Midleton District Court in Cork ruled on Monday that a hotel courtesy car operating without a SPSV licence was doing so unlawfully. Courtesy cars with eight passenger seats or less must be licensed as an SPSV and driven by SPSV Drivers. (Vehicles with nine or more passenger seats do not fall under any SPSV regulation.)
Judge Colm Roberts said that NTA had made its case that the courtesy car service did fall under the legislation as set out. “I do believe the service is one requiring a public service licence,” he said.
The hotel was operating a private vehicle to carry people for reward while the driver did not hold a licence to drive a small public service vehicle. This was contrary to Sec 22(4) of the Taxi Regulation Acts and therefore an offence.
SPSV licences are available for courtesy cars and should be in place before any operation of services. NTA took the case as part of its ongoing unlicenced SPSV services operations under the Taxi Regulation Act 2013. This is NTA’s second courtesy car success in the last year, with a further 15 unlicenced SPSV services prosecuted which were unrelated to the hospitality industry.