Taxi Driver Online

Lancashire Evening Post

October 9, 2007

City cabbies want bigger fares hike

Taxi drivers in Preston say they need a bigger pay hike to even take them level with other cabbies in the country.

They have said they need an increase of 16% just to keep them up with the national average.

Keith McNicholas, of the Preston Hackney Carriage Association, said drivers in the city currently charge some of the lowest fares in the country and are the 70th lowest out of 87 local councils in the North.

It comes as cabbies "reluctantly" agreed to accept a 5% hike in tariffs after a request for a 10% increase was knocked back.

Mr McNicholas said: "With another fuel increase coming in and possibly more to come, along with licensing, insurance, maintenance and practically every other taxi-related cost having increased far beyond the rate of inflation, surely no-one can say that our increase is not merited.

"We were disappointed that our proposal of a 10% increase was rejected, particularly as we had actually put in for an increase which would still have left us considerably below the national average figures that councillors had backed in previous years.

"There has not been a fare increase for three years and the previous two increases only brought us up to the national average of taxi fares.

"That means, by the time they came in, we were always comfortably below the national average as there was a time delay between the time of application to the time of the increase being applied."

Preston Council, which sets the tariffs for hackney drivers in the city, said it felt that a 10% hike would be too much for local customers and might put people off visiting the city.

The proposal for a 5% increase was advertised last week and, if there are no objections, the increase will come into force from November 1.

A council spokesman said: "The committee decided to propose a 5% increase, feeling that a 10% jump would be too high for local residents and visitors to the city and it has not ruled out considering a similar increase next year."
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