Taxi Driver Online

Rising fuel costs lead to taxi fares increase in Wrexham


TAXI fares are set to increase by 10 per cent in Wrexham after councillors agreed action needed to be taken over increased fuel costs.
The proposal, which applies to all licensed hackney cabs in the county of Wrexham, was approved by the county council's environmental licensing committee earlier this week.

John O'Keefe, secretary of the Hackney Carriage Association, said the fare rise request had been unavoidable, with cabbies having been forced to absorb a huge rise in fuel costs over the past 12 months before prices started to come down again recently.

He said: "The councillors, after asking me certain questions, agreed to the 10 per cent without any objection. Obviously it's good news considering what we have had to endure over the last 12 months."

Although costs have come down in recent weeks, Mr O'Keefe says the increase was still necessary because taxi drivers had agreed a rise in line with inflation of about 3.5 per cent last year.

The cost of fuel rocketed shortly afterwards, with Mr O'Keefe claiming prices had risen at their highest point by about 38.5 per cent on the previous year.

The Evening Leader recently reported that Wrexham Council had gone over its planned budget in the first six months of the financial year, with the rising cost of fuel, used by refuse trucks, partly to blame.

Mr O'Keefe said this might have had an effect on the decision taken at Monday's meeting.

He said: "I think the councillors realised that the council had overspent on its budget in the environment department and agreed that we needed an increase too.

"I'm glad that fuel has come down and in the future I hope we can keep increases to a minimum."

He said the fare increase could now be introduced towards the end of this year – provided there were no objections as part of local authority public consultation.

"We might lose a bit of trade in the short term, but when customers find out what value they get I think they'll come round," he added.

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