Taxi Driver Online

Well this is total misinformation, and not difficult to spot the clanger - article seems to be getting the flagfall and running mile confused

Looks like 30p on the flag, and the running mile is 20p per increment, but the two are confused and conflated.


Gosport taxi drivers able to hike prices after council approval

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/244859 ... -approval/

Gosport’s cab drivers will now be able to charge passengers more for journeys after a decision by the borough council.

Gosport Borough Council’s regulatory board panel approved an increase from 20 pence to 30 pence for a pull away charge for hackney carriages, as suggested by drivers.

Charging for time and a half has changed hours too and will now start from 11.30pm - not midnight - to 6am.

The charge for the first 153 metres travelled has gone up from £3.00 to £3.30, followed by 20p for each subsequent 153 metres or 40 seconds waiting.

On February 5, a licensed Gosport Borough Council taxi owner submitted a request for a change to the hackney carriage taxi tariff.

The application was accompanied by a petition supported by 21 signatures of the 50 Gosport Borough Council hackney carriage owners.

Meeting documents said there has been no tariff increase since September 2022, with the council concerned the hackney carriage tariff is at the right level for Gosport’s “economic viability of the trade” and “affordable” for often “vulnerable” members of the public.

Councillor Kevin Casey (Con, Alverstoke) said at a recent meeting: “The increase is only pence.”

When considering the increase, committee chair Councillor Steven Hammond (Lib Dem, Bridgemary) said: “They [drivers] can decide not to charge a maximum fare, and charging is the discretion of the driver."

The increase was approved by the panel with Forton ward councillor Mervin Bradley (Lib Dem) voting against. Cllr Bradley said he had spoken to “a few drivers” who said it might make business more difficult:

“A rise might tip it over the edge,” he said.

So one councillor saying the rise is only a few pence, while another saying it might tip the trade over the edge?

The only concrete information in the article is that the flag has gone up 30p, so if that's it across the board then it's rightly presented as just a few pence.

On the other hand, there could be a mega-increase on the running mile, but nothing at all in the article to confirm that the running mile has actually changed, so who knows?

I think they should ban councillors from uttering sound bites when they meet to decide on fare rises.

They make themselves look incredibly stupid and unfit to decide on licensing matters.

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IDFIMH