Hackney carriage

The origin of the word hackney in connection with horses and carriages is uncertain. The origin is often attributed to the London borough of Hackney, whose name likely originated in Old English meaning 'Haka's Island'. Some favour an alternative etymology stemming from the French word ''—a horse of medium size, easy to ride, and often a hired horse. The earliest hackney coaches were worn and shabby second-hand coaches from the nobility. Between the condition of the vehicles and the overuse of the street horses, it led to the term hackneyed to indicate something which is worn out. Hack is a shortened form of hackney'' and appears by the start of the eighteenth century; the word has also applied to the driver, and to the horse. In modern usage, the term "hackney carriage" remains primarily a term of regulation and not of contemporary speech—whereas "taxi" and "cab" are common parlance. The British carried their practices with them throughout the British Empire and established regulations for public hire transport in many countries. In the 1820s, horses and carriages were imported from England to British Colonial Singapore and, with the passing of the Hackney Carriage Act of 1867, a Hackney Carriage Department was established to regulate public transportation; in 1892 jinrikisha regulation was incorporated into the department. In 1847, Sydney passed a law to regulate hackney carriages in the city and its vicinity. Boston's Hackney Carriage Unit was established in 1854 and still uses the term hackney carriage in their contemporary licensing regulations for taxis, sight-seeing vehicles, horse drawn carriages, and pedicabs within the city. In 1879 British India, the Hackney-Carriage Act was passed to regulate and control hackney carriages. ==History== Horse-drawn era The widespread use of private coaches by the English aristocracy began to be seen in the 1580s; within fifty years hackney coaches were regularly to be seen on the streets of London. The first documented hackney coaches operated in London in the early 1600s. In the 1620s there was a proliferation of coaches for hire in the metropolis, so much so that they were seen as a danger to pedestrians in the narrow streets of the city, and in 1635 an Order in Council was issued limiting the number allowed. Two years later a system for licensing hackney coachmen was established (overseen by the Master of the Horse). "An Ordinance for the Regulation of Hackney-Coachmen in London and the places adjacent" was approved by Parliament in 1654, to remedy what it described as the "many Inconveniences [that] do daily arise by reason of the late increase and great irregularity of Hackney Coaches and Hackney Coachmen in London, Westminster and the places thereabouts". The first hackney-carriage licences date from a 1662 act of Parliament, the London and Westminster Streets Act 1662 (14 Cha. 2. c. 2) establishing the Commissioners of Scotland Yard to regulate them. Licences applied literally to horse-drawn carriages, later modernised as hansom cabs (1834), that operated as vehicles for hire. The 1662 act limited the licences to 400; when it expired in 1679, extra licences were created until the '''''' (5 & 6 Will. & Mar. c. 22) imposed a limit of 700. The limit was increased to 800 in 1715, 1,000 in 1770 and 1,100 in 1802, before being abolished in 1832. The 1694 act established the Hackney Coach Commissioners to oversee the regulation of fares, licences and other matters; in 1831 their work was taken over by the Stamp Office and in 1869 responsibility for licensing was passed on to the Metropolitan Police. In the 18th and 19th centuries, private carriages were commonly sold off for use as hackney carriages, often displaying painted-over traces of the previous owner's coat of arms on the doors. In 1836, the Clarence was introduced to London's streets: a type of small four-wheel enclosed carriage drawn by one or two horses. These became known as 'growlers' because of the sound they made on the cobbled streets. Much slower than a hansom cab, they nevertheless had room for up to four passengers (plus one servant) and space on the roof for luggage. As such they remained in use as the standard form of four-wheeled hackney carriage until replaced by motorised taxi cabs in the early 20th century. In the 1857 edition of ''Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory, a table was included of agreed mileage fares which hackney carriages and cabriolets were permitted to charge their passengers for journeys within a radius of ten statute miles of the General Post Office in Dublin city centre. Fares were divided into two fare types; that of Fare 1 - "Not returning with Employer", and Fare 2 - "Returning with Employer, the delay not to exceed 30 minutes"''. A small, usually two-wheeled, one-horse hackney vehicle called a noddy once plied the roads in Ireland and Scotland. The French had a small hackney coach called a fiacre. Motorisation Electric hackney carriages appeared before the introduction of the internal combustion engine to vehicles for hire in 1897. In fact there was even London Electrical Cab Company: the cabs were informally called Berseys after the manager who designed them, Walter Bersey. Another nickname was Hummingbirds from the sound that they made. In August 1897, 25 were introduced, and by 1898, there were 50 more. During the early 20th century, cars generally replaced horse-drawn models. In 1910, the number of motor cabs on London streets outnumbered horse-drawn growlers and hansoms for the first time. At the time of the outbreak of World War I, the ratio was seven to one in favour of motorized cabs. The last horse-drawn hackney carriage ceased service in London in 1947. UK regulations define a hackney carriage as a taxicab allowed to ply the streets looking for passengers to pick up, as opposed to private hire vehicles (sometimes called minicabs), which may pick up only passengers who have previously booked or who visit the taxi operator's office. In 1999, the first of a series of fuel cell powered taxis were tried out in London. The "Millennium Cab" built by ZeTek gained television coverage and great interest when driven in the Sheraton Hotel ballroom in New York by Judd Hirsch, the star of the television series Taxi. ZeTek built three cabs but ceased activities in 2001. Continuing horse-drawn cab services Horse-drawn hackney services continue to operate in parts of the UK, for example in Cockington, Torquay. The town of Windsor, Berkshire, is the last remaining UK town with a continuous lineage of horse-drawn hackney carriages, operated run by Windsor Carriages, the licence having been passed down from driver to driver since the 1830's. The original hackney licence is in place, allowing for passenger travel under the same law that was originally passed in 1662. The city of Bath has an occasional horse-drawn hackney, principally for tourists, but still carrying hackney plates. == Driver qualification ==