Mystery Shoppers! Toon & Coast

Mystery shoppers were deployed over the Christmas period by both Newcastle & North Tyneside Councils.
I was promised a full rundown of the Mystery Shopper operation by a certain Licensing officer but true to form it has not been forthcoming, so I will write what I can from our Telephone conversation.
The Mystery shoppers, comprised of couples, young people etc. were employed from a company that apparently hires itself out for these kind of things. Anyway the brief was as follows: At the coast they were to approach non-Hackney vehicles, sitting on or near Taxi ranks or places of entertainment and try to solicit a hiring. They approached 50 non-hackney vehicles at the coast and were politely refused a hiring by each and every one. They did not press the point on being refused as this would constitute entrapment.
In Newcastle the brief was apparently similar. I have fewer details of the Newcastle operation but I am informed that several cars fell for it and are in the process of being prosecuted.
Unfortunately this is the extent of any information I have on this apart from the fact that this is something that will be repeated periodically throughout the coming year.
My own thoughts on this, as far as North Tyneside is concerned, is that on the surface it seems there are fewer Flimpers than we thought and all the Private Hire, Berwick etc. are fine upstanding citizens……or…. would it be too strange to think that it was Christmas and all the office cars were very busy anyway, Flimping is something that tends to occur when the office is not busy or am I just being Cynical or Paranoid etc.?
It seems the Toon wasn’t very busy over the festive period and here Flimpers were caught. This kind of re-inforces my thinking on this. Maybe the cars at the coast are busy enough all the time and have no wish to risk their licence by Flimping or maybe the ones that do Flimp headed for the Toon. Like I say I have no details of the cars that were caught up there.
Anyway I think the Mystery shopper thing is a good thing and they are not just aimed at Private Hire, Hackney Carriages are to be targeted also in a bid to catch anyone ‘Cherry Picking’ or refusing fares etc. Again this can only be good for the whole of the Taxi/Private Hire trade, it also shows that sometimes enforcement does get off its arse and do something.

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