Taxi drivers 'working extra day to cope
10 April 2010
A taxi driver has said his colleagues are having to work an extra day a week in order to cope with rising fuel costs.
Alfie Jones is self-employed, working for fonaCAB in Belfast – a job he started in 1980.
“The increase in fuel is not doing us much favours,” he said.
“Due to the recession people are not using taxis as much anyway, so it is a double whammy.
“People are not going out as much to bars and restaurants, instead they are doing parties at home. They are feeling the pinch in their own jobs and not using us as much.”
He remembers diesel being 85p a litre two years ago, compared to its current high of £1.22.
“That’s up 45 per cent in less than two years, but our fares are not going up like that. They have only gone up once in three years,” he said.
The only fare increase Mr Jones has witnessed recently is from £1.10 a mile to £1.15p a mile, and for a minimum fare from £2.70 to £3. It is not an extreme increase,” he said.
“I am self-employed and spending an average of £100 a week on fuel – two years ago it would have been £80 a week.
“If you take somebody from Belfast to the airport you get a fare outwards but you have to drive back empty with nobody paying for those miles.
“Our income is down. Taxi drivers are trying to work an extra 10 to 15 hours a week to stay steady.
“You are finding that more and more. Most are doing an extra hour or two a day. Or else you have boys that never did a Saturday now doing every other Saturday to balance the books.
“Voters get hit every time but there is not much they can do about it. It is all over the news that Cameron will cut national insurance contributions because big business has been squealing, but taxi drivers are not in a collective like that.
“Three or four years ago haulage drivers started disrupting roads in protest at fuel duty. I wouldn’t object to that sort of thing again, so long it does not affect jobs.”
Source; http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/Taxi-d ... 6217459.jp
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