Avoiding the Congestion Charge.

Eventually you will read about this in the papers and when you do remember you read it here first. It seems some drivers have found themselves a way of beating the congestion charge with very little chance of being caught!

Every Private Hire Driver has to have their vehicle inspected once a year now and an official Transport For London sticker put in the window. The vehicle is then registered on TFL's Database of private hire vehicles and becomes exempt from the congestion charge.

Now, in their wisdom, TFL and the public carriage office decided that you don't need private hire insurance or a private hire license to have your car registered as a private hire vehicle and anybody can get their car stickered and registered.

Of course the touts have already realised this and are now running about with even less chance of being caught and a sticker in the window telling anyone who cares to look that the vehicle is a genuine mini-cab! Nice safety move there from TFL!

Now a few people with four door saloons who were paying £40 a week congestion charge are buying there stickers for £100 and saving themselves thousands a year, with little chance of being caught! If they are ever stopped by the police for anything and then if they are asked why they don't have hire and reward insurance they simply say that they are not a private hire driver yet because they are waiting for their license to come through.

A mini cab driver is ony exempt while he is working but the police don't enforce the congestion charge and how are the people who do going to know what you are doing? There is a chance of being caught but it's minimal.

As soon as TFL catch on they will change the rules so only cab drivers can get stickers. It's just a shame that it's going to take them losing financially to do it and that they haven't done it already to protect the vunerable young women that are getting into illegal cabs every night believing them to be licensed.