Taxi Driver Online

I'm a private hire driver in Edinburgh. Since the beginning of the year we are charged £1 to pick up passengers from the pre booked Taxi area. The Hacks have to pay, both to rank and to pick up pre booked passengers.
Do other airports in the UK also charge? This charge is not allowed to be passed on to the passenger according to the Cab Office!

I would dispute this with the Cab Office, being private hire the licensing authority have no powers over the fare table you use unless you have a meter installed

ive gotta laugh

a ph picking up from the pre booked taxi area

im almost blushing

thats how bad things are in edinburgh
when a ph states thats he picks up from a major transport hub in a major city,from the pre booked taxi area.
the worst thing is he aint bullchitting, its a fact, baa the council all allow this.the worlds gone mad.

any way why complain! think youreself lucky mate, most ph would kill to operate with impunity and apparently legally from such a lucrative position.

dont believe anything the cab inspector says.
on the other side of the fence, the hack side, we can charge 60pence to the costumer(it costs us a pound to get in), the tarrif is being reviewed and will prob go up to a pound to cover the costs.
dont know the legislation surrounding ph so cant help you thier,but its prob in youre conditions book or somit, so even if they (council) are acting illegaly,you would prob have to take them to court for 40 pence, before they admitted it.
but does it matter, it's that or picking up bob from the pub in niddrie going to the pub in portobello.

As a PH you can charge what you dam well like.

As for the airports, I suspect they make more money out of the car parks than they do out of airplanes.

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IDFIMH

not in edinburgh they can't ! anything up to taxi rates if fitted with a meter

So if I licensed a stretch thing, I could only charge the councils taxi rate?

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IDFIMH

I think this has been discussed before and it seems Edinburgh are alone in thinking they can set PH fares. They seem to read the 1982 act like no other council, or outside lawyer.

The little bit in the OFT legal framework agrees with the rest of us.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/7875 ... nnexeA.pdf

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IDFIMH

This was discussed a few weeks ago. The position is basically that the relevant section of the legislation only gives a powere to set taxi fares.
But another section makes it an offence for a taxi to charge more than the set fares, and for a PH to charge more than the set fares if they are fitted with a taximeter.

So there seems to be a bit of an anomaly in the legislation, but looking at the offence on its own then certainly Edinburgh are within their rights.

The way round it would be obviously not to fit a meter, which I assume is not compulsory in Edinburgh because that would put them in the wrong.

Dont know if this is a scottish thing or not but up here our public hire taxis (hacks) must be fitted with a taxi meter calibrated to council rates. A private hire vechile can run without a meter but where a meter is fitted must run at the set council rate same as the hacks. I would say where i operate a good 90% of ph have a meter fitted to the car.

I repeat again, under the Civic Government Act 1982, the licensing authority have no powers over the fare table you use if you are private hire unless you have a meter installed

I can only assume they have made it one of their conditions which I am sure can be challenged in Court

It might be an idea to copy this link http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2515&highlight= & give the Cab Office a copy

Here in the countrys premier trade, we claim £2 back from the customer, from the £3 + feeder park entry fee.

As its B.A I guess they can charge what they like within reason, but if you cop a Brighton or a Gatwick then its worth it.

A 'Staines' on the other hand brings tears to your eyes.