Institute’s taxi and private hire “Suitability Guidance” showcased at global regulators’ conference

Jim Button, President of the Institute of Licensing has been in Nashville, speaking at the International Association of Transportation Regulators 38th Annual Conference.

Jim was invited to explain and talk about the  Institute of Licensing’s (IoL) updated Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Suitability Guidance, how it was created, how it evolved into the second edition and how it could be useful in other jurisdictions.

The IATR Conference attracted delegates and speakers from all over the world, not just the United States, and Jim has learnt a lot about the approaches taken in other countries (and the different States and Counties within the USA).

There was a lot of interest in the Suitability Guidance, which the Institute considers to be best practice. Whilst it is clearly written for England and Wales, the chapter on Offenders and Offending is universal, and the guidelines themselves in Chapter 4 can also be applied in other jurisdictions. This is due to the approach the Guidelines take in using categories of crimes, rather than specific offences.

Jim was part of a panel (which was called a bootcamp!) looking at enforcement and safety, and in addition to his presentation, he joined in debate and answering questions.

It was very interesting to learn that many taxi licensing authorities do not seem to have clear guidelines on previous convictions and behaviours, and in some cases the decision making processes seem to be arbitrary.

It was also fascinating and alarming to learn about the various approaches to Transportation Network Companies (TNC). These are app based operations like uber, and that in many places they are not licensed at all, or are licensed under different rules from what we regard in the UK as hackney carriages and private hire vehicles. Whatever deficiencies we have in our hackney carriages and private hire legislation in England and Wales, at least it is clear that Uber and the like are licensable as private hire operators.

During discussions with many of the delegates, it was clear that they will be looking at the Guidelines, and it will be interesting to see if they are used to any extent as other jurisdictions update or improve their standards.

During the rest of the Conference, Jim attended the other sessions. Whilst many of these were focussed mainly on the USA, there were many common factors, problems and in some cases solutions. It has to be said that there were also an enormous number of differences! Jim will be writing an article for the Link magazine outlining some of these.