usual gripes and moans from the tradeA taxi war has broken out in Inverness with an astonishing row between cabbies and their bosses.
The leading taxi firms in the Highland capital came in for withering criticism from the group that represents drivers’ interests.
The chairman of the Inverness Taxi Alliance said customers were getting a second-rate service as the big cab companies in the city were "profiteering".
The alliance, which represents around 20 per cent of city cabbies, also blamed a recent fare increase on Highland Council granting too many licences to operators.
As the Inverness Courier previously reported, the maximum fare taxis can charge was recently increased from £1.35 to £1.80 per mile, a move backed by the alliance.
However, in a letter published in today’s Courier the chairman of Inverness Taxi Alliance, Andrew MacDonald, said this was because overprovision has led to too many drivers chasing too few customers, affecting earning potential.
And he also hit out at specific firms he says are adding to the problem by signing up more and more private hire drivers – who can’t use taxi ranks but instead rely on calls from operators to send them to customers direct.
"This is an exercise in pure profiteering and revenue gathering by these bodies, with scant regard to the resultant earning potential of the individuals at the sharp end of conveying the public from A to B," he said.
Singling out Inverness Taxis, City Taxis and Sneckie Taxis in particular, he said "there isn’t, and never was" a need for private hire vehicles in the city, and blasts those cars as a "second-rate service" because their drivers aren’t required to undergo the same level of testing as "fully qualified" hackney cab drivers.
He also suggested they are not subject to the same level of police safety checks as other drivers.
"Whilst fully accredited taxi drivers are left sitting on precious rank spaces, these cars are despatched to jobs received by the desk controller," he said. "Inevitably this greatly reduces the earning potential of these professional drivers and creates an unnecessary doubling of the already congested available rank spaces."
His comments met with some sympathy from Crown and City Centre Community Council chairwoman Pat Hayden, who agreed there are too many taxis in the city.
"A knowledge test for Inverness can’t be that difficult and if you don’t pass it then you shouldn’t be allowed to operate here," she said.
"Who wants to be paying the high price you have to pay for a taxi only to have to then spend your journey explaining to the driver how to get to your destination?"
Sneckie Taxis partner Raymond Munro hit out at the suggestion that his firm provides a second-rate service. "What would be the benefit to me of taking on drivers who are not up to the job? That just doesn’t make good business sense," he said.
Inverness Taxis manager Dougie Bolt said: "The main issue at the moment is that things are quiet – it’s still not long after Christmas and times are tough. When things get like this some people will look around for someone to blame and I think that’s all that is happening here."
Mr Bolt said the split among his own drivers is about 70 per cent hackney drivers and 30 per cent private hire drivers.
"Some drivers just don’t want to sit on the ranks or it doesn’t suit them to do so," he said. "But even with the private hires we put them through our own tests to make sure they are up to scratch. It doesn’t make sense not to."
Highland Council licensing committee convenor Councillor Ian Cockburn said they previously didn’t have the power to require private hire drivers to pass a knowledge test, and a decision on whether to introduce this would be taken later this year once guidance has been produced by the Scottish Government.
And he added: "Contrary to the suggestion made by the alliance, applicants for private hire car driver licences are subject to identical police checking as applicants for taxi driver licences and the committee applies the same standards to both when assessing whether an applicant is a fit and proper person to hold a licence."
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