Greater Manchester 'can’t guarantee' a high standard from out of town taxi drivers - and there are nine THOUSAND of them
09.10.2023 - 12:03
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
More than a third of private hire taxi drivers in Greater Manchester are licensed by a council that operates around 80 miles away in Wolverhampton.
According to a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Manchester Evening News, 8,952 private hire drivers, licensed by Wolves Council, reside in Greater Manchester. This makes up 35 per cent of the private hire cabs operating across the city-region.
It comes after Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham condemned 'out of town' taxi drivers amid claims they were registering elsewhere to avoid meeting local standards.
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Private hires are different to regular taxis in that they are available to pre-book only via companies like Uber. They cannot be flagged down on the street like black cabs (known as hackney carriages).
There are 36,033 private hire drivers with a Wolverhampton plate in total in the UK, FOI data has revealed, which is 13 per cent of Wolverhampton's total population (around 262,000). By comparison, 16,343 private hires have a Greater Manchester licence plate.
In March it emerged that almost a third of England's private hire taxi drivers are registered in Wolverhampton. The city has even had to take on 20 new staff to cope with demand.
Speaking on BBC Radio Manchester ‘In The Hotseat’ segment in August, Mr Burnham said: “How are they allowing it, the other authorities, who are 100 or so miles away. How are they not checking up on those taxis and those drivers, but they're taking in the money for it.
“How are they allowing that situation? They shouldn't be doing it because they're