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Southport's private hire firms opposed to taximeter scheme



All White, Blueline Five-O and Delta all say move is a bad idea

Southport's private hire taxi companies have expressed their concern at plans to introduce taximeters.

In Sefton, there is currently no requirement for any of the 3,000 plus licensed private hire vehicles to be fitted with a taximeter.

However, Sefton Council recently wrote to the owners of private hire firms in Southport and across the borough, to gauge opinion on the introduction of taximeters. The cost of a taximeters varies from £350 to £500. Representatives from the Hackney carriage sector supported the introduction.

Adrian Hughes, from All White Taxis, opposed the idea. In his letter to Sefton he states: All White Taxis operate a fleet of approximately 150 vehicles based in Southport. We book in excess of 1.1 million jobs annually. Like most taxi companies we offer a 24 hour service every day of the year. Most businesses change the price of their products or services on a regular basis on the grounds of competition, supply and demand and business overheads. Having meters stops this due to drawn out and costly process of recalibration. The new fare structure has to be written, sent off and then the installers receive a chip with the new fares on which has to be flashed on to each individual meter , test driven and then it used to be checked by an enforcement officer . The whole process would cost thousands of pounds collectively and take weeks to complete.

"The mandatory installation of taxi meters would be a backward step that would stifle innovation, does not take into account currently available and future technology and ultimately leads to a less enjoyable and less safe experience for the travelling public and visitors to Sefton plus higher costs to the driver.

Chris Carr, from Blueline Five-O, said in his letter: "Whilst I don't wish to teach my granny how to suck eggs, the general public know the difference between Private Hire Cars and Hackney Carriage and putting Meters in Private Hire Cars will only cause confusion. Not least of all because, Hackney Carriage have multiple Tariffs such as Trap 1 and Trap 2 and based on the time of day or whether the hire is going a certain distance outside of the licensed area and in some cases even the amount of passengers in some Boroughs can affect the fare charged.

"Private Hire customers after years of using our services understand that price is generally given via a verbal quotation by the licensed office, unless the customer already knows the fare or the companies printed mileage charts that have previously been produced and supplied to Sefton MBC are used for the completed journeys fare in full view of the customer."

Paul McLaughlin, from Bootle based Delta Taxis, argued : "We are baffled as to how any authority could conclude that a device banned within the nation’s capital should be made compulsory here in Sefton. Have any official complaints been made to Sefton MBC in respect of offences that might have been avoided with the introduction of such taximeters? It would undoubtedly prove problematic introducing a byelaw to legislate for taximeters when the taxi law itself doesn’t require them. It would burden 3000 private hire drivers with a totally unnecessary financial weight whilst at the same time land an already stretched enforcement team with the additional charge of regularly inspecting and confirming compliance of each said device."

The matter is set be discussed at Sefton's licensing and regulatory committee meeting on November 2.

source: http://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/news/ ... d-10358438

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

However, Sefton Council recently wrote to the owners of private hire firms in Southport and across the borough, to gauge opinion on the introduction of taximeters. The cost of a taximeters varies from £350 to £500. Representatives from the Hackney carriage sector supported the introduction.


really I paid less than that for a mirror meter even with a cambus unit they should be under £300

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

There is no legal requirement anywhere to have them.

However I think drivers will earn more money if they have meters.

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IDFIMH

I agree, if everyone sung from the same hymn sheet they'll earn more money and provide a better service.

These owners don't have to be out there on a Friday and a Saturday night trying to scrape together the drivers rents.

Instead of trying to undercut each other work together, the trade would be a much better place.

How would it work ? Would all the operators get together with the council to agree upon the fare rates I suspect that would be illegal or would every operator have there meters set to there individual rates, also are private hires that use meters allowed to charge for time as well as distance ?

I would guess that private hire company's would have the meter set to their own tariff. This would have to be logged with the Council and a table of fares would be displayed in the car. The table of fares would include waiting time. Quite simple really, hack have been doing this for years.

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Grandad,

Re. Waiting time we charge 20p per minute with a 5 minute grace period at the beginning of the journey and the same without the grace period for stops en route.
But that is not what I meant I mean for instance if you were stuck at a railway crossing for 15 minutes would the meter tick up the same as in a Hackney.

The meter will do whatever it is programmed to do. Our are set to go on to waiting time when the speed drops below 5 mph.

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Grandad,

There's pro's and con's to meters in ph our customers are used to knowing exactly what the fare will be but the negative side of not having meters in is there are never enough cars out during the evening rush hours as nobody like sitting in traffic earning nothing. The only way I could see it happening is if the four biggest operators agreed to do it simultaneously which I can't see happening in Doncaster but then again if Uber come to town which is starting to look a possibility as there now in most of the nearest towns (they started in Rotherham yesterday as if the trade there don't have enough problems already) that could put some pressure on the operators to install meters.

So what happens if the customer pops in a shop and is 15 minutes, do you charge them the same fare? If everyone did that the drivers wouldn't earn a penny.

We do charge waiting time at 20p a minute as I have said previously the difference I was referring to is when just working off a fare chart is you get paid just the same whether the job takes you 10 minutes or 30 minutes which is not the case if there is a meter fitted.

So if your stuck in traffic you'll earn no waiting time on top of the fare?

That would indeed be illegal.

But nothing stopping individual operators having a similar price structure tariff on their meters.

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IDFIMH

Correct which is why most of the day drivers have finished by 4 pm and most of the night drivers don't Start till 6 pm

I doubt it is that we have the same problem here with an all hackney fleet except some of my night drivers come in earlier day drivers always want to go home mid afternoon and many firms round here end up with a token car working late pm

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