Bracknell Forest Council Licensing and Safety Committee

21 October 2021

Item 7 - FEES AND CHARGES 2022/2023

Fees for Taxi and Private Hire Vehicles

The fees proposed by the JPPC on the 13 September were discussed at the Bracknell Taxi Trade Meeting Monday, 04 October 2021. The trade raised concern about some of the fees and agreed to send a list through to Officers to look again at the time allocation for each of these activities. The fees that they have asked to be revisited are set out below. Officers have considered the request and listed the activities associated with each process and the rationale for the fee setting. It is proposed that with one exception the fees are set at the levels proposed by the JPPC.

Other Private Hire & Hackney Carriage Charges

	Other charges	Published 2021/22 Fee	All Council Areas – where applicable	Proposal
1	Transfer of vehicle to new owner	£118	£118	Reduce to £59
2	Change of vehicle	£74	£74	Retain at £74
3	Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS)	£67	£94	Retain at £94
4	Change of vehicle registration	£57	£30 + sticker and licence costs	Retain ay £30 + sticker and licence costs
5	Age of vehicle Inspection – initial & renewal	£59	£59	Retain at £59

1. Transfer of vehicle to new owner

The process includes checking application submitted (including the fee) and relevant documents (new insurance and either new V5 or slip to show change of ownership and either invoice or letter from seller confirming he/she is selling their vehicle to the new owner). The System then needs to be updated to reflect the change and a new paper licence is issued with the new proprietor named as the new licence holder. No new plate or windscreen sticker is issued. In most cases a Service Request is raised by the Driver (either seller or buyer) to enquire on process.

On average this work would take an hour and it is therefore proposed that this fee is reduced to £59.

2. Change of Vehicle

There are 2 types of vehicle changes:

· a temporary vehicle if someone is involved in an accident or has damage to a permanent vehicle)

· or a new vehicle which is a permanent change).

The process is the same for both with just one exception, a Temporary Vehicle will require a new plate number. In both cases the application needs to be checked along with submitted documents including the insurance documents, v5 form and fee and a vehicle inspection needs to be undertaken. The System needs to be updated to reflect the change and new plate, vehicle paper licence and windscreen sticker is issued.

In most cases a Service Request is raised by the Driver (or in the case of a Temporary Vehicle the Insurance Company or Replacement Car Company i.e. Cab Direct/Kindergons) to enquire on process.

On average this work would take an hour and a quarter and it is therefore proposed that this fee is kept at £74.

3. Disclosure and Barring Service Checks

The cost reflects the cost to the Council of undertaking these enhanced checks. The Service is based on a cost recovery model so unless this cost was to be subsidised it is not possible to reduce this cost. It is therefore proposed that this is retained at £94. The cost can be revisited if and when checks are undertaken by Bracknell Forest Council and the fee will be set at cost recovery.

4. Change of vehicle registration

The process for enacting this change requires the system to be updated, the issuing of a new plate, issuing a vehicle paper licence and windscreen sticker.

This work takes around a half an hour to complete and it is therefore proposed that the half hour fee is retained.

5. Age of vehicle Inspection – initial & renewal

The process for undertaking the inspection is as follows. The Driver or Vehicle Owner is asked to submit a request in writing three months prior to the Age of Vehicle expiring. In most cases a Service Request is raised by the Driver or Owner of the vehicle. An Officer must then contact them to advise of the process and to make an appointment for the inspection. It is anticipated that physical inspections will now resume.

During the Covid-19 pandemic the inspection was based on photographs of the interior, exterior and date and time stamped speedometer showing current mileage.

Officers are then required to work through the mileage records for the previous five years based on previous vehicle inspections. They then calculate the average yearly mileage in order to work out if the vehicle meets the “abnormally low mileage” criteria set out in the current policy. A report is prepared and sent to the Licensing Team Manager who will either approve or refuse the application. A letter confirming the outcome is sent to the driver and if granted this will include the revised Age of Vehicle expiry date.

The system then needs to be updated to reflect this decision. If the application is not successful the driver will receive a suspension letter once the current age of vehicle expiry date passes.

It is estimated that this work would take an hour and it is therefore proposed that this fee remains at £59.

The drivers did comment that they did not feel that this charge should be made as they were under the impression that it was included in their annual fee. This is not the case. As set out above this is an additional process that requires officer input.