Taxi Driver Online

Dragon Taxis evasive on fare hike in Newport and Torfaen

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/ ... t-torfaen/

DRAGON Taxis have announced that they have increased the fares for peak times in Newport and Torfaen – but will not confirm how much the increase is.

The move to increase fares is apparently to encourage more drivers to work for the firm after a number of complaints about there not being enough taxis available.

The Argus contacted the taxi firm to ask how much the fares will be increased by and received a statement from Jack Price, the regional director for Dragon Taxis.

Mr Price said: “Anyone who has booked a taxi in Newport and Torfaen recently will have experienced delays.

“I often hear people say that getting a taxi nowadays is like gold dust.

"The pandemic has resulted in a grave shortage in licensed taxi drivers – some drivers have yet to return, some drivers are driving less and some have left the profession entirely.

“As drivers are self-employed, we must not forget that the fares they take are their income which was also decimated by COVID, this increase will go directly to them.

“It is also important to note that fares have not materially changed for over a decade.

“As a licensed operator, we take our responsibilities to the local community very seriously and we want to ensure that more drivers are available to take journeys.

“We want to be able to get the local residents to places on time, without delays.

“Fares for Dragon journeys during peak times in Newport and Torfaen have therefore been increased – this is to try and boost the number of driver partners available.

“The driver partners perform an important service, and we hope that our community will see this as a necessary step to get things back to normal.”

The Argus contacted Dragon Taxis again to ask how much the increase in fares will be exactly, but Dragon Taxis said that they had nothing else to add to Mr Price’s statement.

Dragon Taxis also refused to confirm when they consider peak times to occur.

There have been reports on social media that the taxi firm have added £2 to every journey during peak times.

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IDFIMH

Who would have thought, giving more money to drivers might actually help more into the trade, and keep those already in it.

There are many many great operators around, but many many who aren't.

To me it seems the ones bellyaching to the press up and down the country need to look at their rates.

It's not a panacea, but it's a long way towards one.

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IDFIMH

The biggest problem has always been the punters who will happily pay £4.00 for a pint of beer but begrudge paying that for the taxi home so nobody dares put the rates up for fear of losing trade

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

The fares here go up on Monday to the level that we have been charging for 2 years now. Some drivers are moaning like mad saying no one will pay them even though, as I say, we have been charging the new rate for 2 years without issue.

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Grandad,

Yes, and that's the same reason pubs won't charge £10 for a pint.

Anyway, obviously it's up to Dragon to charge what they want, but they certainly won't win any prizes in the transparency stakes

A more recent article on Wales Online, but can't see anything new here at all:


Taxi prices increase in Newport due to 'grave shortage' of drivers

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wale ... e-21380697

It comes after many in the area reported struggling to book a taxi in recent weeks


But from comments posted on the previous article (which has been updated), this seems to be the increases that have been emailed to drivers, but haven't been made public. The earlier article has been amended to include this - I had a look to see if there were any comments giving a clue as to the numbers involve in the rises:



So they're certainly pretty comprehensive, and although they've used Uber's surge-pricing style spiel to defend them, obvioulsy they're fixed increases rather than flexible or 'dynamic' like Uber's, which of course can vary in terms of timing and amounts.

There's also this interesting comment below the latest article, which reads like it's well-informed.

But the numbers aren't quanitified, so suspect there's an element of exaggeration. And I somehow suspect it's not from a disinterested member of the public - note the final sentence in particular.

Is that going to make drivers change their current working shifts?

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IDFIMH

Certainly small beer compared to Uber's surge pricing.

But a driver working the ten hours late at weekends who would get £2 a pop more could maybe make an *extra* £100?

And a driver putting in the hours could maybe make an *extra* £150-£200 over the week if they're as busy as Dragon seem to be suggesting?

So good money, and they're presumably doing quite well anyway compared to pre-lockdown.

And it's *extra* money without additional costs. Unlike an Autocab driver getting more jobs via Uber, say, which will entail higher costs.

But maybe the problem is that drivers are making enough money without working nights, say, so to that degree it could make things worse if drivers need to work less hours to meet their target, say. Therefore the reverse of drivers working longer hours when it's quiet if they need to meet a target.

But overall it will presumably at least help things slightly. And of course from the demand side some customers won't bother or will phone another firm.