrewshire had a rule it had to be a minimum of a 1.6 engine, rear seat had to be a certain size etc. Don't know if its still the same, my dad used a mk3 Astra for a bit as a taxi about 10 years ago before he bought a Vectra and now a Jetta because the Astra was too small.

 

One thing I do know is they've recently decided to introduce a cap on age of PHCs, can't remember exactly but the letter my dad got said it was 10 years old I think, but it had to be less than 5 years old when first plated, and after it turns 7 years old it needs twice yearly tests, and they are still pretty strict, clean bodywork, no dash lights at all, even ones which would pass an mot, it has to be valeted before test, damage free interior etc.

 

My dads Jetta at its last test failed due to play in an anti roll bar, but another taxi driver who's also a mechanic checked it and said it was fine the day before its test, when he checked it over, so he took it to his mot tester who agreed no play, other mechanic there also agreed so 3 mechanics saying no play, council tester said there is, he took it back for retest and said he'd had it checked, the other council tester did the retest, didn't even check there was no play, just said it was failed again as he clearly hadn't put a new anti roll bar on it and why did he waste his and their time submitting for retest, he had to put a new one on even though old one was fine.

[Felly Magic]

There are a couple of High And Dry Matrix mk1's registered as Hackney's around here!

[chaseracer]

Some of the minicabs in Sofia (Bulgaria) are hilarious.  Best one I saw was a Hyundai Atoz!

[angle]

I've been in Chevywoo Matiz cabs in quite a few countries, including one from the airport in Skopje with half a million kilometres on. I have noticed in the last year or so that a lot of Bristol cabbies have moved on from Octavias to 1.2 Rapids and Toledos though, which seem pretty tiny to me...

[Pillock]

Fiesta minicabs?

They must be short drivers, if I put a Fiesta drivers seat into a comfortable position there's about two inches of legroom behind me.

[stillOrange]

Unfortunately there are quite a few of them around Manchester as well.

We use one minicab company at work and one time they booked Auris to carry 4 grown men with backpacks and big work bags.

 

As we are on the minicab topic, do minicab MOTs show when checking through DVLA website?

[twitcherman]

TBF, model bloat means a current Fiesta isn't much smaller than a Mk1 Mondeo. Think I read somewhere that a Bini is bigger than an Austin Maxi of Blessed Memory (whose major selling point was that you could sleep 2 in it with the seats folded).

[Keymaster]

They have a few licenced Fabias here in Knowsley. Driver turned up at ours with one for a Manchester airport run one morning, which was comfortable*

 

Apparently they use them when their usual car is out of action.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

This reminds me of about 18 years ago a mate who owned a cab firm had two cars he'd rent out short term nightly/daily for the weekend etc. any way as I have a PH license and liked a laugh, he'd call me when it was extra busy or he was short of cars on a Saturday night.

Who can resist a couple of hundred quid cash the potential for a scrap and or blowjob and a big fat breakfast at 4 am swapping stories and lies about the night- not me.

Anyway his two renters were a Montego Diesel saloon and a K reg Astra 1.7d non turbo estate, one night I was using the Astra and picked up 4 big lasses, Hen Party I think, all pissed, now the Astra was pretty full with just me in it so getting these 4 in was a challenge. Three in the back and the girl behind me couldn't shut the door,I got out and gave it a shove ,there was a scream and the bird the other side was ejected into the road at great velocity, I was pissing myself , so luckily were they.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

There's still lots of rules about head/leg room and boot space up here.

If it's not a Mondeo-sized car or above then its a big people carrier or a Bling0/Doblo thing.

I remember hearing from a Mercedes-driver a few years back that the old 190s weren't big enough inside but the replacement C-classes were.

In Milton Keynes the Council have a stick,an actual physical piece of wood that is used to confirm the shoulder width in the back if it's a car they haven't come across before. They used it on my CLS a few years ago when they were trying not to let me license it. They couldn't find a reason in the end, and my plate had a Tippex 3 painted on it because their preprinted ones all said For 4 Passengers.

[Cavcraft]

Round here the absolute wankers in charge of those things are trying to have an age limit on cabs, something like 4 years old was bandied about.

[quicksilver]

Not sure what the rules are round here (Aylesbury Vale DC) but Astras in both hatch and estate forms seem to be the in thing at the moment, and look rather small alongside the usual crop of Mondeos, Passats etc. There was a Meriva around not long ago but I haven't seen it recently, and way back in the late 90s I remember a couple of Pug 309s being plated.

[stillOrange]

I also had C3 Picasso one day... terrible.

Future shite?

[Hendry]

Unfortunately there are quite a few of them around Manchester as well.

We use one minicab company at work and one time they booked Auris to carry 4 grown men with backpacks and big work bags.

 

As we are on the minicab topic, do minicab MOTs show when checking through DVLA website?

Yes, because taxis are still given an ordinary MOT as well as their taxi test, the taxi test isn't recognised as an official certificate of roadworthiness so a proper not is still required, however taxi test is stricter than an mot, my dads mk3 Astra one passed the mot the council did on it as part of its taxi test but then failed the taxi test because of play in a ball joint which was within not pass tolerances but not taxi test, same a couple of times with the emissions readings on his Vectra, passed mot but not taxi test, crazy to think both were roadworthy enough to pass an mot and be on the road as a private car but not on the road as a taxi.

[twosmoke300]

There is , no word of a lie , a smart car taxi down here . Run by portreath taxis as a single person cab . No shit sherlock

[mrcitroen]

Seems lots of variation up & down the country. Round my way you would never see focus / Astras but there is the odd Jetta. Most PH's are Octy's & insipidias.

 

Just never seen anything as small as the Corsa until last week! Must be a new thing round here.

 

The cooncil also seem to have no cap on the amount of licences they hand out now. Zillions if PH's sitting around here in bus stops waiting for work.

[Ghosty]

Seen a Chevrolet Aveo on Manchester City Council plates before.

[catsinthewelder]

We used to have a Suzuki Alto with private hire plates around here,  I think it's been replaced by an i10.  I've also seen a Bini Cuntryman ,an MGZTT and a Rover 45 up for hire around town.  It's really tempting to do my test and plate up some of the work fleet as there is plenty of work available but we're both working 50+ hours a week already and we can't plate the minibus.

[Timewaster]

There is , no word of a lie , a smart car taxi down here . Run by portreath taxis as a single person cab . No shit sherlock

There was a lot of hoo har in the local press and local TV news probably 10 years ago when someone got a Smart registered as a taxi.

I never ever saw it on the road.

[Timewaster]

I also remember, probably mid 90's the local clowncil passed a rule that taxis had to be 6 years old or newer.

Cab firm owners went ape shit.

One scrapped pretty much their entire fleet including half a dozen diesel Bluebirds with millions of miles between them but still going strong.

The next year the requirement was dropped.

Cab firm owners went ape shit. Again.

[Ghosty]

Tameside where I live has at least two Priuses, a Qashqai and Nissan Tiida saloon. I've had a Mk4 Astra before too.

[Richard]

It's really tempting to do my test.

 

I don't think there's a test, there certainly wasn't when I did it. The police were meant to come around and interview me but my local bobby didn't bother. I bumped into him in the street and he told me he'd approved the application.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

There's no consistency in getting a Private Hire or Hackney License. In my area- Milton Keynes new applicants have to do an induction course and pass a knowledge of the area test £354.00, have a medical £40, crb ( or whatever it's called now)£64, then pay £136 for a 3 year license. So that's £600 just to get a license, still there's more drivers than ever before applying. Don't know why, talking to people trying to make a living locally ,it now takes 7 x10/12 hour days to make what used to take 5 x8 hour days 15 years ago.

But if you've got no qualifications or trade, or are a recent immigrant it's still one of very few ways to make more than minimum wage.

[dollywobbler]

I saw a gorgeous metallic blue Rover 75 (pre-facelift) taxi near Oswestry the other day. Now that's a taxi I'd like a ride in. 

 

A taxi company in Cornwall has a Nissan Leaf fleet.