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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE BY DEPUTY J.M. MAÇON OF ST. SAVIOUR
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 19th JANUARY 2016
Question
"Given the recent strike action taken by taxi drivers, can the Minister explain what further discussions have taken place with the Taxi Drivers Association, give an update on the situation and explain what and when changes to policy are to be implemented?"
Answer
Comprehensive discussions were held with the Jersey Taxi Drivers Association (JTDA), Jersey Cab Drivers Association (JCDA), their members and company owners and other industry representatives, as well as the public, during the consultation for and the development of the Taxi Regulatory Review Green' and White' papers (to which over 700 industry and public responses were received). Since being appointed, I have also personally held meetings with industry representatives on the following dates:
Ministerial Taxi Meetings | Discussion Type | |
Call a Cab | 18 December 2014 | Exploratory |
Taxi rank visit with JDTA | 08 January 2015 | Exploratory |
Taxi rank visit with JTDA | 12 January 2015 | Exploratory |
Liberty Cabs and Citicabs | 13 January 2015 | Exploratory |
Red Cabs and App Designer | 13 January 2015 | Exploratory |
Luxicabs | 27 January 2015 | Exploratory |
Private Hire Taxi-Cab Drivers | 29 January 2015 | Exploratory |
Non JTDA Rank Drivers Meeting | 12 February 2015 | Exploratory |
JTDA | 16 February 2015 | Exploratory |
JCDA | 16 February 2015 | Exploratory |
ECabs | 25 February 2015 | Exploratory |
Domino Cabs | 25 February 2015 | Exploratory |
Non JTDA Rank Drivers Meeting | 25 February 2015 | Exploratory |
Non JTDA Rank Drivers Meeting | 27 February 2015 | Exploratory |
JTDA (request from JTDA for increase in tariffs for 2016) | 28 July 2015 | Tariff request |
Presentation to taxi industry representatives | 28 September 2015 | Presentation |
Jersey Disability Partnership | 12 October 2015 | Consultative |
Yellow Cabs | 15 October 2015 | Consultative |
JTDA | 19 October 2015 | Consultative |
CitiCabs | 04 November 2015 | Consultative |
Joint Taxi-Cab Working Party | 10 December 2015 | Consultative |
Luxicabs | 07 January 2016 | Consultative |
JTDA and representative of non JDTA rank drivers meeting at Chief Minister's Office | 08 January 2016 | Consultative |
Subsequent to announcing our plans in September 2015, we have received numerous contacts from the industry expressing wide and divergent views, covering the entire spectrum of opinion from extremely supportive to denying any need for change.
The main concerns received related to how the transition from the current situation of strict quantitative control (where government decides how many taxis can operate) to more customer focused qualitative requirements could be achieved. To provide the sector with the freedom to improve productivity to better meet peak demand and modernise the quality of the service. Thus, at the launch of our proposals we invited discussion as to how best to achieve the technical aspects of the changes and requested that interested industry representatives submit their own suggestions.
To allow these concerns to be explored, following a series of industry wide meetings organised by the JTDA and a representative of Private Hire, a taxi-cab sector Joint Working Party' was formed. We met with the group on 10th December 2015 to listen to their ideas. As would be expected, the proposed changes to restrictions to access for on-street taxi ranks were of primary concern to the JTDA representatives.
The spirit of the meeting was positive and constructive with many common points of agreement, which all agreed would merit further discussion. However, before dates could be set for our next meeting the JTDA issued an ultimatum objecting to the easing of controls on new entrants to the industry who agree to provide and operate wheelchair accessible vehicles (part of the move from quantitative to qualitative regulation).
Evidently the JTDA were unhappy that protection of its members' position in the taxi-cab market could not be unconditionally guaranteed and decided to publically demonstrate their strength of feeling, without notice, through a day of action. Following on from this, a further meeting was chaired by the Chief Minister on 8th January 2016 with the JTDA. Again this was constructive and it was agreed that a further meeting shall be scheduled to be held in the first week of February.
The high-level strategic programme for Taxi Regulatory Reform remains as published below. At an operational level it may be necessary for some variation in order to secure further consumer benefits as a result of constructive industry engagement.