Taxi Driver Online

Southampton taxi firm forced to hike prices for first time in eight years

A SOUTHAMPTON taxi firm has been forced to hike its prices for the first time in eight years due to increasing fuel costs.

The increase comes amid a warning the country will be at a standstill if the Government doesn't "at least cut tax on fuel".

Fuel prices have been soaring over the past few months due to higher demand globally as China eases its Covid restrictions.

The war in Ukraine has also been blamed for higher petrol bills with a warning from the RAC that the cost of fuel will reach £2 a litre this summer.

But now alongside families, city taxi companies are feeling the squeeze.

Simon May is the CEO of Radio Taxis which is marking 50 years in business.

However, he says that his company, based in Millbrook Road East, has raised prices for the first time in eight years due to the fuel crisis.

Simon said: “We haven’t raised our prices for eight years. However, we had to increase them recently due to the rising costs for drivers.”

He is calling on the government to do more to support the transport industry.

He added: "The Government needs to get their act together and do something now not later.

"The country will be at a standstill if they don’t at least cut tax on fuel. Due to the increase in costs, there’s now a lack of drivers on the road to provide much-needed transport.”

“It’s the taxi drivers that are actually suffering.”

Meanwhile, Joseph Jones, managing director of Door2Door Cars, told the Echo that his fuel cost is up by 25 per cent which has forced drivers to raise prices.

He said: “Because everything has increased in price, drivers have had to raise their rates in order to stay sustainable but that still doesn’t cover all the costs of running a car, things like tax and insurance.

“It’s the taxi drivers that are actually suffering, so we have had to raise our prices up by 20 per cent.”

Joseph says a price cap should be introduced.

He added: “Our appeal is that the fuel prices should be capped like there is on electricity because these companies are still making billions of pounds in profits.”

Pressure is building on the Government to cut fuel duty again after the average cost of filling a typical family car with petrol exceeded £100.

The AA declared “enough is enough” while the RAC said it was “a truly dark day” for drivers.

Figures from data firm Experian show the average price of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts reached a record 182.3p on Wednesday.

That means the average cost of filling a 55-litre family car is £100.27

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IDFIMH

So things have only increased this year, not in the previous eight?

I wonder if Brexit and Covid has led to the endless supply of cheap foreign labour coming to an end.

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IDFIMH

I paid £8.20 (plus tip) this morning from the cruise terminal to the station so the hackneys are certainly on a good rate down there

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I suspect there is a cruise terminal surcharge.

From memory it's a couple of quid to get in there.

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IDFIMH

To be fair, £8.20 is quite cheap for a 5 mile run.

Or was it 0.5 miles?

Who knows?

well look it up on google maps

Ocean terminal to Platform 1 side of Southampton station

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Might be easier if you just told us

And Google can often produce misleading results for stuff like that, particularly for short distances. And, as you'll know, I'm a stickler for detail and accuracy

The minimum wage was £6.50 in 2014 it is now £9.50

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lets put it this way the journey took about 8 minutes including 4 stops at pedestrian crossings or traffic lights

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