On 24 September, officers at East Midlands Airport stopped 209 vehicles. 35 vehicles had a defect or a licensing breach. Between them they accounted for 45 faults.
This was not a visit by one council. Nineteen licensing authorities were on site, with the DVSA, the DVLA, HMRC, Leicestershire Police, Uber UK, the airport, and insurance fraud specialists.
What the check found
The safety faults were the kind that fail a vehicle on the road: defective tyres, collision damage described as dangerous, seatbelts that did not work, missing wheel nuts, defective lights, and loose bodywork.
Officers also found illegal ghost plates. Licensing checks picked up problems with vehicle identification, driver badges, and the safety equipment a licensed vehicle is supposed to carry.
Several vehicles were prohibited from working until the defects were put right.
What the figures do not say
The councils have not said how many of those 35 vehicles were the ones prohibited, or how the 45 faults divide between mechanical defects and licensing breaches. What the numbers do show is that some vehicles had more than one fault, and that about one vehicle in six of those stopped had something wrong.
Plates from other towns
Cars licensed in Wrexham, Cardiff, Hull and Milton Keynes were in the same queue. Private hire work can be pre-booked outside the area that issued the licence, so an airport job can be done by a vehicle whose council is a long drive away. The check is one of the few moments those vehicles are looked at side by side.
North East Derbyshire said every vehicle and driver it licenses, and that was inspected that day, was fully compliant. Bolsover said the same. Councillor Jeanne Raspin, the cabinet member whose brief includes licensing, said the Bolsover result reflected well on the district's licence holders and on the council's standards.
For a driver, the useful part is the list itself: tyres, belts, wheel nuts, lights, plates, and badges, found on 35 vehicles before they went back out with passengers.