Cambridge taxi drivers 'would probably be better off at Uber', cabby sayshttps://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/c ... y-22932203A Cambridge taxi driver has said cabbies would "probably be better off working" for Uber rather than being licensed through the council.
The driver said the costs and hoops needing to be jumped through to keep a hackney carriage licence were making it harder to continue.
Speaking at a meeting of Cambridge City Council’s Licensing Committee earlier today (Monday, January 31), he explained that while over 300 drivers were licensed by the city council, “thousands” of drivers were coming into the city through services such as Uber and Bolt.
He said: “Everything you are doing to us is putting onerous costs on us which is making it non-viable to be hackney carriage vehicle drivers.
“I don’t understand why there is not a broader brush, you must have some sway over who operates in Cambridge, you’re Cambridge City Council.”
The city council’s environmental manager explained the council could not stop drivers licensed elsewhere coming into the city due to national laws, but that the city council is lobbying central government to change this.
In response the taxi driver added: “What are the council doing to lobby the government to get around these problems we are having?
“It seems like we are the ones paying and paying, and jumping through higher and higher hoops just to keep a hackney carriage vehicle licence.
“It’s getting to the stage soon where we might as well get a petrol, or diesel car and log it on Uber, or Bolt and run that and we would probably be better off.”
Ahmed Karaahmed, the chairman of Cambridge City Licensed Taxis, also spoke at the meeting calling for the city council not to increase the number of hackney carriage licences it makes available, and to cut the licence fees.
Describing the situation that has been faced by taxi drivers in the city over the last few years, he said: “At the start of the covid outbreak in March 2020 our trade collapsed.
“The taxi trade has been hit hard, with no or very little income for the last three years.
“It has been so bad that many drivers left the trade for good, others were effectively put out of business for over a year.
“Things have now recovered a little bit, but not to the former levels with footfall still very low.”
He added: “There is also a point that a large number of taxis are operating in Cambridge with an electronic hail system.
“The majority of those are not licensed by Cambridge City Council and therefore are not required to comply with the city’s very high standards of health and safety for taxi customers.
“The more expensive and difficult the city council makes it for its own licenced vehicles, the more that taxi drivers will move to [be licensed] with other authorities and conduct their hackney trade through an electronic hail system, but using resident parking to wait instead of taxi ranks.
“These are not regulated by the city and would make the council’s policies self-defeating, resulting in more taxis being hired in Cambridge that the city cannot control at all.”
Councillors told the drivers they agreed with their concerns and said they "are on the side of the city's taxi drivers".
At the meeting councillors agreed to freeze the current licensing fees charged to taxi drivers.
Councillors also said they would write the Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner, to highlight what the taxi drivers had said with regards to the out of area taxis operating in the city.
Councillor Jocelynne Scutt said: “We do actually care about taxis in Cambridge, they are central to the needs of many people, people who don’t have a car, people with disabilities may need your services.
“Taxis are also absolutely essential to the safety of women as well, and are vital to this community.”
Councillor Russ McPherson, said that although the taxi drivers did not walk away from the meeting with anything “tangible”, they did walk away knowing that ‘everyone is on their side’.
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