An appeal has been made to introduce a ‘first come, first served’ rule into all Scunthorpe hackney taxi ranks following its success at the station rank.
Station Success
North Lincolnshire Council introduced the rule at the train station three years ago, meaning that hackney taxi drivers can only accept a fare if they’re at the beginning of the queue.
However, at all other ranks in the town, you can accept a customer even if the taxi in front has been waiting longer.
The chairman of the Scunthorpe and District Taxi Association (STDA), John Fleming, said: “We agreed to put in a first come first served service at the station rank three years ago.
“If a passenger doesn’t go to the front of the queue then we can’t take the fare and have to point them to the next cab.
“It’s working really well at the station and I’d like to see the queue system at all ranks in Scunthorpe.”
Too Many Hackney Taxis
The next item on the agenda is to implement a cap on taxi licenses but the STDA says this must be a gradual process.
Mr Fleming continued: “We would be happy to see the council limit the amount of hackney taxis but if they’re going to do it they would need to give people notice and introduce it gradually.
“Some days can be really busy and some days are really quiet but that’s the nature of taxiing.
“We would definitely agree on a limit but you can’t just do it tomorrow – we have to be realistic.”
Council Response
A spokesman for Lincolnshire Council said that limiting the number of hackney carriage licenses in Scunthorpe could be an option. However, taxi drivers should consider the costs associated with doing so.
She said: “We’d need to carry out an unmet demand survey every three years at a cost of about £30,000.
“The majority of this would need to be paid for by the taxi trade.”