Safe-star drive

STAR performers... Cartax Radio Cars achieved the highest accolade. Pictured, Councillor Jim McArdle with Farooq Yousaf, Cartax managing director

CUSTOMERS will know which Oldham taxi firms are star performers with a new ratings system designed to ensure safe, reliable journeys.

Oldham Council has torn up its taxi league table and is preparing to launch a star rating scheme for private hire and Hackney carriage operators instead.

The aim is to focus more attention on how the company is run and its standards, rather than the actions of individual drivers.

Taxi bosses had criticised the league table’s points system as being unclear and unfair and pointed out individual drivers constantly change firms.

Council chiefs say it worked in improving companies and it’s now time to move on to a scheme that’s comparable with other authorities. But if firms perform poorly they can still face having their licence revoked. The council’s licensing committee will hear about the latest proposals at a meeting on November 25.

If approved, firms will be audited against a set criteria and anything from no stars to four stars will be assigned.

To achieve four stars, companies must, among other things, train drivers in first aid and safe driving and have a contract for vehicle maintenance. Licensing Committee chairman, Councillor Jim McArdle, said: “Given the positive impact of previous methods of identifying performance we have decided to seek approval for a star rating scheme which will reward companies who strive to improve.

“We as a licensing authority have a duty to the public of Oldham to provide safe, clean vehicles and in partnership with the companies, along with the proposed new star system, we will ensure this happens.”

In an initial audit, no company fell below two stars, which is the basic level of compliance. Only one firm achieved the highest accolade of four stars — Cartax Radio Cars, of Lees.
Just behind them are nine firms with three stars and another 14 with two.

The league table had handed out points for things such as driver prosecutions, fixed penalties for smoking, vehicle failures in random tests, complaints and poor management. Each firm’s total was then divided by its number of vehicles to calculate its final score.

Those rooted at the bottom were hauled in before a licensing panel to explain their poor showing and threatened with closure if they failed to improve.