Taxi Driver Online

Berkshire taxi drivers could get £100 for electric car switch to cut emissions

https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/readi ... h-17653173

But the council has admitted it cannot force the cabbies to make the shift

Taxi drivers could be offered financial incentives if they switch to electric vehicles.

But West Berkshire Council bosses have admitted they "can't do much" to encourage the drivers to make the move.

Subsidiaries and financial incentives are being discussed by councillors as a way of encouraging the shift.

Councillor Tony Linden (Con, Tilehurst Birch Copse) said: “We can’t do much as a small unitary authority.

“Maybe it’s something we could speak to the Local Government Association about. It could be something encouraged on a national basis.”

The idea was being debated at a meeting of the licensing committee on January 27.

Cllr David Marsh (Green, Wash Common) said: “I have spoken in the last few days to a number of drivers and they are very enthusiastic about this. Why wouldn’t they be?

“Would it be possible to offer operators a discounted licence: you get £100 back if you’ve got ULEVs or something on those lines.”

A new fee structure is being designed for taxis applying for licences from the council. Cllr Marsh suggested that as part of the new structure, subsidies could be introduced.

He said: “We are missing an opportunity because if somebody renews a five-year licence next week, that then takes us to 2025, which is halfway to 2030 — when we’ve just published an environment strategy, which intends to get to zero carbon emissions by then.”

But he was told the incentives were a separate issue to the new licence fee structure.

Cllr Graham Bridgman (Con, Burghfield & Mortimer) said: “What we are seeking to get to here is a fee structure which is a cost recovery structure. Cost recovery is very little to do with what the vehicle is; it’s the paperwork exercise of giving operators the licences.

“I understand the imperative of moving to electric vehicles … but that’s a completely different question to the one we are addressing at the moment. We are in danger of bringing two different issues into play.”

How large the incentives would have to be was another issue debated by councillors.

Cllr Adrian Abbs (Lib Dem, Wash Common) said: “If you look at what Sadiq Khan has had to do in London with the amount of subsidies on offer to encourage the uptake, it’s in the tens of thousands.

“We have to have the right size of incentive to get them to move, and that’s in the thousands, not in the tens of pounds. But I would love to ask the question, how do we help you move?”

Taxi drivers will be asked in a separate, upcoming meeting about their views on subsidies to switch to ULEVs and electric vehicles, according to Cllr James Cole (Con, Hungerford & Kintbury).

In Reading, all Hackney carriages must be hybrid or electric by 2028, after the borough council there introduced a policy in October last year.

Can't really see what being a 'small unitary authority' has to do with anything, other than a way to pass the buck?

Anyway, think all this is maybe better done with regard to vehicle licences rather than operators, so to that degree the whole discussion seems to be missing the point a bit

There's a poll somewhere that says a high percentage of Uber punters in Europe would be ok with higher fares if they requested an electric car.

Maybe having an electric tariff, that can only be used by meters in electric cars, is a way to make these cars more viable.

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IDFIMH

Maybe OK for app bookings, but very messy in the rank/flagging scenario, and a recipe for conflict and confusion

Had a slight disagreement with a student last night, who insisted that he'd be charged more for using a 4+ seater vehicle, and wouldn't back down even when I showed him the tariff card.

I suggested that if he had been charged more in the past, then the driver must have been trying it on, but he was insistent

But one small example of why things should be kept as simple and straightforward as possible

Cllr.David Marsh should be asked the question "Do you license vehicles for 5 years?"

Not sure it's much more different to vehicles that have a multi-seater tariff on their meter.

I'm not saying the electric tariff would apply always, unless the customer books, it or specifically chooses it from the rank.

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IDFIMH

So the EV driver is in pole, punter comes along and jumps in, is he willing to pay the premium for an EV or not?

Does the driver just assume the punter will, or does he have to ask the punter? By whom and how will this be enforced?

Or the EV driver is mid-rank or at the back of the queue? Punter jumps in - is the punter jumping in because it's an EV, or they simply can't be bothered going to the front of the rank? And, again, what fare is charged?

And assuming there's a degree of etiquette among the queuing HCs, what's to stop the EV driver from using their EV designation to grab fares mid-rank, and then claiming that's the reason their cab was selected, while maybe the punter just couldn't be bothered walking to the front?

So a recipe for confusion and conflict even with our own rank free-for-all here in Fife, but where there is a degree of rank etiquette a different designation and fare structure for EVs would just break that down.

I mentioned multi-seaters because as a saloon driver (estate, actually) I get quite a lot of fares mid-rank, and among the reason are:

- some punters don't like the bigger vehicles. Period.

- some punters *perceive* that bigger vehicles cost more, whereas here there's no premium for such vehicles (nor for additional passengers)

- some punters just make a beeline for the nearest car

- sundry reasons: your car looks better/shinier, they prefer your car's marque, the driver in front looks too grumpy, or is 'busy' doing something, or they just generally don't like the look of the driver (a related one is that they prefer, er, 'local' drivers, and again this maybe be based on perception, because the driver's, er, look isn't always a reliable indicator of how 'local' they are

But that's an indication of why I think things should be kept as straightforward and simple as possible, as stuff like the above just causes confusion for punters and conflict with and between drivers.

And don't get me started on the credit card thing

(I'd prefer a front-car-first rule here, but that's not going to happen, for various reasons which I won't go into now, but the above might provide some indication.

And it's not as if most drivers are adhering to the protocols and only a few miscreants are grabbing fares mid-rank. NO driver here will refuse a decent fare mid-rank, and they'll only ever punt a local to the front if it's a RTFC, legless drunk, etc.

And this will depend on their position on the rank - if they're last car of a dozen, they're more likely to take a RTFC than if they're second or third, say.

So I just grab any fares mid-rank like all the rest of the drivers. If you didn't then you'd be the only one, and thus costing you money )

As I said this situation is no different from the multi seater tariff. If a multi seater is first on the rank and one punter gets in, that punter pays the normal rate.

But if the EV is 10th on the rank and some tree hugging green wants it, then they pay the enhanced rate.

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IDFIMH

Well for the reasons I stated earlier I disagree, and since no one else seems to have an opinion, we'll just have to agree to disagree. In short, though, I don't think the EV fare premium would be as transparent as multi-seater tariffs, and even that's open to abuse.

But I'd bet my bottom dollar that if any LA did implement such a scheme then they'd be a distinct minority, but we'll no doubt see in the coming few years.

As an aside, as I've said before, we have neither premiums for multi-seater vehicles nor for additional passengers, yet in St Andrews (100+ HCs) I'm guessing that most HCs have more than four seats, which is purely optional - all HC plates can be run with four-seater saloons. So pretty unusual, I'd say.

In fact it's not unusual for there to be 6-8 HCs or so on the rank and I'm the only 4-seater

Changed days, no doubt, but when I worked in Dundee with 600 or so saloon HCs, I don't think there were *any* 4+ cars, apart from a small number of TXs and Metrocabs, but I think they got about a grand a year as some kind of WAV subsidy

And I'm sure there was a bit of a stink at one point when someone wanted to plate a Galaxy as an HC - I don't think the council would even plate 4+ seaters as HCs unless they were WAVs

Anyway, why we have so many 4+ seaters in St Andrews now where it's purely optional and there's no fare premium is probably explained by the student and golf markets. The former going to Edinburgh airport with all their worldly goods, and the latter doing likewise and travelling to other golf courses and transferring between hotels. Particularly awkward are the solid coffin-style golf club thingies, and even with a biggish estate car I think I have to fold down the back seat to accommodate even one of those monsters

(Not that all the larger HCs here are 8-seater Transporters or Tourneos, or whatever - there's fair few Zafiras and similar, so luggage-wise not much better than a big estate car, and totally useless with six passengers )

Anyway, that's why I wouldn't advocate premiums for multi-seaters here in Fife - there's more than enough of them as it is

Just had a quick count on the rank, and it was total ten cars, eight 4+ seaters, so only two 4-seaters.

Not saying that a quick sample like that is representative of the whole HC fleet, but probably not that far off.

As I said, though, neither fare premium for more people/larger vehicles nor WAV requirement here.

So pretty unusual, I would say, or is my thinking a bit behind the curve as regards the move away from 4-seater saloons?

I think it is.

I suspect if our council allowed all HCs to be saloons, then 90% + would be.

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IDFIMH

punters will choose the cheapest car so EV's on a higher tarriff would lose out if they are really serious then perhaps they could charge non EV taxis a pollution surcharge on their licenses so that it would make it less economical to drive a non EV

That said as I always say EV's are NOT the solution LPG is much less polluting and ultimately what we need is hydrogen fuel cell cars or to drop this stupid zero carbon policy

If the world stopped producing CO2 tomorrow we'd probably end up in another ice age the scientists do not have enough knowledge to say that that is the solution. Reducing CO2 is important but it has to be world wide BUT people forget that the sun has far more effect on the planets temperature than green house gases and we are due a period of reduced solar radiation

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

But the EV wouldn't be any dearer unless it was requested.

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IDFIMH

As I said, a recipe for confusion

QED