Taxi fares hike proposed
ELTPHA member Johnny Sands, from Haddington, is among the association members insisting a fare increase is 'imperative' to cover increased costs
Councillors will decide in September whether to approve a 15 per cent hike in taxi fares in East Lothian for the next two years.
The East Lothian Taxi and Private Hire Association (ELTPHA) says the increase is "imperative" to cover increased costs such as the rise in the price of petrol and of the minimum wage.
Currently taxi fares in East Lothian are split into three brackets depending on the time of day and of year, the current fare system having come into effect on January 8, 2010.
Tariff one applies from 6am to 6pm daily and sees an initial cost of £2.50 for the initial hire and an additional 20p for every 40 seconds or 196 yards after an initial 793 yards.
Tariff two applies from 6pm to 6am and sees the initial hire charge increased to £3, while tariff three applies between 6pm on December 24 and 6am on December 27, and between 6pm on December 31 and 6am on January 3, and includes an initial cost of £5, with the yardage and time cost thereafter upped to 40p.
Extra payments also apply for more than five passengers (£1 each), pre-booking call-out charges (40p), cancellation fees (£3), and cleaning charges for alcohol-related sickness (£60).
The proposed increase - which would be in effect from October/November of this year until the same time in 2014 - would see tariff two scrapped and tariff one's initial hire fare increased to £3, the initial yardage dropped to 674.05 and the amount of yardage required for each 20p rise also dropped to 145.35 yards. The new yardage totals would also be applied to tariff three.
The £1 each extra payment would apply for more than four passengers, while the alcohol-cleaning charge would increase to £100. The booking and cancellation fees would be scrapped.
At a meeting of East Lothian Council's licensing sub-committee, George Brooks, co-chair of ELTPHA, said it was "imperative to go ahead with this" because taxi companies in East Lothian were "more or less playing catch-up to stay in business".
A statement handed to the committee explained that the price of fuel had risen by roughly 25 per cent since the last fare increase and that the minimum wage had increased by 11 per cent in the last 18 months, while the cost of mechanics and spare parts was also increasing.
Other increasing costs listed were: VAT, phone bills, car tests, car re-tests, car cosmetics, MOTs, road tax, tyres, advertising, book-keeping, car cleaning materials, bank charges, electricity and gas bills, and office and yard rentals.
The committee agreed to pay for the proposal to be advertised to the public, so that comments could be made before the members meet on September 13 to decide whether to approve the fare increase.
source: http://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/ ... -proposed/
