WATERFORD taxi drivers were yesterday granted a High Court order prohibiting hackneycab drivers from operating as public hire vehicles in taximeter areas in the city.
Mr Justice McCracken said he would grant an interlocutory injunction and added that it should include that hackney cabs should not be parked outside the drivers premises in John Street or elsewhere with the driver in the vehicle.
The case was taken by a number of taxi drivers who are members of the Waterford Taxi Drivers' Association against five hackney drivers Mr Paschal Maher, Mr Martin Marshall, Mr Oliver McGrath, Mr Liam Sheridan and Mr David White.
Mr Thomas Slattery SC, for the hackney drivers, said he would give an undertaking that the hackney drivers would not ply the streets for hire and that they would not form a rank outside their premises provided they were not confronted with an illegal rank by the taxi drivers.
They were entitled to park at permitted places, but they should get their custom from people who walked into the office or telephoned.
Mr John Gordon SC, for the taxi men, said the defendants operated under the name of Metro Cabs in John Street, Waterford. They were holders of hackney cab licences which permitted them to drive small public service vehicles for private hire only.
Under the Road Traffic (Public Service Vehicles) Regulations of 1963 and 1995, the taxi men had licences to use small public service vehicles for public hire. Only taxi drivers may provide the service of contracting to carry members of the public for reward in a taximeter area.
Mr Slattery said his clients had it in mind to take part in the St Patrick's Day parade in the city. Mr Justice McCracken said that technically he considered that would be in breach of the regulations as it would be advertising.
Mr Slattery said the hackney cab would not be plying for business. The judge said he thought the regulations prohibited a hackney vehicle from having an advertisement on it. He did not have to decide that but he imagined that somebody could put a sign on a car that was not a hackney cab. Mr Slattery said that they would not do it.