Bristol’s cabbies are being put out of work by council licensing delays and mixups

Private hire and Hackney carriage drivers have had enough of the city’s licensing department, with some waiting needlessly for months for permits to be renewed before they can get back on the road.

Bristol taxi drivers Festus Kudehinbu (L) and Farrukh Raja (credit: Stefano Ferrarin)

Reports 8th November, 2023

Sean Morrison and Matty Edwards

Festus Kudehinbu, who has been a taxi driver in Bristol for almost three decades, was out of work for three months last winter because of delays with the renewal of his taxi licence.

The 64-year-old, who lives in St Agnes, is one of several taxi drivers we have spoken to recently who have been affected by issues with Bristol City Council’s taxi licence application process. The delays have put drivers’ livelihoods on hold for weeks or months.

“It meant I didn’t have income – I was worried I wouldn’t be able to pay for heating,” Festus tells the Cable. “It really affected my nervous system, it gets you down, into depression… I am worried it will happen again.”

According to data released to us under freedom of information (FOI) laws, taxi drivers in the city are waiting far longer for licence renewals than the local authority’s target 10-day processing time.

Festus’s is up for renewal again this month. To make sure he does all the paperwork correctly he’s asked a friend who’s “better with technology” to help him with his application.

The application process is entirely online, and Festus says people struggling with technical issues are met with a wall of silence because the support phone line is usually busy, and staff unhelpful.

He says he was not sure of the nature of the delay last time round, and that it hadn’t been explained to him.

“Some [people] don’t know how to do things online,” he says, adding that taxi drivers used to rely on a face-to-face application service in Bedminster, which was shut down during the pandemic and never reopened. 

“I struggled with the technology, and when I called [the council] to ask for help, I did not get a response,” Festus says.

Long wait times

Bristol City Council receives about 1,200 taxi driver licence applications a year and works to a target processing timeline of 10 working days. 

But the average time it takes to grant these applications since 2020, according to data released following the Cable’s FOI request, was 36 days. This average waiting time peaked in late 2022 at 46 days, although this has since improved. 

Some drivers have had to wait much longer though. The longest wait for a licence to be granted this year so far has been 251 days. Last year the longest wait was 502 days, and in 2020 a driver was granted a licence after waiting a marathon 1,127 days.

The data shows the council is consistently missing its own target of processing applications within 10 working days. A spokesperson said that in “some cases” it takes longer, and that they understood taxi drivers’ frustration.

The spokesperson added that, as part of the council’s work to improve the process, outreach workers have been trained to assist drivers who are unable to complete the forms online, and new staff hired.

“We are also setting up in-person drop-in sessions,” the spokesperson said, without giving a timeline for when these might be launched, or if they will be held at the licensing headquarters in Temple Street.

‘I would probably still be waiting’

The issues, however, are not just down to drivers’ misfiling their paperwork. It’s clear that complications with applications on the part of the council are also causing people grief.

Farrukh Raja drives a Hackney carriage taxi – the blue cabs that can use taxi ranks. He’s been a cab driver in Bristol for more than 40 years. Issues with his paperwork last year meant he was out of work for two months.

The 66-year-old father, who lives in Fishponds with his wife and three children, says that about 18 months ago he was rushed to hospital suffering a suspected stroke.

“I was all right, but this meant under the law I could not get my licence renewed for a year, which I understand and is fine,” he tells the Cable, adding that the problems began when he reapplied in March 2023.

“I filed all the paperwork on time, but I just didn’t hear from them,” Farrukh says. “Every day that went by I was hoping it would be granted, but no. I just waited and waited – and would probably still be waiting.”

He says that a few weeks after his drivers licence expired, he received a letter from the council saying he would be required to undergo medical examinations before it could declare him fit to drive.

Private hire car and Hackney carriage drivers must separately keep up to date their taxi driver’s licence and vehicle licence, and ensure their registration plates are renewed.

“I took the letter [to the doctor] and he answered it straight away. He said he had already confirmed in [a previous] medical form that I am fit to drive my taxi, and he confirmed it again in his reply.”

Farrukh said he did not hear from the council after this. He waited until May before he took matters into his own hands, by contacting his local councillor to ask for help with the situation.

He says Ellie King, Labour councillor for Hillfields and cabinet member for public health and communities, asked the authority to review the application and that it was then granted that same day.

“It must have taken about 15 minutes, and this thing, for two months I was without a licence, nobody listening,” says Farrukh. “This is my livelihood, they don’t know what they are doing.”

Like Festus, Farrukh fears he’ll have problems next time his licence is up for renewal and that following the delays to granting his application this time round, he’s had no apology or explanation from the council.

He says it’s not uncommon for drivers to have similar issues, which he hears about regularly on a WhatsApp group he’s on with other cabbies. 

“One applied for a Hackney carriage licence, like I did, and the licence he received was one to serve alcohol,” he says. “That’s the kind of incompetence that happens in [the licensing] office.”

Farrukh says that not only was he out of work for months, meaning his finances took a hit, but that he paid for a full year’s drivers licence and the one he received was for six months. He’s not been offered a refund.

‘Stealing drivers’ livelihoods away’

Joshua Mannah, 55, says that in December last year complications with getting his licence renewed by the council meant he was unable to work for a week. 

“I tried calling and calling, trying to get it sorted, but there is nobody there to communicate with,” Joshua says. 

The 55-year-old says other drivers have stopped trying and got a licence with South Gloucestershire Council, where he says the process is far smoother.

“[The process] needs to be fixed,” Joshua says. “And it won’t be, if nobody is taking ownership or responsibility for the problem.”

Joshua also told the Cable how during the pandemic he was the victim of a “cruel” sting operation by the police, in which an officer played on his good character to trick him into illegally picking him up without a booking.

Seth Seglah, vice-chair of the IWGB United Private Hire Drivers, said: “With bills to pay and families to support, no one can afford to lose their wages for weeks or sometimes months at a time.

“Lengthy and costly licence renewals are snatching drivers’ livelihoods away from beneath their feet, wrecking their finances and ruining their mental health. We need a more humane, more efficient licence renewal system that prioritises drivers’ needs and rules out waiting times.”