Taxi Driver Online

I've heard rumours that herefordshire council are about to do away with tarriff 2 charging on nights

Obviously as a night driver thinking about buying my own hc this concerns me. Evidently there's other council just done this and hereford wants to follow suit. anybody know where these other councils are and what has happened to drivers earnings since the introduction of lower fares.

This does concern me because if faresare going to drop then I will have to look at buying a secondhand vehicle rather than a new one. I cannot see profits on tarriff one paying for a new £20,000 hc.

thanks

Kevin

Hi. I guess we're quite lucky over here in Bath. Our T2 just came forward from 10PM to 9PM. Mind you T2 just means the start is 50p more!! Then T3 comes in at Midnight giving us another 50p...


darth

sorry should explain myself a bit more

tarriff 2 starts at 11.00pm and finishes at 8.00am and is 150% of tarriff 1.

so min fare is £3.60 on nights as opposed to £2.40 on days. Most jobs on the night tend to come in at around £9.00 which will drop to £6.00 if we lose tarriff increases.

Kevin

No need to explain. I pretty much new it would be something like that. I know our T2/3 don't amount to much, but at least the council have no plans to take them away.


darth

time and a 1/2 for nights?!! and you wonder why people ring for a PH?

The balance has to be got between what's good for punters and what's good for drivers. It's no good there being a lack of one of them.

I always think people are prepared to pay a premium to get home late at night, but I'm not sure meter and a half is justified.

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IDFIMH

I only know of two p/h cars in hereford. one of the benefits of duel licensing and no knowledge test is that no one wants to drive p/h

Kevin

trouble is you take away the premium and punters will not be a ble to get a taxi late at night. Who wants to drive a taxi at night and put up with the abuse and the drunks for the same money you can get from working with civilized people during the day.

I know most of the drivers on 40% are not going to carry on because they'll barely make national minimum wage, and the owners don't work nights anyway becasue they make the money during the day.

the punters are going to be the big losers in this.

kevin

i'd love fare and a half at nights! (although it seems a bit steep)
we only get fare and a half for xmas and new year

Interesting. However, in a quiet area like mine I always think that the more importante issue is the amount of runs you get and not the size of the fare - and you can generally make more at nights even on the normal fare because you can move around a lot quicker.

And if working late at night demands a premium and fares aren't raised enough to provide this then you will just get more work as a consequense - your own doubts about working nights and what you say later on demonstrates this.

Looking at it rationally, if it's difficult to get a taxi late at night where you are then reducing the fares would just make it worse, but if there's a surplus of taxis then the council might regard the move as legitimate to bring supply and demand more into kilter, especially when a 50% uplift seems on the high side.

But it would be interesting to know exactly what's happening and the arguments that the LA is employing - perhaps it's more a case of reducing the premium rather than dumping it completely?

Dumping it altogether would certainly be radical - are there any LAs in the country that don't have a night time uplift?

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Taxi Driver Online
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I would agree that if there was a surplus of taxis and no work then reducing the fares may encourage people to use taxis.

However there is plenty of work in hereford, that's why we have drivers coming in from worcester to drive and why I come in from monmouth, it's worth the travel for the amount of work.

reducing fares is not going to increase my earnings especially on the weekends. Normally i start on saturdays at 7.00pm and finish at 4.00am and I am lucky if I get the chance to take a coffee break in between jobs - so any cut in fares will lead to a cut in earnings because I can physically not do any more work in the time.

Kevin

Yes, so that begs the question, why is the LA considering it, since it would only have the effect of reducing taxi availability?

Keep us posted!

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Taxi Driver Online
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I didnt know anyone didnt have T2 at night, our T1 is 2.20-1.30 and T2 is 3.30-2.10 (12-5am). Luckily we're the same, busy all night till 4-5am.

We're going on T3 from mid day xmas eve until 5am wed 28th.

councils will onlyget away with the decrease if you let them! fight for your rights!!

enhanced crb checks every two years, full medicals every 5 years, 15 taxi rank places for 200+ cars, cutting taxi fares......

Control freaks at the LA comes to mind

private hires even have tariffs 3, 4 and 5. some of them charge by the "person".