Rule means 25% of taxis will need to be replaced

A REGULATION that all taxis must be less than nine years old on their licence renewal date comes into force on Saturday, with taxi bodies predicting it will put thousands of drivers out of work.

Almost a quarter of the 23,000 taxis and hackneys in the Republic will need to be replaced or go off the road when they reach the date of their annual licence renewal.

The new regulation is part of a programme of vehicle standards improvements being introduced on a phased basis by the Commission for Taxi Regulation.

Taxi representative organisations argue the new rule will put experienced drivers out of business and put some high-quality taxi vehicles off the road.

The rule will hit full-time drivers hard and many would have no option but to leave the business, the president of the Irish Taxi Drivers’ Federation John Usher said.

Such drivers find it very difficult to get finance for a new car as banks are very reluctant to lend to them, he said. Part-time drivers with another job would have more options for funding, he added.

Mr Usher welcomed the reduction in the number of taxis but said “the wrong people have to leave”.

This rule will eliminate many “old timers”, and drivers who are “the face of the industry”, said Andrew McMahon, public relations officer with the Irish Taxi Council, which represents 28 taxi associations.

Drivers’ earnings have been cut in half, so a full-time driver who is barely earning a living cannot afford to upgrade, he said.

He predicted a shift in the industry as a result of the rule which he said favours the large operators with 10 or more cars on the road.

“We will see the taxi industry decrease by between 5,000 and 8,000 drivers in the next 24 to 36 months,” he said. “We will be back to the scenario where all of the big people will own all the plates again,” he added.

The federation is opposed to the regulation because it argues that the deciding factor should be the condition and not the year of the vehicle. Mr Usher said a 10-year-old car could be in better condition than a much younger car. “You can see a 10-year-old Lexus or Mercedes in beautiful condition that would match that of a three-year-old car,” he said.

The two inspections required of taxi vehicles each year and an annual National Car Test would show if the car is in a fit condition, he said. “But they should not be taken off the road just because of their age,” he added.

He said the nine-year rule should only apply when licence holders changed their vehicle. Mr Usher was also annoyed that the date for the introduction of the rule had been changed from 2012 to 2011.

Mr McMahon said many older cars are in better condition than those being purchased to qualify under the new rule. Drivers are buying “nearly clapped out” cars used by sales representatives with 200,000 miles on the clock but which are less than nine years old.

In a statement the commission said the new standards were aimed at improving the safety and quality of the fleet.

Among the reasons for introducing the age limit were because new cars were safer, more environmentally friendly and fuel efficient while older cards require significantly more maintenance and are less reliable in use, the statement said.

Another major consideration was that consumers expect consistency in vehicle quality and age when paying the same fare, the statement said. The nine-year rule is part of an ongoing series of improvements in vehicle standards by the commission.

New rules on specifications, safety, size and luggage space come into force from 2012.

The rule has applied to new entrants to the market since 2009 while wheelchair vehicles and limousines are exempt.

The commission estimates that 24 per cent of taxis will need to be replaced in the next year. As of September 2010 almost half of taxi and hackney vehicles were six years or younger and 76 per cent were nine years or younger, the regulator said in a statement.The age of the vehicle will be calculated from the exact date on which it was first registered.