Cashless payment ‘must be available in Milton Keynes taxis’ says committee

A meeting heard this week that some drivers had been unlawfully refusing to take customers on short journeys, with the excuse that they could not provide a cashless payment option.

Jason Agar, the council’s taxi licensing manager told the regulatory committee that taxi drivers themselves had been complaining that others had been refusing £3 or £4 jobs.

They sometimes have to wait a long time before getting a job but they are not allowed to refuse them.

Now they will have to put two council-supplied stickers on their Hackney cabs and risk their taxis being suspended if they don’t comply.

Some 75 of the 206 Hackney carriages in the city already provide for card payments, the committee heard.

Mr Agar told the committee that officers believe the new licensing condition is “reasonably necessary” and was good for the trade and for customers.

About one in three taxi owners had disagreed to the condition, but it was lobbied for by the Milton Keynes Taxi Association, the committee was told.

“We are now in the age of the app,” said committee chairman Cllr Mick Legg (Lab, Bletchley West). “Everybody does it that way these days, it’s the way society is moving.”

Cllr James Lancaster (Cons, Tattenhoe) said: “We are going to a cashless society, and this gives people the option. I’m in favour.”

The committee was also told that officers believe drivers will be safer if they don’t carry cash.

Cllr Legg asked what would happen where there were technical issues, or blind spots.

Mr Agar said: “There will be technical problems but drivers will know where they are when they take a job. They will also tell their customers.”

The committee’s decision will mean that the condition will come into force immediately.

But drivers will only have to comply when their own licence comes up for renewal. It will take one year for all the taxi fleet to be included because of the staggered nature of individual licence renewal dates.

Proprietors have 21 days to appeal but once that appeal period is over if they are found to be in breach, the vehicle will be suspended, the committee papers reveal.