Taxi Driver Online

Call to raise taxi fares made by Perth operator


A Perth man who runs a taxi firm in the city wants fares increased due to rising costs.

Andy Lothian, owner of Ace Taxis, said taxi fares have remained the same for “many years” and stated that despite many of his customers being elderly pensioners, it is time to put the prices up.

He was commenting after Perth and Kinross Council’s licensing committee recently agreed to a freeze in taxi fares until the summer of 2017.

Councillors decided to freeze the fares unless any objections are made, in which case these will be considered at the next meeting of the committee on December 10.

A report drawn up by Geoff Fogg, Perth and Kinross Council’s legal manager, states that the existing scale of taxi fares has been in force since September last year.

Committee members heard that letters were sent to 74 taxi operators, 49 private hire vehicle firms and two other organisations, with only 11 replies received.

Of these, seven wanted a freeze on taxi fares, two wanted them increased and two suggested a change to the tariff times.

One taxi operator actually put forward a suggestion that the normal tariff be imposed on Christmas Eve and Hogmanay.

However, Mr Lothian feels the time is right to increase taxi fares across the board in Perth and Kinross.

“The fares have not been put for several years,” he said.

“It’s not easy as many of our customers are elderly pensioners who are feeling the pinch – an increase would hit them. However, we are taking in less and less. We have increases in inflation, insurance and costs in maintaining the taxis.”

However, two other Perth taxi firms gave their backing to the fare freeze.

Paul Hotchkiss, a partner with Thistle Taxis, said he felt many taxi drivers were happy to “carry on” with the present fares.

“Some drivers feel there could be a small rise but this attracts risks and we know it might scare some passengers away,” he said.

Billy Martin, who runs Perth Radio Taxis, said: “These are difficult times for people so it wouldn’t be right to raise fares.”

source: http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/ ... r-1.908314

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

never understood this at all tbh, car parts go up/bus fares/train fares/food/clothes/gas/electric, yet the taxi fare rarely rises, never been in a industry like this ever tbh , they are going to freeze it till 2017 ?

Tax credits down or removed , so you loose even more

That individual can do that, but only a knob would suggest others follow suit.

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IDFIMH