Taxi Driver Online

Nothing particularly out of the ordinary here, but spot the one or two unusual features

And not huge 'hikes' either, but a bit more of a jump than Glasgow's the other day.

And less of the official spiel about an 'active and vibrant' city, please


Coventry taxi fares set to go up after council approves proposals from union

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/ ... o-34451836

Council is advertising the new tariffs and will make a final decision in September to take account of any objections to the changes

Taxi fares in Coventry are set to go up after the city council approved proposals.

Union officials from Unite, representing the city's taxi trade, have asked for new tariffs to be introduced.

A report to the council explained: "The proposal would retain the existing start fares but reduce the initial distance and time covered by those fares, resulting in fares moving to the next increment sooner."

It says the aim is to protect passengers who hire taxis from the street or a rank, where there is limited opportunity to negotiate the amount they will pay.

It is proposed to reduce the initial distance covered by the starting fare from 0.922 km to 0.76 km, and to reduce the initial waiting time covered from up to 4.5 minutes to up to 3.7 minutes.

The starting fares would remain unchanged at £3.80 for daytime journeys (6am to 10pm), £4.60 for night-time journeys (10pm to 6am) and £4.90 for public holiday journeys. There are then increments of 30p for day and night journeys and 35p for holiday journeys for every additional 0.162km or additional waiting time of 48 seconds.

Holiday fares apply from 6pm Christmas Eve to 6am December 27, from 6pm New Year's Eve to 6am January 2, and on Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, May Day Bank Holiday in early May, Spring Bank Holiday in late May, and August Bank Holiday.

The last time taxi fares went up was in August 2022. Although the council does not have powers to directly regulate private hire fares, it is customary in Coventry for private hire fees to align with those for taxis.

Coventry City Council points out it does not receive any revenue from taxi fares. It believes any changes to fares will not affect the number of drivers, vehicle proprietors and operators who are either already licensed or applying for a licence.

It added: "The proposal supports the One Coventry Plan by helping to maintain safe, accessible and reliable taxi services for residents, visitors and businesses. This contributes to safer communities, improved access to services and a more active and vibrant city.

"The proposed variation is expected to support safe, available and good-value taxi services in Coventry, benefiting partner organisations and others who rely on taxis to support access, transport and community safety."

Mick Coggins, the council's senior licensing and enforcement officer, confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the new fares were approved for a 14-day period of advertising to allow people to make objections.

Any opposition to the increases will be reported back to the Cabinet Member for City Services, Cllr Patricia Hetherton, before a final decision is made. If no objections are received, the revised tariffs will be implemented.

The next meeting of the Cabinet Member for City Services is on September 15.

Gosh, maybe they could have used that highly innovative methodology in Fife, as opposed to now showing fares on the meter like £10.08 on T1 or £9.99 on T2


Unusual to have the increments expressed in kms as opposed to yards and miles.

Can't ever recall seeing the flagfall expressed in terms of time rather than distance either

I suppose it makes sense, but must be quite an unusual scenario whereby that would really be relevant, as opposed to just being a small part of the usual time and distance thing. So the meter would really need to be activated a few minutes before the HC actually moves. Which reverts back to the old thing about when the hire actually commences, but let's not go there. But, for example, I doubt Grandad's authority would be impressed by a scenario where the meter is engaged several minutes before the taxi actually moves


Reminds me of a point I made to the Office of Fair Trading about 150 years ago (at least, it feels like that ) during their investigation into the trade.

And which OFT actually mentioned in their report. But totally ignored the point I made then, and Coventry Council is making now - OFT said there was no link between HC and PH fares

Of course, the link isn't hard and fast. But, I mean, in places like Aberdeen and B&H at opposite ends of the UK (but at a similar place alphabetically ) lots of PHVs are literally fitted with HC meters and charging the official tariffs. Go figure


Which is kind of the obverse of the usual point made about drivers being able to charge less than the official tariff if they want

(And the latter point is also something I can't recall being made back in the day. But I often wonder if the source of that was again the OFT's report, which recommended that councils make it clear that fares can be discounted

I don't really think that ever caught on in any meaningful sense. But it's certainly a point often made these days in official reports about fare consultations etc.)

One of those HC reps saying that they need a fare rise because they're losing customers to Uber and Bolt


Coventry taxi boss defends proposal for 'small' rise in fares and asks for public support

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/ ... l-34527814

The proposed changes will be considered in September with the taxi union chairman arguing that they are minor but necessary

A Coventry taxi boss has defended a proposed rise to fares in the city.

Major Gill said the change will only affect the first chargeable step of the journey and is urging the public to give more support to local drivers, as the iconic and globally-recognised black cab, or hackney carriage, is manufacured in Coventry by the London EV Company (LEVC) at Ansty Park.

Mr Gill told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that a boost in trade for the city's taxi business would enable the fleet to modernise by switching to electric vehicles, as well as covering the additional cost of living increases drivers have had to absorb since the last fare rise four years ago in August 2022.

The changes he has put forward propose to reduce the initial distance covered by the starting fare from 0.922km to 0.76km, and to reduce the initial waiting time covered from up to 4.5 minutes to up to 3.7 minutes. That will mean just a 'very small increase' in how much people end up paying, he confirmed.

The starting fares themselves would remain unchanged at £3.80 for daytime journeys (6am to 10pm), £4.60 for night-time journeys (10pm to 6am) and £4.90 for public holiday journeys. Also not changing are the increments of 30p for day and night journeys and 35p for holiday journeys for every additional 0.162km or additional waiting time of 48 seconds.

Major Gill, chairman of Unite the Union's Coventry Taxi Branch, spoke to the LDRS about the planned increase at his city centre rank in The Burges. He said: "It's just the first drop, after that everything is exactly the same. It works out as a rise of 30p on each fare, whether it's a small or big job, whether the total is £4 or £15 and regardless of whether are are one or five passengers in the taxi.

"The average waiting time for a job on the rank is just over an hour, so if a driver does eight jobs in a day that's only an extra £2.40."

A Coventry taxi driver for 28 years, Mr Gill said the costs of insurance, road tax and diesel had all gone up hugely since the last fare changes, as well as general living costs faced by each driver.

"I had to put something up because everything else is going up," the 69-year-old said. "The local taxi trade is already losing custom to Uber and Bolt."

Any public misunderstanding on how little the costs are actually rising would not do the "struggling Coventry trade" any good, he said, but served only to promote Uber drivers who aren't a local business but come into the city from Wolverhampton, Walsall and Solihull.

"Uber drivers triple their fares at peak times and during bad weather, bank holidays and when there are big events happening in Coventry, but we don't," he said.

He added that it's not just Uber and Bolt that have apps with live tracking and other notifications. Many local cab firms such as Central Taxis Coventry and Lewis Taxis also have their own apps, he pointed out.

Mr Gill acknowledged that not all the local cabbies had been in favour of the increase. He says he is also looking at reducing when the slightly higher holiday fares are charged.

At the moment, black cab holiday fares apply from 6pm Christmas Eve to 6am December 27, from 6pm New Year's Eve to 6am January 2, and on Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, May Day Bank Holiday in early May, Spring Bank Holiday in late May, and August Bank Holiday. This could be cut back to Christmas Day, New Year's Day and Easter Monday, he indicated.

Coventry City Council has advertised the proposed fare changes for the statutory 14-day period during which people can lodge objections. It said in a report: "Although the starting fare would remain the same, passengers would reach the next fare increment sooner. This would result in an increase in the overall fare payable."

At the end of July, the Cabinet Member for City Services, Cllr Patricia Hetherton, agreed that the proposed fare increase by Unite the Union had been considered and would be approved subject to statutory advertisement and consideration of any objections received.

The council's licensing team has told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it has had objections and that the planned changes will go before the next meeting of the Cabinet Member for City Services on September 15 to decide if they will be given the go-ahead.

What a load of old fanny.

I have met a few folks in the trade, and thousands outside of it, and never has anyone ever suggested the council makes money out of our fares.

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IDFIMH