Taxi Driver Online

Disabled taxi price premium condemned by charity

Confusion over new rules for disabled taxi passenger fares has led to "discriminatory" price differences, a charity claims. A test in Nottingham saw a wheelchair user quoted up to five times more than an able-bodied caller. Muscular Dystrophy UK said the practice was unacceptable.

For an existing ban on charging more to come into force councils must compile a formal list of accessible taxis but many have not done this. Nirav Shah, who was born with muscular dystrophy, rang four companies in Nottingham and was quoted higher prices by every one. In one case, a journey from his home to the local hospital, a distance of 2.5 miles (4km), an able-bodied caller was quoted £3-4 while Mr Shah was quoted £15.

Mr Shah said he was "disheartened and disappointed". "I've had more bad experiences than good. I've had drivers turn up and refuse to take me, despite the office being told I'm in a wheelchair. "I've had taxis in a rank - massive disabled sticker in the back - just drive past me. The driver just didn't want to get out of his cab," he said.

Nic Bungay from Muscular Dystrophy UK said: "This is unacceptable. For many disabled people who cannot use public transport taxis are not a luxury. It is the only way to get from A to B. "We feel this is discriminatory and it risks leaving disabled people out of pocket."

The Equalities Act was changed in April 2017 to prevent taxi firms from charging disabled people extra, backed by a £1,000 fine. But for the legislation to come into force, local authorities must make a formal list of wheelchair accessible taxis known as a Section 167.

Nottingham City Council said it believed it had compiled such a list but the Department of Transport said it did not meet the criteria. A council spokesman said: "This doesn't alter the fact that we will take action when incidents are reported to us. "We launched a Taxi Strategy last year which includes the introduction of the Driver Improvement Penalty Point Scheme which penalises poor driver behaviour such as this."

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "Disabled people must have the same access to transport services that others take for granted. "It is unacceptable that a minority of taxi and private hire vehicle drivers continue to discriminate against wheelchair users."

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IDFIMH

Odd the the Charity don't condemn the Manufacturers and even insurance companies that also charge more for Wheelchair adaptions.

Article does not make it clear if the quoted fare was for a TAXI or private hire vehicle,this may be another example of knocking the TAXI trade at all costs.

Correct, it doesn't make it clear. However the report and other areas that have also been identified on the local news, Nottingham, Derby and Leicester have 100% WAV policy for hackney so I would bet my shirt on it being Private Hire.
I am a little confused actually. I thought that it was illegal to charge the disabled more for the same journey in the same vehicle but the way it sounds in the reports is that it could be a different type of vehicle doing the sane journey.

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Grandad,

PH can charge as much or as little as they like on a run to run basis provided the price is accepted by the client should they ask for a price before they book with the exception of a metered PH in it's own metered area...then they could charge less than their meter price but not more.

That goes for Able or Disabled alike.

Ironically it's oft the greedy Charity wheeler charging more per vehicle than a PH or a Hack but because they often carry more clients sharing the costs between them at any given time tends to give the false sense of being a cheaper option when the vehicle hired as a whole is no cheaper and more likely much dearer..

This seems to be where there is the problem because under the disability act you can't charge a disabled passenger a different price to an able bodied person.

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Grandad,

Personally I try and ease the price to favour people with a disability or eldery Pensioners...Probably why i'm not coining it in like some other companies do.

Whilst I understand that there is a problem - neither is it right that a driver should be out of pocket. It is easy for the powers that be including the disability groups to castigate the trade , however! it NEVER costs them. Until this is recognised - nothing will change.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

I very much doubt the charity has a clue about vehicle and insurance costs

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

It's very seldom you see the Directors and managers of many charities supplying their services at a flat rate across the board realistic wage, usually their idea of "Charity" begins at home with their first self negotiated wage settlement before they take up their lovely cosy charitable roll, whilst working 2 days a week..