Unlicensed cab drivers face crackdown
11:02am Thursday 22nd March 2001
Unlicensed cab drivers are set to be forced out of business as the borough council launches a crackdown.
After April 1 any taxi driver working without a licence will be breaking the law, and Hertsmere Borough Council's environmental health officers have pledged to find them and throw the book at them.
"The first person we prosecute, we will seek to punish to the maximum extent of the law," said senior environmental health officer Dominic Stagg. When the Metropolitan Police pulled out of Hertsmere last April it handed control of licensing taxis to the borough council.
Mini-cab drivers, who had not needed a licence before, were given a year to apply for the new licences, but Mr Stagg said there were still around 40 or 50 unlicensed drivers in Hertsmere most of them working in Borehamwood and Radlett.
He believes some drivers are avoiding being licensed because it will push up the cost of their insurance: "We will consider prosecuting both the drivers and their operators. Environmental health officers will be working around the clock from April 1 to track down unlicensed drivers.
Dennis Vangeen, managing director of the Human Logistics Corporation, an executive taxi service based in Studio Way, said most taxi firms supported the new licensing system.
"When the idea of licensing was first put forward, we said they needed to have enforcement to make it work. As far as I am concerned the only ones who are complaining about it are the ones who have not got their licences yet."
Applying for a license takes some time. Drivers have to visit a council-approved GP to prove they are healthy, and their vehicles have to pass new MOT tests. More than 250 drivers have received licences already, and 30 operators have been licensed by the council.