Campaign claims 45% of Glasgow’s black cabs will be forced off the road by LEZ

Glasgow City Council announced in late-2022 that extra time would be given to cabbies to meet the LEZ standards, with grants available for retrofitting and a new deadline of 1 June 2024 issued.

However, it has emerged that less than one cab per week is being retrofitted due to a shortage of components and labour.

In details obtained through a Freedom of Information request, it is believed 118 vehicles are awaiting retrofitting – a number that would take more than two years to meet at current rates. Some cab drivers have been forced to send their vehicles to Chester for work to be performed – with a Glasgow-based option for retrofitting yet to be fully up and running.

Around a further 500 of Glasgow’s 1383 hackney cabs also have an exemption which will run out by the end of May. Some of those affected have been unable to access retrofit grant funding, whilst the market for new and used cabs has been ‘dysfunctional’ since the pandemic.

Unite Glasgow (Hackney) Taxi Branch secretary Steven Grant, warned that LEZ was creating an existential crisis for black cabs in the city.

Mr Grant said: “Despite the council granting a one-year exemption for retrofitting cabs, it is clear that the LEZ is still going to force hundreds of cabs off the road by June next year.

“There is grave concern in the trade about the deadline given the lack of components and expertise available to carry out retrofitting. Part of the problem throughout this debacle is that Glasgow City Council has no idea of the actual logistics facing taxi drivers. Throughout this process, the council has been making decisions and issuing deadlines about our livelihoods without accurate information, decimating the sector in the process.

“Even if a taxi driver has been awarded a grant to carry out retrofitting, but has not been able to secure a slot to carry out the work by June 2024, council officials have said they won’t be able to operate. That’s simply wrong.”

Approximately 40 black cab licences have already been handed back to Glasgow City Council since the LEZ began - despite a licence holding a goodwill value of more than £30,000 – with drivers opting to cease trading rather than sell a non-compliant vehicle onto a new owner.

Mr Grant added: “The average age of Glasgow black cab drivers is 57 years old. If retrofitting your vehicle is not an option, it is a choice between sourcing an alternative vehicle or retirement.

“A brand new cab would cost around £75,000 which is not feasible if you are approaching the end of your career in the trade. In terms of used taxis, there are simply none available, with the UK market dysfunctional since the pandemic.

“The Scottish Government issued guidance in May which stated that local authorities should be doing all they can to encourage greater availability of taxis onto our roads – particularly to help disabled passengers for whom cabs are a lifeline. Instead, the biggest council in the country is doing all they can to put a huge swathe of our iconic taxis out of business.”

Those warnings were echoed by Michael Smith, a black cab driver in Glasgow.

Mr Smith said the issues faced by black cab drivers were exacerbating the problem of private hire ‘pirating’ – a practice where private hire vehicles registered outside of Glasgow, with no checks undertaken on drivers by Glasgow City Council, are operating almost exclusively within the city with no recourse by council officials.

Michael added: “Since Covid, pirating has become more of a Glasgow pandemic than the actual virus.

“The problem is coming from out of town with drivers who often cannot pass the checks required in Glasgow but get a licence from a neighbouring authority and sit and work in Glasgow. They are dispatched work from a Glasgow booking office despite that being against the rules. It makes a mockery of a system put in place by former Justice Secretary Kenny McAskill to outlaw criminality in the trade.

“As more black cabs are forced off the road by hair-brained council rules, pirating private hires will attempt to fill the void for people desperate to get home, especially at night. That presents a real risk to safety, especially to vulnerable people and those traveling on their own. Glasgow City Council should be doing more to tackle this real and present danger than continually placing pressure on the city’s black cab drivers.”

William Paton, a campaigner who is leading the LEZ Fight Back campaign, said: “This is further evidence that Glasgow City Council just does not listen. We have seen the headlines about the terrible issues faced by those trying to get home from the city centre at night and now we’re sent to lose almost half the black cabs currently on the road – that’s without mentioning the devastating impact it will have on the livelihoods of the cabbies themselves. It is beyond parody what the council is doing.”

A council spokeswoman said: “Glasgow’s LEZ is a crucial public health measure that aims to tackle the harmful air pollution that has blighted the city centre for decades - creating and exacerbating people’s health conditions and the city’s health inequalities, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable.

“Plans to extend a LEZ to all vehicle types was democratically agreed in 2018 and since then the council has undertaken an extensive programme of communications and engagement to raise awareness of the scheme, its timescale for introduction and the availability of funding to ease compliance.

“The LEZ retrofit fund has been available to eligible taxi operators since 2019. In the same year we amended licensing conditions to allow for a new license or change of vehicle to be applied to taxis more than five years old. This was a direct intervention ahead of the LEZ coming into force to increase the options available to operators of vehicles unsuitable by reason of age for retrofit.”

In terms of pirating, a council spokeswoman said: “We fully understand the risks created by drivers who pirate for fares, and we continue to work with the police to tackle this issue.”