DEPARTMENT FOR INFRASTRUCTURE
LICENSED TAXI-CAB OPERATOR REPORT
PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
To seek the Minister for Infrastructure’s agreement, in accordance with Ministerial Decision MD-T-2015-0079 ‘Taxi-Cab Regulatory Reforms Programme’, to instruct the Law Draftsman to draft Regulations under Article 46 of the Motor Traffic (Jersey) Law 1935 amending Article 38 (2) of the 1935 Law. This will enable the Minister to make Orders for the regulation, by means of a licensing system of Taxi-Cab Operator services which will provide pre-booked cab services. In addition, the Minister is asked to approve the provision of instructions to draft such Orders to enable the issuing, subject to conditions and requirements, repeal and modification of licences, and for appeals against refusal to grant, imposition of conditions in, modification or revocation of such licences, all pursuant to Article 38 (1) of the Motor Traffic (Jersey) Law 1935 which provides that –
“(1) It is the duty of the Minister to prescribe by Order such matters as it is necessary or convenient to prescribe to ensure that, insofar as it is practicable to do so, there is an adequate, efficient and reasonably priced cab service available throughout Jersey at all times.”
BACKGROUND
In September 2015 the Minister set out in Ministerial Decision MD-T-2015-0079 ‘Taxi-Cab Regulatory Reforms Programme’ the areas of change which were required to achieve the reform programme to provide a more flexible and safer taxi-cab service to the public. The Ministerial Decision directed the Inspector of Motor Traffic to draft Orders under the Motor Traffic (Jersey) Law 1935 and make the necessary administrative changes to put the taxi-cab regulatory reform programme into effect.
As part of the Taxi-cab Industry review programme, it was announced that a standard for advance booking arrangements would be determined and then a Licensing provision would be introduced for all advanced booking arrangements. It was considered that this would help availability and assist the introduction of new technologies but not discriminate between different approaches to booking a taxi-cab in advance. In addition the introduction of a Licencing scheme will give passengers greater confidence that they are being serviced by a professional organisation that uses safe drivers and vehicles.
Following the taxi-cab reform programme announcement the industry was engaged with to assist in the formulation of the minimum requirements for providing advanced booking arrangements eg pre-booked journeys. The requirements are to be prescribed in the Order and will include the maintaining of records on each booking for a passenger service transaction including contact information of the passenger or the person who made the booking; the date, time and location of journey; driver details, vehicle details and other matters.
DISCUSSION
In September 2015, MD-T-2015-0079-1 Taxi-Cab Regulation Reform Programme was issued, which sets out the principles for the taxi-cab industry changes. The MD indicated that advance booking arrangements would be put in place.
What does a ‘pre booked’ mean?
A pre-booked taxi-cab service means a service which is not provided from a public rank or hailed by hailing on street, whether in person or via a digital medium. It is therefore a journey provided by a company / person (the Operator) for which the operator accepts and allocates a taxi-cab and takes responsibility for. This includes directly communicating the bookings to drivers or arranging bookings to pass on to another service provider to carry out the passenger service.
To provide this service it is proposed that the provider of the advanced booking service must be licenced. This is to ensure that a single party takes responsibility for the booking and that the public are safeguarded.
The following sets out the principles of the requirements for an entity to be recognised by the Minister to provide pre-booked taxi-cab services.
1.0 Licensed Taxi-Cab Operator Responsibility
The company / person who accepts and dispatches a pre-booked journey to any taxi-cab driver shall be known as the “Operator”. They shall be responsible for servicing the pre-booked journey, whether by employed or self-employed taxi-cab drivers.
The Operator shall be fully responsible to the customer for the journey undertaken and is expected to answer and resolve passenger queries in a timely manner and provide details of how to escalate a complaint, should the passenger be dissatisfied with the way the query has been resolved. Serious and urgent issues, such as those that have an immediate risk to public safety, should be immediately reported to the Police and advised to DVS as soon as possible thereafter.
2.0 Licensed Taxi-Cab Operator Recognition Requirements
To be licenced by the Minister, the Operator must complete the application form and submit it to the Inspector of Motor Traffic. Only licenced Operators will be included on a taxi-cab Public Service Vehicle condition of licence. A list of approved Operators will be published for public information through various media. If an application is approved, it is not transferable to a third party or if there is a change in legal structure of the dispatching entity as set out in the application. Any such change will require a new application to be completed.
The criteria for licensing of a Dispatch Entity (Licenced Taxi-Cab Operator) will include but is not limited to:
2.1 LEGAL ENTITY
The Operator will be required to be registered under the Regulation of Undertakings & Development (Jersey) Law 1973.
A Business License must be granted under the above stated law prior to the provision of taxi-cab services being undertaken.
2.2 DISPATCHING REQUIREMENTS.
Any pre-booked journey can be dispatched, by the Operator to the driver, direct by radio or digital medium, whether directly or automatically. The Operator must also be available to contact the driver during the journey.
An Operator must be capable of meeting the Service Levels, as noted under item 11 below, in response to customer bookings.
The Operator is expected to answer and resolve passenger queries in a timely manner and provide details of how to escalate a complaint, should the passenger be dissatisfied with the way the query has been resolved. This should be set out in their policy document/statement. Serious and urgent issues, such as those that have an immediate risk to public safety, should be immediately reported to the Police and DVS.
2.3 OPERATOR BASE
A local address where the dispatching services are provided and operates from should be stated on the application form. The Operator’s base may be inspected by DVS as part of the application process, to ensure it is suitable and meets items 6 and 9 below.
2.4 LOCAL CONTACT
The Operator must provide a local contact point that all customers can contact for enquiries relating to the service being provided. This does not preclude any contact number being diverted to another phone during operating hours. The contact number is to ensure that customers can undertake cancellations, raise a complaint, report lost property and make a compliment or general enquiry about the service or any other matter whether before, during or after the journey has been completed.
Similarly, an email address should be provided by the Operator, for customers to contact regarding any service matters. This contact number and email should be displayed within the taxi-cab in clear sight of the passenger and on any literature, digital media or advertising related to the dispatching entity and/or its services.
The Operator must ensure that passengers are able to speak to a responsible person if they want to discuss any matter about their booking. This service must be available at all times during the hours of business and at all times during a passenger's journey.
The Operator, as the ‘Data Controller’ (see Article 1(1) of the Data Protection Law), must keep and make available for DVS inspection, all data specified under item 8 (Record Keeping).
The Operator must confirm on the application form the designated locally resident person for DVS or any other legal body to contact and deal with in all matters relating to any taxi-cab booking.
3.0 Booking Confirmation
The Operator will be expected to request the passenger’s contact information and offer to provide a booking confirmation for all bookings. A booking confirmation can be provided to the passenger via email, text (SMS and MMS) message, phone call or in App notification (regardless of what booking channels the Operator offers or is used to pre-book the journey). At the time the Operator dispatches the booking, the customer should be aware of the vehicle, driver and time of arrival.
4.0 Operational Hours
The Operator shall display clearly on all company media its operating hours of business for public information and contact purposes.
5.0 Insurances
The Operator must meet the minimum statutory insurance requirements, in accordance with Jersey Law and provide copies with the application form. The Operator shall provide DVS with copies of the policies annually thereafter.
6.0 Record Keeping
The Operator will be required to keep records of each booking, including the name of the passenger, the destination, driver information, vehicle used, any fare quoted at the time of booking and the final fare charged. This information will enable the passenger’s journey to be traced, if this becomes necessary. The records are to be held for a minimum of twelve months.
The Operator must ensure that any staff responsible for maintaining booking records are competent to do so and are capable of using the system used for the keeping of records.
Any vehicle undertaking the pre-booked journeys must be able to be tracked by the Operator and have their activity record logged, so their history, while in service, can be provided to DVS or other legal bodies, if and when requested.
All data must be handled and processed in accordance with the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.
7.0 Lost Property
The Operator is responsible for recording all lost property that is found by a driver undertaking a pre-booked journey. A record of the lost property is to be maintained by the Operator.
8.0 Customer Complaints
The Operator shall have a written customer complaints procedure and publicise the same, inside the taxi-cab and via other media (e.g. business cards, invoices, website and notices).
Operators must maintain a register of complaints by the public. The precise format of the register is for the Operator to devise but it must contain the following minimum details:
- The complainant’s details
- The complaint details
- The action taken in response to the complaint and by whom
- The outcome of the complaint
Any allegation or complaints, which relates to any PSV driver undertaking a journey from the Operator must be reported to DVS within 48 hours of receiving it, if it involves any of the following:
a) Allegations of sexual misconduct, sexual harassment or inappropriate sexual attention
b) Racist behaviour
c) Violence
d) Dishonesty
e) Equality breaches
f) Allegations of sexual misconduct with a child or incidents of child sexual
exploitation.
9.0 Service Levels
9.1 BOOKING ENQUIRIES
90% of requests for bookings from passengers must be answered by the Operator within two (2) minutes as measured by Mystery Shopping surveys. A request for a booking is deemed answered by the Operator, when the request is acknowledged by the Operator’s system, manually or automatically.
9.2 JOURNEY DELIVERY
An Operator must meet or exceed the following service levels relating to the maximum pick-up waiting times for passengers who have booked a taxi-cab through the dispatching service.
- 90% of passengers should not have a pick-up waiting time of more than ten (10) minutes from the agreed pick up time.
The maximum pick up waiting time for a passenger who has booked a taxi-cab through the Operator is identified as:
- From the time the pre-booked taxi-cab is agreed to arrive at the pick-up address.
When the agreed pick-up time exceeds the ten (10) minute window, the Operator must contact the passenger to inform them of the delay and either agree a revised pick-up time or allow the passenger to make alternative arrangements.
9.3 AVAILABILITY
An Operator shall ensure that, for all booking requests received by them, the proportion of requests which cannot be met does not exceed 10 % as measured by Mystery Shopping surveys.
An Operator will not contravene this service level if it sub-contracts a booking request to another Operator and that second Operator is able to meet it. The Operator that sub-contracts the booking, will retain overall responsibility for its fulfilment to the customer.
10.0 Fare Estimates
If required by the customer, the Operator must provide a fare estimate before the journey starts (unless the fare has been pre-agreed). The fare estimate should be based on the approximate mileage for the journey, including the total Flag and Yardage Drops but will exclude waiting time during the journey for traffic delays etc.
11.0 Tariff Charges
Tariffs must be available for the public to view in advance of any pre-booked journey and in the vehicle for reference by the customer. This shall include but not be limited to any additional charge above the tariff e.g. additional passenger, convenience charge.
The tariffs will be prescribed for all taxi-cabs by Order in pursuance of Article 38(2)(a) of the Motor Traffic (Jersey) Law 1935.
The Operator will be able to charge a fare based on the taxi-cab tariffs as prescribed by the Motor Traffic (Cabs-Fares and Charges) (Jersey) Order, plus a fixed declared uniform percentage applied to the tariffs to cover their overheads associated with dispatching the booking. This additional charge is to be advised and agreed with the Inspector of Motor Traffic and stated on the Licenced Taxi-Cab Operator Application Form.
Any change to the additional charge can be made at any time by the Operator to the Inspector of Motor Traffic, giving him 14 days’ notice of such changes. This licence requirement will not preclude the Operator agreeing with their customer a fixed fare that is less or to use a lower rate than the taxi-cab tariffs.
DVS will publish the Operator’s additional charge for a pre-booked journey through various public accessible mediums.
12.0 Driver Agreements
The Operator is required to have a written Agreement between the Operator and any taxi-cab driver which undertakes a pre-booked journey from the Operator.
The Agreement must identify the terms under which the driver undertakes any pre-booked journey and the terms under which the driver is engaged by and expected to provide the service to the Operator.
Signed copies of the Agreement shall be available for DVS to inspect on request.
It is the responsibility of the Operator to advise DVS if the Driver’s Agreement is cancelled within 24 hours of such cancellation.
13.0 Non-Compliance
The IOMT shall be entitled to revoke a taxi-cab’s Operator Licence, if the Operator fails to comply with any of the requirements of items 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 5, 6, 11 and 12 of this document. The IOMT on behalf of the Minister shall confirm the removal of the Licence to the Operator in writing stating the reason why. If a licence is revoked for any reason, the Operator must re-apply for the licence when they are able to demonstrate that they meet the application requirements.
Where the requirements of item 9 (Service Levels) are not met, the IOMT shall agree the improvements required by the Operator and prescribe a timescale for those improvements to be made. Where no improvement is made, the IOMT may recommend the Licence is revoked by the Minister.
The above requirements will form the basis for assessing if the applicant can be issued or maintain a Taxi-Cab Operator Licence. It is intended that Licences will be initially issued free of charge. A licence may be suspended or revoked in a similar manner to that of a PSV taxi-cab badge or Vehicle Licence plate. It is proposed that if a Licence is revoked the Licensee would have to reapply for a new Licence at a future date.
RECOMMENDATION
The Minister is asked to: -
- Agree to instruct the Law Draftsman to prepare Regulations making changes in the Motor Traffic (Jersey) Law 1935 to allow the Minister to prescribe by Order for the Licencing of taxi-cab operators to undertake pre-booked journeys accordingly and issue a Licence to allow them to undertake the service for hire and reward.
REASON(S) FOR DECISION
To provide for the services to customers as set out in Ministerial Decision MD-T-2015-0079 ‘Taxi-Cab Regulatory Reforms Programme’:
- To assist and support the Minister in his duties, set out in the Motor Traffic (Jersey) Law 1935 as amended, to ensure that, insofar as it is practicable to do so, there is an adequate, efficient and reasonably priced cab service available throughout Jersey at all times
ACTION REQUIRED
- Inspector of Motor Traffic to prepare drafting instructions to instruct the Law Draftsman to prepare draft Regulations amending the 1935 Law and Orders to be made thereunder to provide for the Licencing of taxi-cab operators and to issue a Licence to allow the operator to undertake pre-booked services for hire and reward.
- Inspector of Motor Traffic to advise the Taxi-Cab Industry of the Minister’s decision and arrange for appropriate public information.
Written by: | Inspector of Motor Traffic |
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Approved by: | Director of Transport Policy |
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