HACKNEY operators in the Dublin area should be allowed to use radio or telephone systems, it was submitted in the High Court yesterday.
The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Costello, was to grant an interlocutory hearing of the action, the Minister for the Environment from interfering, within a taxi meter area, with business radio licences, granted under wireless telegraphy legislation.
Mr James O'Reilly SC claimed that it was illogical that his clients were licensed under the Wireless Telegraphy Acts to use the appliances, but prevented from doing so by provisions in public service vehicle regulations.
Mr O'Reilly was representing Mintola Ltd, with registered offices at Clonard Road, Kimmage, which operates 15 taxis and 50 hackney cars; Cab Communications Ltd and Capital City Cabs Ltd, both with registered offices at Lower Dominick Street, Dublin; Mr Brian Mullins, managing director of Mintola; and Mr Peter Hayes, of Rathmines, a hackney driver.
Mr Mullins, in an affidavit, said that Capital City Cabs rented mobile radio systems to private operators of taxis and hackneys as well as to fleet owners, the largest of which was Mintola. Regulations imposed oppressive, uncompetitive and ruinous conditions on hackney operators. The prohibition against the use of radio and telephonic communications by hackneys meant that Capital City Cabs could not contact its hackney drivers in taxi meter areas.