Taxi Driver Online

Allow Aberdeen taxi drivers to charge more, says new report aimed at cutting queues

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/ne ... ng-queues/

Aberdeen taxi drivers should be allowed to charge more on Friday and Saturday nights to encourage them to work “unsociable hours”, the council has been told.

Research undertaken by the Licensed Vehicle Surveys and Assessment (LVSA) group for the local authority has shown a “perceived limited availability” of taxis in the city at key times.

It believes a preference for working day shifts has left many enjoying the city’s late night economy waiting in queues and fighting for limited availability of vehicles.

Now the organisation has put forward a number of measures it believes could incentivise more drivers to undertake late evening and weekend working.

Included in the LVSA’s report, which will go before Aberdeen City Council’s licensing authority next week, is a recommendation to allow higher costs for passengers, based on distance during busier times.

Councillors have been told: “The current taxi fares table, which is used by both taxis and private hire cars, allows for surcharges for late evening and weekend working.

“For some drivers, this is sufficient incentive to operate during these unsocial periods, on the basis that the fares are higher and the hires more frequent.

“However, many other drivers prefer to work the day shift.

“The incentivisation of drivers to work more unsocial hours is a common issue to be addressed in different areas.”

The report’s author adds that measures that would encourage more drivers to work unsocial hours would help to address the perceived limited availability of licensed vehicles on Friday and Saturday nights.

They write: “It is recommended that measures such as a revision of the fares table, with a new higher distance-based tariff during the late night periods on Friday and Saturday nights, is explored.”

North-east MSP Lewis Macdonald said if the incentive worked, he believes many passengers would be happy to pay more for shorter queues.

Mr Macdonald said: “I think customers would be prepared to pay a little bit more if it meant they would be waiting a little bit less, as sometimes there are indeed quite long queues for taxis on Friday and Saturday nights.

“The question is whether or not this would be enough of an incentive to drivers.”

However Tommy Campbell, regional officer for the trade union Unite, said: “I am unaware of any significant complaints from the public about taxi provision in the city, nor am I aware that the city council itself and the licensing committee have any serious concerns.”

Two new taxi ranks could be introduced in Aberdeen

Aberdeen City Council is considering an overhaul of taxi ranks in the city centre in an effort to better meet demand.

The local authority’s licensing committee has been urged to look into establishing new ranks on Upperkirkgate and Guild Street.

At the same time, the pick-up spots on St Andrews Street and Dee Street have been deemed “largely unused” by researchers and recommended for review.

The survey, undertaken between Thursday May 3 and Sunday May 6 this year, found Dee Street welcomed around 1,735 passengers during the recording period, compared to thousands more in busier areas such as Back Wynd and on Union Street, outside the St Nicholas graveyard.

Taxis did not pick up a single passenger in St Andrews Street over the four days.

A report, which will go before the local authority’s licensing committee next Tuesday, said members of the public and taxi drivers were asked where they thought a good place for a new rank would be.

The report said: “The first location thought to be suitable for a new rank is on Upperkirkgate.

“This location is close to retail and business premises, as well as the council offices, and would serve daytime demand from these land uses.

“In the evening, there is likely to be demand from nearby night-time economy venues.

“The second suggested location is Guild Street. This location would serve the bus station and local retail and business premises during the day and night-time economy venues in the evening.”

But how much extra would it take to make drivers change their shifts from day to night?

I suspect more than the council will come up with.

IMO the only way to get drivers to change their working lives is to operate the Uber surge process, i.e. double, treble, quadruple fares.

And no elected councilor is going to vote for that.

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IDFIMH

When we cut our fares it didn't lead to an increase in night time customers and only a slight rise in the daytime trade.
As a result no-one wants to do the night shift leading to a shortage of cars at peak time. It used to be that everyone wanted nights as you made more money due to the higher tariff, now our T2 is less than the councils T1 - and our T1 is only 20p per mile less than our T2 whereas at the old (council) rate night drivers would get 70p per mile more at T2 than T1.

So councillors have considered the report - it's actually part of an HC unmet demand survey - and it could be a goer. But not much new in the newspaper report, so here's a link instead of the full article:

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/ne ... ial-hours/

Of maybe more interest (for anoraks) is the unmet demand survey. The report has also considered the new legislation to cap PH, but has decided that there's no need.

Haven't read the detail, but suspect part of the reason is that there's no government guidance yet on how the new powers will be applied - a cap can be imposed if it's considered there is 'overprovision' of PH cars, but I don't think there's any concrete guidance or precedents on how that will be applied.

Anyway, there seems to be some interesting discussion in the report about how the circuits work and how the PH fleet and taxis interact in that way, so if anyone is particularly anoraky about that kind of thing then maybe worth a read.

Historically I think Aberdeen has been almost wholly HCs, with a smaller number of PH working on the same circuits, so it's not really typical for a big city in UK terms. Think the PH would mainly be those drivers who couldn't get a taxi plate. The HC fleet is part compulsory WAV, and as I recall it there's been move to make the fleet 100% WAV, but that's been stalling for years because of opposition from saloon owners. But that could be another factor encouraging take up of PH plates.

Interesting though that the new late-night weekend tariff is talked about in the report as akin to Uber's surge-pricing. Apparently there's no sign of Uber in Aberdeen yet, although I'm sure they got their booking office licence (equivalent of an operator's licence in England, but taxi circuits need one as well) at around the start of this year

https://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/ ... 8%20V9.pdf

I totally agree with the above, increasing fares won't increase the number of drivers working at night. Maybe the drivers don't want to work nights because the hassle isn't worth it? I'm one of them who's given up working nights, it's not worth the hassle.

2 quid on the flagfall worked in glasgow,it lead to a lot more drivers staying out on friday and saturday nights

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i started out with nothing and ive still got most of it left

Oh but they have,those Councils who have granted Uber a license.

It would here. The majority used to want to work nights due to the higher tariff, now they don't because our firm took 70p a mile off the T2 rate. That plus the hassle you mentioned means it's more attractive to work days.