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Drivers want taxi fare hike of ten per cent
COUNCILLORS in Southampton will today decide whether to hike taxi fares by around ten per cent for a typical journey. A taxi trade association is requesting the rises after balloting all Hackney Carriage drivers in the city. Under a new table of fares the cost of getting into a taxi during the day will rise from £2.20 to £2.60, and from £2.95 to £3.50 at night.
A one-mile trip will go up from £3.80 to £4, a three-mile trip – for example from Bitterne Park Triangle to St Mary’s Stadium – will cost £7.20 instead of £6.60, while a five-mile journey, for example from the city centre to the airport, would cost £10.40 rather than £9.20. However, Christmas and New Year fares will be reduced.
The fare rises will apply to the hire Hackney Carriages, those that can be hailed in the street, although many private hire cars follow suit. The Southampton Hackney Association (SHA), which has around 120 members, requested the fare rises citing increased business costs, including insurance, fuel servicing, docks permits and licences.
A majority of the 161 responses from a survey of 480 drivers and proprietors backed a fare increase. SHA chairman Ian Hall said he wanted to give them a direct say after complaints they had not signed up to an earlier fare freeze in January.
He said a fare rise last year was paltry. A proposed rise in 2007 was scrapped amid bad publicity. He admitted: “We know we will get flak from the general public”, but added “we are talking about people’s livelihoods.”
Other trade groups and unions are set to oppose the fare rises saying it is the wrong time in the middle of a recession.
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