Taxi Driver Online

Classic case of the headline below framing an article in a misleading way. The word 'could' presumably refers to the fact it's not yet cut and dried in procedural terms.

So, in effect, it's saying that if the rise is approved they're going up 12 per cent

Then the first paragraph uses not just the word 'hike', but 'hike up', just for emphasis

But at least at that point the claim is qualified by the words 'as much as' 12 per cent

So the reality is that the 12 per cent 'hike' is the one mile T1 run, while other example figures are significantly lower in percentage terms.

Which is simply because only the flagfall is increasing, and the running miles etc aren't changing. So short runs are being 'hiked' a reasonable amount, while in percentage terms the increase decreases the longer the run


North Ayrshire taxi fares could rise by 12 per cent

https://www.ardrossanherald.com/news/25 ... -per-cent/

PLANS to hike up taxi fares by as much as 12 per cent have been approved by councillors.

A recent North Ayrshire Licensing Committee meeting agreed a draft set of revised taxi fare scales which will go out to consultation.

In summary, the draft scales would:

Increase the Tariff 1 flag fall from £3.50 to £4 for the first three-quarters of a mile, with no change to the mileage or waiting-time charges

Increase the Tariff 2 flag fall from £4 to £4.50, again with no change to the mileage or waiting-time charges

Amend Tariff 3 so that the festive tariff should begin at 7pm on Christmas Eve and 7pm on Hogmanay

No changes would be made to the boundary zone, large-vehicle or soiling charges.

Some examples are that in Tariff One (normal) one mile would go up from £4.08 to £4.58, which is an increase of 12.3 per cent.

Two miles would go up from £6.38 to £6.88, which represents a 7.8 per cent increase, while five miles would increase from £13.27 to 13.77, which is a rise of 3.8 per cent.

In Tariff Two (higher) one mile would go up from £4.75 to £5.25, which is up 10.5 per cent and two miles would increase from £7.75 to £8.25. Five miles would go up from £16.75 to £17.25 – an increase of three per cent.

The committee approved the draft scale of fares and instructed the chief executive to give notice of that draft.

They also agreed to continue consideration of the review until a further meeting of the committee at least one month after that public notice has been given.

The consultation will invite further representations which will then be considered at a future meeting, where the committee will look to set the new taxi scales. The full process has to be concluded by May.

In fact, if they wanted to take it to the extremes, a run on the T1 flagfall is going up more than 14 per cent

And the biggest North Ayrshire settlements are just just 16,000 and 33,000 population out of 134,000 total, and the flagfall distance is quite far at three-quarters of a mile, so probably quite a few runs just on the flagfall fare

(I always assume there are more short trips in smaller towns etc, but who knows?)