Taxi Driver Online

Calderdale taxis are among the cheapest

12 October 2010

Taxi fares in Calderdale are among the lowest in the country and people are well served by vehicles operating from ranks in Halifax, according to a survey.

As a result, councillors have been recommended not to issue any additional hackney carriage licences.

Throughout Calderdale there are 57 taxis, as opposed to private hire cars, and 37 based in Halifax.

Mouchel Ltd spent 80 hours studying the Halifax ranks and found that although overall provision is below the West Yorkshire average, at all times plenty of vehicles were available for hire and no one had to wait longer than three minutes.

"Taking all observed supply and demand into account, we conclude that at the time of our survey there was no significant unmet demand within the Halifax zone of the Calderdale licensing area," said the company in a report to Calderdale Council Licensing Committee.

"Daytime ranks are about the right size for the current fleet and provision for the town is excellent."

"Night ranks are good although it would be preferable that abuse by parked vehicles was dealt with, as long as hackney carriage would then use the cleared ranks."

The committee will decide whether to retain its policy of restricting hackney carriages in Halifax when it meets on Monday.

It will also consider allowing all types of taxi to carry advertisements inside and outside the vehicles, as already happens in some towns.

Steve Smithies, of the Hackney Carriage Taxi Owners Association, said his members were divided on the issue.

But of those in favour, no proprietor supported the suggestion from council that the revenue raised should be used either to buy or hire CCTV systems from an approved supplier," he said in a letter to the committee.

The number of private hire vehicles in Calderdale has gone up by about 50 per cent since 1997 to a total of 700 but there has been little growth since 2007.

Source; http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/Ca ... 6576358.jp

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

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A very important true fact in relation to the cost of Hackney Carriage fares, that is always forgotten by the Deregulation in All Licensing Authorities Brigade!!!

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Brummie Cabbie.

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I just can't work out where all the taxi demand has gone.

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IDFIMH

What point are you trying to make?

Is it that fares are cheaper in restricted areas?

_________________
IDFIMH

Usually.

And the biggest evidence of that is Oxford.

And yes I do know their plates have an obscene value.

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Brummie Cabbie.

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I'm not sure there is any proper evidence either way.

_________________
IDFIMH

In 2007 I studied Brian with a Y's League Table of Fares & compared regulated & deregulated area fares.

He was good enough to email the League Tables to me in Microsoft Excel format & that allowed me to sort the table in all sort of different ways including running mile costs.

Believe me there was compelling evidence that fares were cheaper in regulated areas.

Bearing in mind that the law states that adequate numbers of taxis should be licensed to provide a service to prospective passengers, I wonder what the general public that use taxis in deregulated areas would think of the lines of unnecessary taxis standing almost idle in cities & towns throughout the country, if people knew that if those areas were regulated to a sensible degree taxi fares would be cheaper & more people would probably use them.

If Joe Publique knew that the consequences of deregulation was that cab fares would invariably be higher than if numbers were regulated, there would be considerable support for regulation of taxi numbers.

After all, would you vote for paying more for a taxi ride, if you knew that by regulation the number of taxis fares would be cheaper?

No one would!!

But then the public aren't likely to find out are they.

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Brummie Cabbie.

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Name a council and we will do an in-depth study on it's surrounding districts.

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IDFIMH

Liverpool

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Not a good choice as most of the surrounding councils are also restricted.

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IDFIMH

I disagree; it's an excellent choice.

Take Liverpool, its surrounding licensing authorities, whether restricted or not & the licensing authorities immediately, but only immediately, beyong those authorities.

Although arduous, that should be a very good study.

Manchester though, would be a strange example, because as they have adopted controlled deregulation, so their fares have risen.

Oxford again would be a very good example, because there you could not only compare fares in neighbouring authorities, but you could also compare plate vaules to fares & numbers of plates.

Expanding the study, the final statistic could be number of plates per 1000 population, in every LA in the study.

It might be that a level of plates per 1000 population could become evident as the optimum / best level for both travelling public & proprietors using this criteria.

That would give some really good stats.

And before you label me personally as a, 'Regulation of HC Licences' guy, I believe that the way forward is to have Manchester's system of controlled deregulation.

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Brummie Cabbie.

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Of the five councils, including Liverpool, around Liverpool only one is de-limited.

I will list the Sussex councils.

B&H, 2 mile cost=£6.00, 5 mile cost=£12.60
Hastings,2 mile cost=£5.30, 5 mile cost=£9.40
Eastbourne, 2 mile cost=£5.70, 5 mile cost=£10.40
Lewes, 2 mile cost=£5.40, 5 mile cost=£12.60
Mid Sussex, 2 mile cost=£6.20, 5 mile cost=£12.20
Rother, 2 mile=£5.80, 5 mile=£10.40
Arun, 2 mile cost=£6.30, 5 mile cost=£12.60
Adur, 2 mile cost=£6.60, 5 mile cost=£13.20
Worthing, 2 mile cost=£5.60, 5 mile cost=£11.00
Crawley, 2 mile cost=£5.40, 5 mile cost=£11.80
Wealden, don't set fares
Chichester, 2 mile cost =£5.50, 5 mile cost=£11.20
Hosham, 2 mile cost=£5.50, 5 mile cost=£10.90

Only B&H, Hastings and Mid Sussex restrict.
Average, 2 mile=£5.83, 5 mile=£11.40

Rest don't restrict.
Average , 2 mile=£5.75, 5 mile=£11.56

Pick the bones out of that.

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IDFIMH

Does that include the Wirral? If so I take it that Wirral is the one that is de-limited

_________________
Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!