7 PCNs over 2 months Without Being Informed

kash.e4u

Hello Everyone
I have never done taxi driving before but due to loss of job I started driving taxi in Nov 2017. I didn’t have suitable car so I hired one from a car rental company. This rental company has cars on its fleet from other different companies and individuals. So basically I was dealing with two different parties, contractually with car Rental Company but picking and dropping car to another company who was the owner of the car.

I started driving in Nov 2017 and I was dropping people in town area. I asked one of my friends about restrictions as they are quite confusing sometimes. I drove in to a bus lane without even realising I was not meant to be driving there as I was driving private hire not taxi about which I didn’t know the difference in terms of rules relating to restrictions. First time I drove in bus lane on 24 Nov, 2017. Throughout November and December I never received any letter from local council, Rental Company or actual car owner. I being naive kept driving in the same manner in the same lane thinking there was nothing wrong as I was also doing taxi and I hadn’t receive any letter from anyone. When it first happened I consulted with a friend who said I should be ok and then I never received any letter either which led me to believe I was fine. Had I received a letter for the first time or even the second time that would have prevented me from doing it again. Until 12 Jan, 2018 neither council written me any letter nor other two companies I was renting from.
Here are the dates for when car was detected in bus lanes
1. 24/11/2017
2. 30/11/2017
3. 01/12/2017
4. 04/12/2017
5. 13/12/2017
6. 15/12/2017
7. 16/12/2017
From No 1 to No 6 all took place in the same street where as No 7 was in a different location.
On 5th Jan, 2018 I personally visited the owner to return that particular vehicle to get a different one. Owner of this company did not mention to me even that point that. Finally I ended the contract on 12 Jan 2018 and returned the second car. On that day I received a call from them that I had 7 to 8 PCNs. When asked why did you not inform me earlier, I was told they were representing me with the council. When I read the letters of representation I got to know they were writing my local council to transfer the liability to me which was understandable. But not at single of point of my interaction with them they bothered to inform me. They handed all PCNs to me to deal with on 12 Jan 2018.
On Saturday 13 Jan, 2018 I received all 7PCNs from local council in one go. Total amount payable is £210 if paid within 14 days otherwise £420 with 28 days.
I am self employed with a young family who lost the job and had to drive taxi (private hire as it should be) is unable to bear this cost. I understand and I accept my mistake when I drove in restricted street first time but I would not have done it again second time on 30 Nov, 2017 had I received any letter. I don’t understand why did they let it all accumulate over two months and finally bombarded me with this all. It has caused me lot of stress for last 3 days.

I understand not all of it can be avoided but can be minimised. Due to extremely slow process by the council to inform me and negligence by Rental Company for not informing me even though they were receiving all the letters, I have to pay this big amount.
Kindly advise.

waamo

If you go to the top of this board there is a dedicated parking tickets forum. This would be better off asked there after you have read the Newbies faq thread.

waamo

Actually reading properly it looks like these are all council tickets. If so you are better off asking on Pepipoo. Just search for Pepipoo fightback forum using your favourite search engine.

AdrianC

The notifications would have been sent to the registered keeper within 14 days. If the local authority did that bit, then they've done all they need to do. The RK has 28 days to reply to them, including informing the issuer of the identity of the driver. Whether the RK informs the driver directly or not is up to them - there's no legal requirement.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse, especially when it comes to how you operate your business.

littlerock

So did the RK reply to the council when they received the tickets? It is the RKs responsibility to tell the council who was driving, or that it was leased to a car hire /taxi firm or to tell the hire company he leased the car to, that it knows its driver has an o/s motoring fine. Otherwise how does the driver know?

When I had a leased company car, if anyone in the company fleet got a motoring fine of any sort, the leased company passed it on to them smartish and also notified our Fleet Manager aka Chief Accountant. If the driver had left by that time, my company had to pick up the fine under the terms of the lease for their car fleet. So my company chased down their drivers to ensure they paid any fines due on the cars leased to them.

In this case it seems to have been a direct lease between driver and rental firm (presumably driver was advised to hire it from the rental firm by the taxi firm he worked for.) Isn't it usually the case with car rental firms that they send the fine on to the renter, if not debiting on his or her card used to rent the car?

debtdebt

This sorry story just shows that taxi/private hire drivers need proper training.

waamo

debtdebt wrote: »

This sorry story just shows that taxi/private hire drivers need proper training.

TBH it worries me that someone who passed their test in November becomes a private hire driver that same month.

AdrianC

waamo wrote: »

TBH it worries me that someone who passed their test in November becomes a private hire driver that same month.

I think by "I started driving in November", he means that he started taxi driving, not that he passed his test.

You'd like to think that some of this information would be covered during the process of getting the private hire licence, though...

There's certainly a distinction between private hire and hackney on the application form, but the OP makes no mention...
http://www.reading.gov.uk/media/3791/Taxi-or-private-hire-driver-licence-application-form/pdf/Driver_App__guide_Combo_LIC_Nov_16.pdf

waamo

AdrianC wrote: »

I think by "I started driving in November", he means that he started taxi driving, not that he passed hiis test

One would hope so but it’s far from clear.

shaun_from_Africa

kash.e4u wrote: »

I don’t understand why did they let it all accumulate over two months and finally bombarded me with this all. It has caused me lot of stress for last 3 days.

The offences didn't accumulate over two months.
The first was on the 24th November and the last time was the 16th December That's only 22 days.

You say that "restrictions as they are quite confusing sometimes" but it only takes a few seconds using Google to find out exactly how these restrictions apply to different vehicles.

sevenhills

kash.e4u wrote: »

On Saturday 13 Jan, 2018 I received all 7PCNs from local council in one go. Total amount payable is £210 if paid within 14 days otherwise £420 with 28 days.
I am self employed with a young family who lost the job and had to drive taxi (private hire as it should be) is unable to bear this cost.

Its only a weeks work, maybe you can put some over-time in to pay it off.