The
NTA's 2018 annual report (PDF) is out. 'Tis all good, if they do say so themselves...
from CEO Overview:
The transition to a wheelchair accessible taxi fleet continued. This was again assisted by the provision of grant funding to assist operators to purchase suitable vehicles. During the year 679 wheelchair accessible licences were added to the fleet bringing the overall number to 2,220. We also launched a major publicity programme to encourage more people to join the taxi sector.
Wheelchair taxis are upto 10%, a year ahead of schedule.
from Apps:
Approx 27k downloads of the Driver Check app.
from Small Public Service Vehicles:
In February, the Authority launched a taxi driver recruitment campaign in response to the decline in numbers of drivers in the SPSV sector in recent years.
By the end of the year:
» 1,205 new drivers had been recruited, a 47% increase on the previous year;
» 26,405 drivers were licensed, an overall increase of 2% on the previous year.
1,205 'new' drivers but the fleet only increased by 528 (2%). Did 677 drivers leave the biz in 2018?
In all, 44 grant payments were made during 2018 comprising 41 grants in respect of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and three grants in respect of battery electric vehicles.
Fuk me, that suggests a lot of taxi drivers are buying Priusssss without a grant!
From the info below, keep their database up-to-date, never give receipts and act like a threatening criminal and you've a good chance of never getting caught/fined by the NTA inspectors
Almost 200,000 vehicle and driver licencing checks were undertaken during the year in respect of 19,624 individual vehicles, which represents over 93% of licensed vehicles. Based on these checks compliance officers elected to undertake 17,610 roadside audits. As a result, 1,878 Fixed Payment Notices were issued for a variety of offences. More than one-third of all Fixed Payment Notices issued were result of the failure by a driver to notify details of the vehicle being operated.
200,000 checks --> 19,624 individual vehicles --> 93% of licenced vehicles. They must have sore fingers from pressing buttons on their phones!
How do you do 200k checks on 20k vehicles? Does counting 4 wheels count as 4 checks?
Over 30% of fines are for not updating the database...
The number of customer complaints was up by 14%.
Of the 1,312 complaints received, approximately 50% could not be progressed for various reasons, including the failure of complainants to provide information or their unwillingness to act as a witness for the purposes of a prosecution, as well as the absence of sufficient evidence to support a prosecution.
Complaints which do not fall within the ambit of the Authority, are referred to other agencies including An Garda Síochána and the Office of Tobacco Control.
50/50 chance of a complaint against you going to an 'official' level.