Taxi Driver Online

These increases look quite dramatic, but no rise for ten years, and, I mean, current flag is £2.20

And looks like it's mainly on the flag, so impact on longer fares decreases with distance, at least in percentage terms

And headline a bit misleading, because it's not cut and dried yet, but looks like the council is rubber-stamping the RMT's proposals.


Black cab taxi fares to rise in Birmingham amid sky-rocketing costs

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/m ... e-24594301

The new fares would see a 2-mile trip with a black cab on a weekday cost a Brummie £7.60, up from £6.20. In comparison, the same trip at London Heathrow would cost a whopping £13.40


Image: Birmingham Mail

Black cab drivers in Birmingham have been given permission to increase fares for the first time in ten years. The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union has asked Birmingham City Council to help drivers as they wrangle with sky-rocketing fuel prices and the cost of living.

A petition signed by over 230 drivers has asked the council to consider how the industry has changed over the past ten years. Fares were last increased in June 2012 and today, drivers say they are feeling the pinch of costly fuel, Clean Air Zone fees, card payment charges and the general cost of living crisis .

Birmingham City Council has given the go-ahead to a revised proposal submitted by the RMT union that sees maximum fares adjusted. The new tariffs are set to undergo a public consultation in August and will likely be introduced within six to eight weeks.

Some headlines from the new tariffs include the initial pick-up charge during standard day rates going up by £1, from £2.20 to £3.20. This initial charge during weekday evenings will also go up 80p, from £2.40 to £3.20.

Currently, the time at which standard weekday rates become the more expensive evening rates is 11pm, but the new proposals will see it reduced to 10pm. Furthermore, initial pick-up charges during the Christmas and New Year season will jump by £1.20, from £3.00 to £4.20.


Image: Birmingham Mail
Tariff 1 (standard day rates) = Mon-Fri, 4am-10pm AND Sat, 7am-10pm. Tariff 2 (weekday night rate) = Sun-Thurs, 10pm-4am AND Sun, 7am-10pm AND all bank holidays, midnight to 10pm. Tariff 2 (weekend night rate) = Fri-Sat, 10pm-7am the next day AND Boxing Day, midnight-midnight AND on Christmas Eve, 7pm-midnight AND on New Year's Eve, 7pm-midnight. Tariff 4 (Christmas & New Year) = Christmas Day, midnight-midnight AND New Year's Day, midnight-7am

Birmingham currently has 1,034 licensed Hackney Carriage drivers and 680 licensed black cabs. Council documents claim this figure is down to not all licensed drivers choosing to drive a Hackney Carriage.

Private Hire and Taxi Monthly (PHTM) publishes a table of Hackney Carriage fares at tariff one over 2 miles, measuring fares across 355 local authorities in England. As of July 2022, Birmingham is number 192 on the list with a fare of £6.20, compared to a whopping £13.40 at London Heathrow.

With the new fares coming into play, this charge in Birmingham would increase to £7.60, hoisting the city up the table to number 28-35. The extra charges on the graph refer to a 20p charge for every person in excess of one, and a 20p charge for each piece of luggage carried outside the passenger compartment.

Cllr Liz Clements, Cabinet Member for Transport , said: “The demand for a tariff review has come from the trade itself, which is suffering the severe impact of the increase of fuel prices. This is another aspect of the cost of living crisis which is having a significant impact on the taxi trade.

“As a council,” she added, “we control the maximum fare charged by Hackney Carriages. It’s a surprise really to think that fares have not changed for a ten-year period, but the issue has now become urgent which is why I’m taking it through with an urgent report.

“The challenge has been to strike a balance between setting a fare that is acceptable and affordable for customers and to drivers because obviously, the drivers need to deal with the increase of fuel but not price themselves out of the market for the travelling public.”

Hackney Carriages also wanted to charge an extra £5 for those carrying domestic pets. However, this was thrown out as it was more likely to impact people with assistance dogs.

Cllr Clements concluded: “We know that for Birmingham the black cab trade is really important and has faced all sorts of challenges during the pandemic. We also know that disabled people, in particular, rely on them to get around the city, so there is an important equality aspect of this report.”

Cllr Majid Mahmood, Cabinet Member for Environment, concurred with Cllr Clements. He said: “We have recently looked at the numbers of licensed drivers and licensed vehicles and they have decreased drastically since the pandemic, so we do need to offer some support to the trade.”

More information on maximum fares is expected to be released before August 4. A 14-day public consultation will follow shortly after.

£5 charge daft, but council obviously doesn't know the law on assistance dogs??

Think there's an error in the caption below the proposed tariff card as well, and the T2 for weekend nights should actually read T3, but I was rapidly losing the will to live trying to make sense of it all

But on weekdays T1 seems to start at 4am, which must be a very unusual time for the day rates to start?

Clearly the rise in fares is justified, but 10 years without a rise?

Don't know if it's the trade or the council to blame, maybe both, but 10 years without a rise is shameful.

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