'In Manchester you need more MOTs': Cabbie defends using 'out of town' plates
manchestereveningnews.co.ukQamar Ghaftor has been driving a black cab in Manchester for 25 years. But recently he's noticed a new trend that worries him - more and more taxi drivers are using 'out of town' registration plates. "Look down the road outside the Printworks at night," he says. "For every Manchester plate, you'll see nine Wolverhampton plates." In March it emerged that almost a third of England's private hire taxi drivers are registered in Wolverhampton.
The city has even had to take on 20 new staff to cope with demand. Shah Iftikar is among the cabbies in Greater Manchester to have got registration from the West Midlands borough.
The Uber driver, 46, told the M.E.N he thought the Wolverhampton licensing regime was 'easier' than Manchester's, but insisted there was nothing wrong with the practice. "It's legal, the government passed a law.
We're not doing anything wrong," he said. Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features As of the end of the last financial year there were almost 27,000 private hire taxi drivers with a Wolverhampton plate - around 4,000 from Greater Manchester alone.
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