THE LAW ON "PLYING FOR HIRE."
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A Consideration of Decided Cases which have Served to Clarify the Position.
ALTHOUGH the cases on the question of what amounts to a "plying for hire" are not very numerous, the cases themselves are som4what difficult to understand, and give rise to refinements which are not always readily appreciated.
The latest decision on the point is Greyhound Motors, Ltd., v. Lambert (44.T.L.R.39), the material facts of which were briefly as follows :—The appellants in the case were charged under Sec. 7 of the London Cab and Stage Carriage Act, 1907, of being the owners of a motor-omnibus found plying for hire within the Metropolitan Police District without being licensed to do so.
The appellants were the owners of motor coaches which conveyed passengers between London and Bristol, and carried on business at Bristol with branch offices at Hammersmith and Hounslow within the Metropolitan District. Posters were exhibited at their offices in Hammersmith intimating to passengers that tickets had to be taken by passengers at least 10 minutes before the coach arrived at the booking office. On May 26th, 1927, at 8.30 a.m.—and times are of importance—one Lockyer obtained at the office a ticket, entitling him to travel to Slough. At that time there was no motor coach at the booking office, but later, at
8.54 a.m., a coach drew up and was boarded by Lockyer and another passenger. At 9 a.m. the coach left the office and proceeded to another branch office in Ham, raersmith, where three other passengers were picked up.
On the way to Hounslow the coach stopped at Chiswick and Brentford, but no passengers boarded the coach at these places. Brentford was left at 9.20 a.m., the coach then proceeding to Hounslow, where it picked up, inter alia, two other persons, L. and B., who intended to proceed from Hounslow to Maidenhead. These persons, it should be carefully noted, had taken their tickets at the appellants' Hounslow office before the coach arrived at Hounslow, but 10 minutes after it had started on its journey from Hammersmith. The roach then proceeded from Hounslow at 9,30 to Colnbrook, which it left at 9.55 a.m.
On these facts the question for the Divisional Court was whether there had been a .plying for hire within the Metropolitan District.
For a definition 0 "plying for litre" one cannot do better, perhaps, than refer to the judgment of Lord Trevethin in Sales v. Lake (1922.1 K.B.553 126 L.T.R.
c36 636). In that . case the respondents advertised char-IL-banes excursions to Brighton. Passengers perchased tickets prior to the time of departure at the respondents' offices, arranging where they were to be picked up en route. It was only after the number of passengers had been ascertained that a char-k-bancs was hired, the driver of which proceeded to pick up the various passengers at the different points as arranged. The driver, however, had no authority to, nor in fact did he, pick up any other persons. It was, held that there was no plying for hire.
The Factor of Vehicle Availability.
The judgment of Lord Itevethin, C.J., will be found most instructive. "A carriage," said the learned Lord Chief Justice, cannot accurately be said .to ply for hire unless two conditions are satisfied. (1) There must be a soliciting or waiting to secure passengers by the driver or other person in control without any previous contract with them, and (2) the owner or person in control who is engaged in or authorizes the soliciting or waiting must be in possession of a carriage for which he is soliciting or waiting to obtain passengers. If I may so express myself, he must have -appropriated or be able at the time to appropriate a
carriage to the soliciting or waiting. Unless there be a carriage so appropriated or capable of appropriation it is, in my opinion, a misuse of words to say that it is plying for hire ; the proper phrase would be that a man is soliciting or waiting for persons to make a contract with him, which he proposes to fulfil by providing the necessary carriage. No doubt in popular language a cab is sometimes said to ply for hire when the process of soliciting or waiting is over and the passenger obtained by this process is being driven on his journey. In my opinion that is an inaccurate expression, natural enough, since before the journey began the carriage was plying for hire, and as soon as the journey is over it will in the normal course be plying for hire again. But it is to be observed that even in this loose application of the phrase the idea of soliciting passengers is present—the phrase would not be used unless the speaker thought that the passenger had been obtained in this way and that the process of soliciting or waiting for passengers would In due course be renewed as soon as the journey was over,"
The Pre-booking of Seats.
On two grounds, therefore, it might be said that there was no plying for hire in Sales versus Lake, since not only would it have been impossible for any member
of the public, who had not already booked his seat, lo have obtained a seat on the char-k-hancs while en route, but also the char-it-bancs itself had not been ordered until all the passengers intending to proceed to Brighton had been ascertained, and the solicitation of intending passengers completed.
It is on these grounds also that Sales v. Lake may be distinguished from Greyhound Motors, Ltd. v. Lambert. In the latter ease the omnibus stopped at various points en route, and did, in fact, pick up passengers, who, although they had purchased tickets before the omnibus arrived at that particular stage of the journey, had nevertheless purchased them after the omnibus had started on the initial stages of its journey and had left the points of departure.
Fare Booking after Allocation of the Vehicle.
Furthermore, it could not be said that there were in the latter case antecedent contracts prior, to the appropriation of the omnibus, as there were in Sales v. Lake, for in the hitter case the vehicle was not hired until the number of the intending passengers had been ascertained. In Greyhound Motors, Ltd., v. Lambert the omnibus, if not actually "appropriated," was at any rate "capable of appropriation," to adopt the language of Lord Trevethin, prior to the purchase of the tickets, *he fact that the vehicle was not already standing actcally at the door of the office at the time of the purchase being in the circumstances immaterial.
The nicety of the law on the subject of plying for hire is well illustrated by the above cases, and still further refinements may be introduced in considering whether the vehicle is plying for hire within any particular prevented distance, a recent case on this point being the case of Crack v. Holt (136 L.T.R. 511). It was held in this ease that a vehicle which started from a private yard, picking up its passengers there and proceeding for a point outside the prescribed distance, but neither picking up nor setting down any passengers, except beyond the limit of the prescribed
distance, was nevertheless to be regarded as plying for hire within the prescribed distance. In holding that there had been plying for hire within the prescribed distance, the Court followed Clarke v. Stanford (1871. 6 Q.B. 357. 24 L.T.B. 389), which is really an it fortiori case. There vehicles, by an arrangement made with a railway company, waited in the yard of a railway station, which was private property, for the arrival of passengers alighting oat the station. The drivers of these vehicles were under strict instructions not to solicit the passengers but to wait until they were summoned by a servant of the company or by a passenger. It was held that there was a plying for hire notwithstanding Cockburn. C.J., stating in his judgment that "where a person has a carriage ready for• the conveyance of passengers in a place frequented by the public he is plying for hire, although the place is private property."
Operating from a Private Yard.
These cases therefore clearly decided that there may be plying for hire within the prescribed distance even though the vehicle starts and pickS up its passengers in a private yard, which is itself within the prescribed distance, even though it does not otherwise pick up or drop passengers within that area. And, indeed, the dropping of a passenger within the prescribed area may be regarded by itself as a plying for hire within that area (cf. Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Co. v. Thompson. 1918, 2 K.B. 105).