Older taxis will help to cut costs

Oldham cabbies will be able to run their cabs for longer — to ease money worries.

Oldham Council’s Licensing Committee has extended vehicle age limits in response to concerns raised by the borough’s taxi drivers and operators.

Saloon vehicles can now be first licensed if they are under five years old; hackney carriages if they are seven or under. The committee extended the limit by a year. They also agreed a two-year increase on relicensing from the date of first registration. The extension comes with extra safeguards.

John Garforth, principal licensing officer, said: “There were some concerns drivers could not replace their vehicles as frequently as they once could. As a safeguard, the council can now implement three MOT-style tests a year on vehicles, where previously it was two.

“With the age limit when a vehicle has to be re-licensed raised from eight to 10 years for a private-hire vehicle and 12 to 14 for a black cab, the committee has upped the tests to three.

“If a vehicle doesn’t pass, we can get it off the road.”

As of June, 2010, there were 1,091 Oldham private-hire drivers under 40 operators. Eighty-five hackney carriages are also based in Oldham, with 203 drivers.

More than 80 hours of observations were made in June at the five main Oldham ranks used by hackney cabs, to decide if there was a demand for more vehicles. They found no significant increase in demand, so the limit remains 85.