Taxi Driver Online

Well this is interesting, and ironic when I said yesterday that it's a while since one of these taxi fare appeals to the traffic commissioner has been publicised

And interesting from a personal perspective, because we have until Monday to make 'representations' to the council regarding our own fare review in Fife

Which I intend to do, but what I'll be saying will be a bit out of kilter with that the deputy traffic commissioner is saying here


East Ayrshire taxi drivers win fight to raise fares by up to 19 per cent on average

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ayrshire/ ... n-36209074

East Ayrshire taxi operators successfully appealed a decision by the council's licensing panel to block a request for the rise.

Taxi drivers have won their fight for higher fares after the Deputy Traffic Commissioner ruled that East Ayrshire Council was wrong to block an increase earlier this year.

Deputy Traffic Commissioner Hugh J. Olson has upheld an appeal by taxi operator Douglas Browning, allowing new fare rates across East Ayrshire that will see prices rise by around 15 to 19 per cent on average.

The Council’s Licensing Panel had voted in June not to increase fares, despite backing earlier in the year for a rise from £4.00 to £4.50 for the first part of a journey and from 20p to 25p for each additional 130 yards.

Drivers argued the existing fare scale, unchanged since 2022, no longer covered their growing costs.

Mr Browning, representing a group of operators, told the appeal hearing in August that drivers were facing “unprecedented financial pressures” from rising maintenance, insurance, and wage costs. Twenty of East Ayrshire’s 37 licensed taxi operators signed a petition supporting the appeal.

In a detailed ruling issued on 12 September, Mr Olson said the council had placed “too much significance” on public objections and comparisons with other authorities, instead of focusing on whether local drivers were earning a fair return.

He said: “The public interest is better served by ensuring the maintenance of an adequate taxi service by giving the trade a fair return than by depressing fares for social reasons.”

Only 13 public responses were received during the consultation, mostly objecting to higher prices. The commissioner noted that this represented “a tiny proportion of East Ayrshire’s 121,000 residents” and was not a meaningful sample.

Mr Olson also criticised the council for using November 2023—the date of its last review—as the baseline for assessing costs, rather than April 2022, when fares were last actually changed. He found clear evidence that the trade’s operating costs had risen sharply since then, citing increases in inflation (18.5 percent), the National Minimum Wage (up 29 per cent ), and average national pay (up 21 percent).

The new fare scale will increase the typical two-mile journey from £7.60 to £8.75. Late-night surcharges will now apply from 11pm to 6am, and the charge for taxis called but not used will rise from £4.00 to £4.50.

The Deputy Traffic Commissioner also urged both councils and taxi operators to provide more detailed cost data in future consultations, saying decisions should be based on “clear evidence” rather than assumptions or general comparisons.

The decision will be presented to East Ayrshire Council Licensing Panel next week.

This is the deputy commissioner's profile from 2017, he's an advocate (Scottish barrister, basically), and part-time traffic commissioner.

No mention of the taxi stuff here, but it's certainly a very odd arrangement compared to down south, particularly as the commissioners have no other remit as regards the trade, as the description below makes clear:


Hugh Olson – Deputy Traffic Commissioner

March 21, 2017

https://amadvocates.co.uk/2017/deputy-t ... ugh-olson/

Arnot Manderson member Hugh Olson has been appointed as the Deputy Traffic Commissioner for Scotland (part time)

There are eight Traffic Commissioners who have responsibility in their regions for the licensing and regulation of those who operate heavy goods vehicles, buses and coaches, and the registration of local bus services.

Deputy Traffic Commissioners assist the Traffic Commissioners by presiding over public inquiries and handling written cases concerning, for example, vehicle and driver safety. Although Hugh has been appointed to the Scottish Area, he is authorised to act as a deputy traffic commissioner throughout the rest of the UK.

Hugh has a longstanding interest in transport law having been appointed as a standing junior to the Department of Transport in 2005. Since then he has continued to be a standing junior for the UK Government, currently he is a standing junior for the Ministry of Defence. Hugh is ranked by the Legal 500 in public law, as well as in employment, property and construction, and personal injury, medical and professional negligence.

This is the link for anyone who wants to have a butcher's at the deputy transport commissioner's, er, decision

Was about to use the word 'judgment' there, because the material is legalistic in nature, and is laid presented roughly like a court judgment, but strictly speaking it's a 'decision'.

Haven't read it yet, but it's 18 pages, although by the standards of these things there aren't too many words per page, so maybe about 10-12 pages' worth by more normal standards

https://docs.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/r/?f= ... sioner.pdf

I find it interesting that the Traffic Commissioner can put in place his own fare rise, rather than refer the matter back to the council.

I'm not saying I see anything wrong with what he has said, particularly the part about the costs being based at the time of the last increase rather than when the trade was recently applied.

_________________
IDFIMH

'tis interesting indeed, Sussex.

The trouble with a cost-based analysis, though, is that it's based to an extent on the usual false premise of this kind of stuff, namely that fare rises have no other affects other than increasing income. And the underlying assumption in this kind of thing is the usual one, effectively, that back in the rest of the world no business would ever fold because all they need to do is increase prices (and, to take that premise to the extremes, they could raise fares to whatever they wanted without consequence).

Of course, it's not quite as straightforward as that, and I'm sure even the commissioners would agree that you can't just raise fares to any level without consequences.

I mean, I doubt Uber is available in East Ayrshire, but if it was then a significant tariff, er, hike certainly wouldn't be without impact on the HC trade.

Or, on the other side of the ledger, if the premise behind the 30-40% hike in one-mile runs sought here in Fife by our local association is correct, then all it will mean is more drivers in the trade than under a lower tariff structure. To that extent it would be wholly pointless for individual drivers like me, and would benefit only the fleet owners who managed to recruit more drivers