Stretched to breaking point

Elongated limousines, perennially popular for prom nights plus hen and stag dos, are a much rarer sight than they used to be. John Evans visits one operator to ask why

- John Evans

When did you last see a stretched Hummer H2 or Lincoln Town Car? These and the other gaudy cruise liners of the road are still wafting around, but not in the numbers they once were. Covid played its part, of course, but long before that, in 2012, the noose was tightening.

It was the London Olympics, when the city was heaving with visitors. In the run-up, Transport for London, the Met Police and VOSA, the forerunner of today's DVSA, combined to clamp down on the capital's epidemic of stretched limos. Called Operation Kansas, over three weekends teams stopped and examined 62 limousines and dished out more than 70 penalties and prohibitions, half to drivers of unroadworthy vehicles.

Alex Fiddes, VOSA's director of operations, said: "If a limousine company doesn't have an Operator's Licence and isn't registered for private hire with a local authority, there's a risk that the driver may not hold the correct licence, any insurance could be invalid and the car might not be constructed or maintained. to a safe standard. This series of checks has taken a number of unsafe vehicles off London's roads."

Simon Hunt, director of Wild Stretch Limousines, also called A1 Stretch, remembers the period well.

"The trade went through hell, but it flushed out the rogues," he says.

He can't have been too surprised by the clampdown. In 2009, VOSA was granted powers to impound illegally operated passenger vehicles, and in 2010 it seized and crushed a number of limos. The doomed cars were large ones with more than eight passenger seats. Such vehicles are classed as public service vehicles (PSVS), and a firm running one must have a PSV operator licence.