Market Study - Licensed Taxi and PHV Services
The Office of Fair Trading published a report into the UK market for taxis and private hire vehicles and whether consumers are best served by the current regulatory regime under which they are licensed on 11 November 2003.
The report made the following recommendations:
• that the legislative provisions allowing licensing authorities to impose quantity controls in England (outside London), Wales and Scotland should be repealed. In the meantime, OFT recommends that Local Authorities with quantity controls remove them;
• that the Department for Transport promote and disseminate local best practice in applying quality and safety regulations involving the Scottish Executive and the Department of the Environment (Northern Ireland) in this process. The purpose of this would be to assist Local Authorities to apply standard quality and safety attributes in a proportionate manner. Department for Transport should publish best practice guidance on quality controls;
• that throughout the UK Local Authorities should only set fare tariffs which represent the maximum that can be charged, and not set fixed or minimum fares. It should be made clear to consumers that they are able to negotiate on fares, for example, when ordering a taxi over the telephone. OFT also recommends that, where possible, LAs actively facilitate more price competition in the market, particularly in the rank and hail sectors of the market.
The Government responded on 18 March 2004. The Government accepted OFT’s recommendations on quality and safety regulations and maximum fares, and agreed with OFT that consumers should enjoy the benefits of competition in the taxi market. However, rather than impose a legislative solution on taxi numbers, the response sets out a number of steps to encourage Local Authorities to remove restrictions unless they can show that they deliver benefits to consumers.
Responsibility for legislation on taxis and private hire vehicles in England and Wales falls to the Department for Transport.
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