Taxi Driver Online

Fears taxi fare hike on race days may spark 'conflict' in York

https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/194942 ... lict-york/

TAXI fare increases in York are set to be agreed - but one driver warns plans to raise the starting fare to £6 on race days may cause conflict.

City of York Council is planning to increase hackney carriage fares.

The city has a special higher tariff for race days, which covers journeys to and from York Racecourse, which would rise from a £5.80 to a £6 starting fee. It means racegoers would be charged £6 as soon as they step into the taxi, plus the additional fare calculated for the rest of their trip.

But a taxi driver has warned the council that the steep fee could anger passengers on their way to and from the racecourse who are “often fuelled by alcohol” and it may cause them to quarrel with drivers.

They write: “This is a very high starting rate which quite often starts a journey off with conflict.

“Many passengers, local and from other cities, cannot believe such a high starting rate. These conflicts can be even worse coming from the racecourse when passengers are quite often fuelled with alcohol.”

They ask why York has dedicated higher fee on race days when many other cities with large venues do not have pricier tariffs. They suggest it is abolished and replaced with the night time tariff, which is more expensive than the standard fare but not as costly as the race day rate.

“Why do we have a race day tariff?” they say.

“I have looked at other city’s fare charts that have much larger venues [such as] Manchester [and] Leeds, which have huge stadiums and they don’t have a stadium rate on a match day.

“Also if we had tariff 2 on all day it would stop the exodus of taxis racing up to the racecourse early afternoon in the hope of making a quick buck, leaving the city centre ranks undermanned and frustrated loyal regular customers often waiting ages for a cab.”

Councillors will decide whether to make any changes to the proposed fare increases at a meeting on Tuesday, with the new tariffs due to launch on September 1.

The fees have been proposed by the Hackney Carriage Associations and it is the first time they have increased since June 2018.

Rates for all hackney carriage journeys are set to rise. Hackney carriages can use taxi ranks to wait for a fare and be hailed by customers on the street, whereas private hire vehicles cannot use taxi ranks and journeys need to be booked through a licenced operator.

Do 'they' mean that T2 all day should apply just to jobs to the racecourse, or for all jobs on raceday? It's all a bit confusing

But can certainly identify with some of the problems that the raceday tariff no doubt causes, and hiking it from a £5.80 to £6.00 flag definitely won't help matters

We don't have a higher tariff when the British Open golf tournament is in town every five years or so.

Which reminds me, it's a couple of years since I've had anyone ask for a blank receipt, combined of course with zero tip

Guess what, they were here for a televised golf tournament on the European tour. Who'd have expected that

Also, it's one of those articles which gives the impression the flagfall hike to £6 is cut and dried, but then we're told it's an HCA suggestion which has yet to be decided by councillors. Of course, it may be more cut and dried than is often misleadingly portrayed in articles from elsehwere, but who knows?

One of the comments on the website. Clear as mud


Funny that someone else comes along and replies, and just happens to have spoken to the person concerned, and uses the same writing style and a username ALL IN CAPITALS


Ah, so the first post was about Uber, eh? Who'd have expected that.

But does Uber really take bookings and then phones back later to say they're cancelling the booking unless the customer accepts a price surge?

the racecourse is also used for exhibitions, conferences, weddings and all sorts of events would it apply to those as well ?

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Personally I think that's quite shameful.

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IDFIMH

and no doubt a particular group of drivers suggested it to the council

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Why should they be allowed to charge more simply because it's a raceday?.....surely the extra work it generates is reward enough without the need to shaft racegoing punters through increasing prices for their own greedy ends.

Down here many moons ago there use to be an extra hackneys could add for pick ups at the racecourse.

It's no longer on the tariff card but I sort of get it from that end. In other words the extra encouraged the trade to help clear punters after the event. I would imagine this would be more of an issue if the racecourse was out in the sticks.

But charging punters extra from the station is a con, and a con that should be stopped.

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IDFIMH