{"id":32860,"date":"2019-02-19T17:15:40","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T17:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=32860"},"modified":"2019-02-19T17:15:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T17:15:40","slug":"cross-bordering-trend-makes-life-tough-for-cardiffs-black-cabs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/02\/19\/cross-bordering-trend-makes-life-tough-for-cardiffs-black-cabs\/","title":{"rendered":"&#039;Cross-bordering&#039; makes life tough for Cardiff&#039;s black cabs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WHEN you jump in an Uber after your night out, spare a thought for the black cabs struggling to compete.<br \/>\nThere was a 502% increase in the number of private hire taxis licensed in Newport but with a registered address in Cardiff\u00a0between January 2016 and February 2019, according to figures from the Unite union.<br \/>\nThere has been a 5% decrease in licensed hackney cabs over the same period, from 941 down to 893.<br \/>\nThese figures reveal a growing trend in &#8220;cross-bordering&#8221; &#8211; an illegal activity in which taxis registered in a neighbouring authority pick up fares in a nearby town or city.<br \/>\nKhalid Muhammad, 47, from Grangetown, drives a hackney cab in Cardiff and paid \u00a3800 for his licence.<br \/>\nSitting in a queue of taxis at Cardiff Central station, he told\u00a0<em>The Cardiffian<\/em>: &#8220;In the city centre, you&#8217;re talking about 50 taxi spaces for 890 licensed vehicles. The problem is not a small one, it&#8217;s a disaster for us.&#8221;<br \/>\nMr Muhammad pays over \u00a3500 a year to use council taxi ranks around Cardiff.<br \/>\nHe said he is sometimes forced to park on the pavement next to the Central Station rank, risking a fine from the council for parking illegally, because there isn&#8217;t space for all the taxis that are queuing.<br \/>\nThe rank at the station is not owned by the council and Mr Muhammad pays a private firm, National Car Parks (NCP), to use it.<br \/>\n&#8220;There can be 300 taxis operating in Cardiff at one time, if it&#8217;s rugby or an event you&#8217;re talking about 600,&#8221; said Mr Muhammad.<br \/>\nThe next driver in the queue, who has been driving a hackney cab in Cardiff for a year and a half\u00a0but did not want to be named, said: &#8220;The council are issuing more licences than they should. I can be sat here for hours waiting for a fare.<br \/>\nThe council wants to promote public transport but they need more ranks,&#8221; he said.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_33063\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33063\" style=\"width: 390px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-33063\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/carriage-equine-horses-636012.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"390\" height=\"260\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33063\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-33063\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/carriage-equine-horses-636012.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"390\" height=\"260\" \/><\/noscript> Did you know? \u2018hackney\u2019, as in hackney cabs comes from the French word \u2018hacquen\u00e9e\u2019 meaning a horse and cart for hire.<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nAlan McCarthy, regional officer at Unite Union Cardiff, said: &#8220;At the moment, the problem is that hackney and private firm taxis from Newport or Vale of Glamorgan are flowing into town for events and working the ranks illegally.<br \/>\n&#8220;If I see the same vehicle from Newport in Cardiff three or four times on the same day, I know it&#8217;s working here. That is not being challenged at all.<br \/>\n&#8220;There seem to be fewer checks in Newport and the standards appear to be lower. There should be a national standard,&#8221; he said.<br \/>\nThe second driver I spoke to, who wished to remain anonymous, raised cross-bordering as a major issue for him: &#8220;If you&#8217;re going to let them work here it should be a level playing field.&#8221;<br \/>\nHe said private hire drivers from outside\u00a0Cardiff didn&#8217;t know the roads as well as registered Cardiff Hackney taxis.<br \/>\n&#8220;I saw a driver from Newport driving straight towards me the wrong way down a one-way system the other day.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe Welsh government is consulting on a white paper to improve public transport in Wales. The consultation period ends on March 27.<br \/>\nOne recommendation is to have a single authority for taxis in Wales, meaning that taxis could legally operate over a wider area.<br \/>\nBut Mr McCarthy raised concerns. &#8220;The law doesn&#8217;t need changing, it needs enforcing. It&#8217;s really going to compound an issue that is already huge.&#8221;<br \/>\nHe thought even more drivers would come to Cardiff if the proposals went ahead, increasing the issues with cross-bordering and a lack of rank space.<br \/>\nThe Cardiff Hackney Alliance, associated with Unite Union, was set up in November 2018 to represent drivers and has 300 members.<br \/>\nMr McCarthy told\u00a0<em>The Cardiffian<\/em> the organisation had a good dialogue with Cardiff Council and agreements were in place to increase rank spaces in Cardiff in the future.<br \/>\nCardiff Council and the Welsh Government have been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WHEN you jump in an Uber after your night out, spare a thought for the black cabs struggling to compete. There was a 502% increase in the number of private hire taxis licensed in Newport but with a registered address in Cardiff\u00a0between January 2016 and February 2019, according to figures from the Unite union. There has been a 5% decrease in licensed hackney cabs over the same period, from 941 down to 893. These figures reveal a growing trend in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":32963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,3,113],"tags":[1291,3529,50],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-32860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city","category-news","category-uncategorised","tag-cardiff-2","tag-taxi","tag-transport"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Cross-bordering&#039; makes life tough for Cardiff&#039;s black cabs - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/02\/19\/cross-bordering-trend-makes-life-tough-for-cardiffs-black-cabs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;Cross-bordering&#039; makes life tough for Cardiff&#039;s black cabs - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WHEN you jump in an Uber after your night out, spare a thought for the black cabs struggling to compete. There was a 502% increase in the number of private hire taxis licensed in Newport but with a registered address in Cardiff\u00a0between January 2016 and February 2019, according to figures from the Unite union. There has been a 5% decrease in licensed hackney cabs over the same period, from 941 down to 893. 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