Taxi Driver Online

Cardiff Council propose 6.25% taxi fare increase


THE cost of getting into a cab is set to rise.

Cardiff Council has put plans out to consultation that will see fares rise from £2 for the first 319 yards of a trip to £2 for the first 146 yards.

The same will be charged for the second 146 yards.

After that it will change from 20p per 226 yards to 20p per 215 yards.

The authority said passengers will be paying a 6.25% increase overall.

Licensing committee chairman Ed Bridges said: “The council has previously refused a number of applications for fare increases.

“However, in view of rising prices, and the fact that the fare has not been increased since September 2006, the Public Protection Committee determined that it was reasonable to increase fares at this time.

“Although the original application by the trade was for an increase of over 12%, the committee was pleased that drivers agreed a compromise increase of 6.25%.”

Cardiff Hackney Association secretary, Shiva Kumar, who works at Cardiff Cabs, said: “At this moment we think it’s enough. In the last two years we have not been treated fairly.

“Last year fuel costs for drivers were going up every day. Drivers wanted a 20% increase.”

In August, 71 drivers demanded that hike because a planned 6% rise did not meet rising petrol costs.

Mr Kumar added: “I’m happy about getting something at last. It’s better than nothing.”

Gareth Owen, a director at Dragon Taxis claimed the fare change would mean the cost of a passenger’s average 2.6 mile journey would rise from £5.80 to £6.20.

He said: “I’m not an advocate of putting up fares for the sake of it.

“I understand the pressure drivers have been under with fuel but we are on the tail end of it as it is coming down now.

“Most people want yearly [pay] increases to keep up with inflation.”

He added: “This is all we asked for and I hope this goes through without objection.”

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Although a 6.25% isn't going to win them many friends, especially when the economy is on it's knees, the fact that they haven't have an increase for over two years does somewhat justify it.

But why wait so long?

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IDFIMH

Basically because the drivers are disorganised.



That guy is well out of order, Dragon have over 400 drivers on their books @£85 a time and continue to take extra drivers on regardless of how much or little of work that is available so he is never going to be short of a few bob .

It is also a pity that he did not castigate other rivals who are operating at a much higher tariff this being in the region of 11% more than the hackney drivers even if our rise goes through, he also forgot to mention that his company charge a fare and one third for six seats, where as the hackneys only charge £1 per person - the sheer neck of the person, talk about kettle/pot/black.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Tell me about it.

I drive for Dragon and the amount of drivers they take on is unbelievable !!!

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HOW MUCH !!!!!!

Taxi fares have gone up for the sake of it


IN response to the article about taxi fare increases in which Gareth Owen (director of Dragon Taxis) states that he is not “an advocate of putting up fares for the sake of it”.

This company saw fit for their private hire vehicles to raise fares by some 7% three and a half months ago.

A rival company, Premier Cars, decided that a fare increase of almost a 13% was warranted from around the same date.

I term this, cynically, “overcharging”. Hackney carriages are not allowed to charge this rate as they are governed by the council’s policy, unlike the private hires.

Given that the licensing authority has no say in what private hire companies can charge, why should a director of such a private hire company have any valid comment to make on the issue of hackney carriage rates, particularly in light of the fact that the customers of their companies have unknowingly been paying such an increase for the past 14 weeks anyway?

R Lindsay (disgruntled farepayer)St Mellons, Cardiff

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

The irony of all this is that Dragon also have a number of Hacks on there books. And untill the HC fare increase just before Christmas you had two cars working for the same company charging different rates.

So in some instances, when you had multiple car pick-ups, say 1 of them cars turning up happened to be a HC and the others all PH. The HC passengers paid less than the PH ones

Very confusing for the customers !!

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HOW MUCH !!!!!!

The real irony of all of this is - the customers all seem to think that the Hacks are the dearest, when in actual fact two of the biggest Private Hire/Hackney companies are by a mile.

How the licensing can allow different meter prices in the same City is beyond me. This is going to cause drivers in the future grief because someone is going to get into a vehicle and claim that it cost xx to come in and now you want to charge me xxxx and it will be a case of have a bit of that drive

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Just the same in London, Addison Lee charge way more for a 5 seater than I do.