Taxi for green cabs in Nottingham
Nottingham City Council is driving changes to the city’s fleet of taxis as it continues on a journey of improvement.
Next week it will unveil eco-friendly hackney cab vehicles, and a new app, as part of an ongoing programme of changes.
The most noticeable change will be a new black-and-white livery that will replace the existing green cabs.
More significantly, the council will be placing orders for a small number of Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (ULEV) models and investing in supporting charging infrastructure.
It has the ambition of all of the city’s cabs, which currently total 411, to be either ULEV models or meet Euro VI, a European Union directive that sets standards for emissions from light commercial vehicles.
The changes will contribute to achieving air quality standards and support any potential Clean Air Zone, the council said.
Cllr Toby Neal from Nottingham City Council said: “For too long, taxis have been the poor relation in Nottingham’s integrated transport network.
“This is a really exciting transformation of taxi services in our city.
“It means we will no longer have cabs churning out exhaust fumes while sitting in the rank, so it benefits everyone in the city, not just taxi passengers.”
The new app has been developed by MyTaxi, which has 18,000 drivers signed up in London alone. Nottingham becomes the first UK city to follow London in launching the service that allows passengers to book a hackney from their smart phone, use cashless payment and have their journey and driver logged.
