It’s all over the country that cab drivers have been hit by a decline in passengers since the credit crunch began. In Lincoln, the taxi trade have proposed to run a new ‘Pound into Town’ scheme. The cab drivers proposal which would allow people to flag down a cab as it returned from dropping off a passenger on the outskirts of the city, and pay only £1 per person for a journey back to the station is under consideration by the council. Normally the cheapest single bus ticket for a comparable journey is around £1:80. The council’s licensing committee will be deciding on allowing signs promoting the scheme to be placed in cabs. Drivers hope to start operating the scheme as soon as possible.

In a simple but effective way, ph and hackney carriage drivers in Trafford are now easily identified thanks to new secure ID cards. The cards have been introduced to help make sure fraudsters cannot take to the road as licensed drivers. The investment in the new cards has been taken as a preventative measure, as Councillor Brian Rigby, chairman of the licensing sub-committee, explains: “In Trafford we have not had a specific problem with this type of fraud, but we need to protect taxi drivers and local people by making sure only licensed drivers are picking up passengers.”

A security company was asked to devise a suitable solution that would be secure, highly visible and easy to facilitate.  Security features include Guilloche printing of a precise, intricate and repetitive design, which is difficult to reproduce and print. An additional device to provide further ease of identification is the use of bespoke foil overlays in two different styles to differentiate private hire drivers from Hackney Carriage drivers. 

The new badges must be displayed in all private hire taxis and Hackney Carriages to show that Trafford Council licenses the driver. As the licensing roundels on private hire vehicles in London shows the vehicle is licensed but does not show the driver is licensed, a system similar to this would give extra re-assurance to customers. It would also be a possibility to make a third different card to show the difference between yellow badge and green badge taxi drivers.