This page is dedicated to keeping track of all LPHCA Congestion Charge campaign news. Each post is dated with when it was released and new posts will be added to this page as soon as updates are available.
16/1/2019 – LPHCA launch new PHVs Congestion Charge Campaign to spread awareness
Following the announcement from Transport for London that from 8th April 2019 Private Hire Vehicles (PHVs) will no longer be exempt from paying the Congestion Charge when driving in central London, the LPHCA has stepped up our campaign to raise awareness that PHVs should not be Congestion Charged.
Private Hire Vehicles being Congestion Charged will result in draconian fare increases to what is currently an affordable mode of door-to-door transport. Please share this with your customers and corporate clients to let them know that fares will be considerably increased if this is implemented.
Initially our campaign was focused on London, where our petition against the implementation of Congestion Charging PHVs had over 10,000 signatures in the first 6 months, but we have since devolved our petition and campaign from London-based, to PHVs nationally.
How can you help:
- If you're on Twitter, please like and retweet our 'PHVs should not be Congestion Charged' campaign tweet - click here to view
- If you're on LinkedIn, please share our 'PHVs should not be Congestion Charged' campaign post - click here to view
- If you have not already done so, please sign our 'Say no to Private Hire Vehicles being Congestion Charged' petition - click here to sign
- Please share these links with as many people as possible and encourage them to help spread the word and raise awareness
- Please consider sharing our campaign image on your own social media channels to help us connect with new people - to obtain our GIF/video contact us by clicking here.
11/1/2019 – LPHCA Emergency Meeting: headline topic 'PHVs to be Congestion Charged'
The LPHCA has convened an emergency meeting for operators and industry suppliers on Wednesday 6th February 2019 at the National Union of Teachers (Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9BD). Doors open at 9:30am where complimentary teas and coffee will be provided, the meeting will begin at 11am and finish approximately 1pm.
The headline topic of the meeting will be the proposed Congestion Charging for PHVs, but we will also be covering the latest on the Operator Fees and English Llanguage Tests campaigns. We will also cover the proposal to penalty charge taxis and PHVs nationally for entering low emission zones that all local authorities are being encouraged to set up from April. This follows the announcement by the DfT legislating for a database of taxi and PHV operators last week.
This is a free meeting for private hire operators and industry suppliers who pre-register in advance on a first-come, first-served basis. To register now please click here.
19/12/2018 – Confirmed that private hire industry to be congestion charged in London
It has been announced on 19th December 2018 that the private hire industry will be congestion charged by TfL. This, in our view, is discriminatory and we will do everything we can to challenge this disappointing decision.
The LPHCA formally rejected Transport for London (TfL’s) proposals to start to congestion charge London’s PHVs when we first discovered the plans to remove the exemption. We have also been in touch with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), disabled groups and many others to outline the damage this would cause if it came into effect.
Regrettably, we will need to continue our Congestion Charge Campaign and work with as many key organisations as possible (such as the ones outlined above), whilst making the views of the Association clear: that we do not agree that removing the congestion charge exemption for private hire drivers in London is indeed fair, nor going to reduce congestion.
We will keep LPHCA members informed of our intentions and strategy going forward.
13/11/2018 – Sadiq Khan responds to LPHCA Petition on Congestion Charge
On 9th November 2018 the LPHCA petition on change.org received a response from the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. When setting up a petition on change.org you are required to select a 'Decision Maker', which helps target the people who make decisions on the subject you are petitioning about.
When our petition had just under 10,000 signatures, the LPHCA office received a response from Sadiq Khan as our 'Decision Maker'. The response comes from the Mayor of London's account but is signed off 'Public Liaison Unit' so we are unsure whether this has come from the Mayor himself, or one of his team.
Whilst the LPHCA and petitioners are grateful to Mayor Khan for the courtesy of a response, regrettably for the Mayor and those in his team who have put forward this idea, the proposal remains flawed. The LPHCA calls upon the Mayor to drop this self-defeating policy that his own colleagues in the London Assembly, as well as his political opponents, overwhelmingly voted against.
The facts remain that this proposal is full of feeble presumptions that just do not stack up, as it will not reduce pollution or congestion, it will simply increase costs for users of London’s greenest form of door-to-door transport. Meanwhile we continue to urge everyone who either uses private hire vehicles, or works in our industry, to sign the petition.
Sadiq Khan's response to the LPHCA Congestion Charge Petition
Dear Petitioner,
Thank you for the petition submitted on the change.org website about proposed changes to the Congestion Charge.
There is an urgent need to tackle increasing congestion and toxic air in central London. Congestion causes delays to vital bus services, pushes air pollution to critical levels and makes too many places unpleasant for walking and cycling. Appropriate interventions are required to address these issues.
In recent years, the impact of the Congestion Charge on congestion has lessened due to the increasing number of vehicles exempt from paying. Only half of the vehicles in the Congestion Charge zone in charging hours now pay the full charge.
Private Hire Vehicles (PHVs) play an important role in London’s transport system, providing an alternative when walking, cycling and public transport are not an option. However, there are many more PHVs in the Congestion Charge zone than was expected in 2003 when the exemption was introduced. At that time, Transport for London (TfL) estimated around 4,000 PHVs would be in the zone during charging hours whereas now around 18,000 PHVs are seen in the zone each day. This is a considerable increase that needs to be addressed.
The proposed changes to the Congestion Charge have taken into account the role PHVs play in accessible transport and designated wheelchair accessible PHVs will not be required to pay the charge. Additionally, PHVs that meet the proposed Cleaner Vehicle Discount requirement would continue to be exempt.
In developing these proposals, TfL has considered the potential impacts – both positive and negative – on private hire drivers and operators, as well as passengers. The research report on the impact on the industry, as well as the Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA), formed part of the consultation materials and are published in full on the consultation website.
These studies indicated that the impact of these proposals on PHV passengers, operators and drivers would depend on a number of factors. These include the type of business model of the operator and whether the cost is passed onto the passenger, in whole or in part. The impacts are not likely to fall on any single group and they will each decide how they choose to deal with the charge.
It is important to remember that passengers, operators and drivers, as well as the wider population, would benefit from positive impacts from reduced traffic and better air quality.
As mentioned above, TfL has formally consulted on the proposed changes to the Congestion Charge. The consultation closed on Friday 28 September, and the issues raised are now being reviewed. The Mayor will consider all the points raised and will then decide whether to confirm the proposals as described, or to make changes to them. The Mayor will publicly announce his final decision, and TfL will also publish their Consultation Report in due course.
8/10/2018 – LPHCA rejects Congestion Charging London PHVs
The LPHCA has formally rejected TfL’s proposals to start to congestion charge London’s PHVs. Our response to TfL's Consultation has been published in full below. As well as sending in a strongly worded response to the proposal, LPHCA Chairman Steve Wright has outlined to the Greater London Assembly Transport Committee on Tuesday 9th October the many reasons why London’s PHVs should not be congestion charged.
The LPHCA has also been in touch with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), disabled groups and many others to show the damage this would cause. The LPHCA consultation submission follows and the association reminds everyone to continue to promote and get signatures for the petition it started against the proposals.
We are still running a Congestion Charge petition, which has over 6,500 signatures. This is continuing to increase and we still want people to sign it; for those who have not done so please click HERE and sign it now.
LPHCA Response to the Proposed Removal of London PHV’s Congestion Charge Exemption
The proposal that London private hire vehicles (PHVs) should have the congestion charge exemption removed but London Taxis would remain exempt and not required to pay anything is not fit for purpose.
Proposals and statements from TfL say they believe that it is necessary to make two changes to the discounts and exemptions available for the Congestion Charge. It is alleged that ‘these changes are designed to reduce traffic and congestion, which is expected to have a consequential beneficial impact on air quality and, in the case of updating the ‘green discount’, incentivise the use of low emission vehicles in the zone’. We completely disagree with the exemption removal and set out some of the reasoning below.
TfL say that in recent years, they have seen a substantial increase in the number of PHVs in London and that more than 18,000 different PHVs now operate in the Congestion Charge zone each day during charging hours. The LPHCA however believes that more PHVs means less private car movements. TfL state they are proposing PHV Congestion Charging to help tackle the congestion challenge facing London. The above assertions and assumptions are misleading as there is little credible research or evidence to support them. On the contrary, evidence we have had sight of, finds major flaws in the proposals, which seem to be based on many assumptions and a great deal of speculation, rather than hard facts, evidence or proof.
The LPHCA and others are very concerned with the potential removal of the PHV exemption, which we feel would be a measure that will harm many individuals and businesses, increase costs and will not, in our considered view, meet any of the very few positive outcomes alluded to.
As the principal body that secured the exemption in the first place, alongside Trade Unions, the Private Hire Board and the Chauffeur & Executive Association, the LPHCA outlined why the exemption was needed at the time, to the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. We also spoke to his Transport Advisor Mark Watts (who heavily influenced the first ever Mayor’s Transport Strategy) and the then Chair of the Greater London Assembly (GLA) Transport Committee John Biggs. We also attended meetings with the team that assessed who should be exempted from the Congestion Charge and set out the reasoning as to why licensed PHVs must be exempted.
Removing the Congestion Charging exemption would be extremely damaging to the London PHV Industry and would add extreme costs. Such costs would initially need to be paid by registered keepers, drivers, vehicle hirers, replacement vehicle providers, in some cases by operators or in other cases combinations of all of these. The bottom line is ultimately that the extra cost would need to be passed onto consumers. The administration and management of PHVs losing Congestion Charge Exemption in isolation would be very costly and time consuming.
PHVs are the main ‘door-to-door’ element of the transport system that reduces car ownership and the number of vehicles in crowded towns and cities, therefore the concept of congestion charging a primary mode of essential transport is completely flawed. PHVs are also the most affordable and available mode of ‘door-to-door’ transport in London and are widely used by disabled people, the elderly and the most vulnerable in society.
Whilst new technology has seen an increase in the number of PHVs in Central London, technological innovation has been used to more dynamically allocate vehicles, which has massively reduced dead mileage and as a consequence reduced emissions too.
London’s PHVs are far more environmentally friendly, being on average three years younger than London Taxis and, unlike taxis, PHVs do not drive around the capital’s road network seeking work. As PHVs are currently considerably cheaper than taxis, the difference between the price of a London taxi and a London PHV will close dramatically if the London PHV Exemption is removed. Some journeys could increase by around 300% if they were subject to the congestion charge, with fares varying widely from company to company, based on where their primary operating area is.
Whilst it is being proposed that wheelchair accessible PHVs would retain their Congestion Charge exemption, the vast majority of disabled passengers are not wheelchair bound and Sir Bert Massie of the Royal Association for Disability Rights (RADAR) stated to the government’s Transport Select Committee circa 1994 that many disabled passengers prefer ordinary PHVs to purpose-built wheelchair accessible vehicles.
London Taxis, under these proposals, would not pay any Congestion Charge, so there is significant evidence to support the assertion that the PHV sector is being unfairly discriminated against in several ways. Firstly, these proposals would create a market distortion that we believe could and would be challenged under competition laws and state aid regulations. Secondly, because of the diversity of PHV drivers being predominantly ethnic and from lower socio-economic groups, there would be serious equality and discrimination issues. Thirdly, the impact on many elderly, vulnerable, disabled* and ‘less mobile’ passengers could be considerable, not only in cost but also availability if PHV drivers did view the congestion charge zone as a ‘no-go’ area due to cost.
* except for purpose-built wheelchair accessible PHVs
The regulatory Impact Assessment by Mott MacDonald (which can be viewed HERE) shows few potential benefits, alongside a host of potential negative impacts on PHV operators, drivers, vehicle owners and consumers.
There is little or no hard evidence to support anything other than ‘a very minor at best’ reduction in congestion. As industry experts the LPHCA cannot foresee any reductions in congestion and a comparable modal switch would simply mean using the far more polluting (on average) London licensed taxis. People often use PHVs because they do not have a car, they need to make a ‘door-to-door’ journey or because they are unable to use public transport for a variety of good reasons.
As PHVs reduce congestion and are far more environmentally friendly than the vast majority of London taxis, we can only conclude that this measure would discriminate in favour of London taxis and that TfL would be using regulation to raise money and/or change market share by stealth.
There are a number of very questionable assumptions throughout the impact assessments. For example, Cambridge Economic Policy Associates (CEPA) have suggested that those operators who are able to specialise their fleet will be able to minimise the costs associated with the removal of the exemption. We do not believe this is possible.
It is assumed by CEPA that only larger operators with over 500 PHVs will be able to do this. The larger operators we have spoken to say it isn’t possible and we agree because PHV drivers rarely have predictable or the same journey patterns.
CEPA analysis also assumes that‘the cost of the charge will be spread between PHV passengers (across multiple passenger trips), PHV drivers and PHV operators. This poor assumption implies that passengers who don’t go into the congestion charge should subsidise those who do, which we consider extremely unethical.
Prior to, and during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, TfL and the Olympic Delivery Authority engaged with the PHV industry to understand how the industry works and how best PHV operators could prevent problems and provide solutions to help deliver trouble-free transport for the Games.
This engagement gave those in the respective organisations the ability to put forward proposals that contributed to delivering the best Olympic transport provision ever in the 2012 Games. The LPHCA and PHV operators went to dozens of meetings and gave many constructive ideas that were taken up.
By contrast, the industry found out about the proposals to remove the congestion charge in the media. The engagement with the trade on this matter by comparison was miniscule and came mainly in the form of eleventh-hour work by Mott MacDonald and Cambridge Economic Policy Associates (CEPA). The PHV industry and its wealth of expertise has simply not been engaged with properly.
It is therefore not surprising that the congestion charge exemption removal proposal is not fit for purpose. There are many ways to improve congestion in London and to improve air quality, which the PHV industry has done year-on-year since it has been licensed. Not engaging with us in the considered way that took place prior to the Olympics, shows serious flaws in the policymaking hierarchy who are pushing for this proposal to happen. It is no surprise that London Assembly members have recently supported a motion, that got cross-party backing, not to remove the PHV Congestion Charge exemption by a massive majority.
The PHV industry in London is an exemplary example of a regulated industry that has risen to the challenges of becoming greener and more environmentally friendly. At our 2018 Road Show on 27th September 2018, we had on display the very latest electric, hybrid and fuel cell vehicles. We also had representatives of TfL’s ULEZ team present, as well as Source London who are a London-wide electric vehicle charge point network and both were key-note speakers.
The LPHCA demonstrates with actions and words its commitment to environmental improvements, but the Congestion Charge removal proposal flies in the face of the clean and green PHV industry’s ambition for these aims.
If the industry is subjected to the additional costs that it would need to meet by removing its congestion charge exemption, its move to even more environmentally friendly vehicles will be seriously inhibited, so the proposal is self-defeating.
We hope that this consultation response is listened to, otherwise London’s PHV industry will have no choice but to challenge these proposals should they move forward. As a trade body we have already had dialogue with the Competition and Marketing Authority (CMA) on the competition aspects and we are also in communication with disabled groups and their key representatives to make them aware of the cost and supply implications.
We sincerely hope that we are listened to and these potential extremely damaging proposals are dropped, so we can engage on how we can actually reduce congestion and improve the air quality in London, which we believe will be compromised if these flawed proposals progress any further.
Steve Wright MBE - Chairman LPHCA
6/6/2018 – TfL announce proposal to Congestion Charge London's PHVs
As the LPHCA has been predicting since 2016, TfL is now proposing removing the exemption from congestion charging for private hire vehicles (PHVs) that the association secured with former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone.
If London’s private hire vehicles are congestion charged some fares will treble, most fares would need to increase between 10% and 20% and minicabs could become as expensive as black cabs.
TfL are proposing removing the exemption to the Congestion Charge for private hire vehicles. The LPHCA totally rejects claims that this will reduce traffic and congestion and help to improve air quality.
The LPHCA has immediately set up an online petition (link below) because congestion charging is intended to reduce congestion, not to make it more expensive to get to work or home safely. There are many things that TfL can do to improve congestion in London but congestion charging PHVs is not one of them, it will simply be a tax on those who need to use PHVs the most.
PHV’s are used by the elderly, disabled people and many other groups, such as non-car owners, as the cheapest form of bookable door-to-door transport. TfL are not proposing that London taxis should be congestion charged, which may have serious equality and competition issues.
The travelling public, hospitals, sports facilities, businesses, places of entertainment and Local Authorities are dependent on London’s PHVs as a primary form of affordable transport. This appears to be a stealth tax that will ultimately fall on the NHS, Local Authorities, the elderly and the most vulnerable groups in London.
The LPHCA believes it is a very poor decision to consider congestion charging a mode of transport that helps to reduce congestion, especially as London’s licensed PHVs are probably the cleanest and greenest big fleets in the capital.
The association has launched the biggest campaign it has ever undertaken, starting with the online petition. We want as many people as possible to sign the petition at www.change.org/p/sadiq-khan-say-no-to-london-s-private-hire-vehicles-being-congestion-charged to make Mayor of London Sadiq Khan think long and hard about making this a reality and would urge the millions of Londoners and many businesses that will be affected and ultimately pay the cost to sign the petition.
