Taxi drivers ask Barrow Borough for fares to be increasedTAXI drivers are pleading with Barrow Borough Council to raise tariffs, amid fears fierce competition for fares is posing a threat to passenger safety.
Prices for the town’s 181 hackney drivers have been frozen since April 2008, despite surges in fuel costs, insurance premiums and other running expenses.
Drivers claim this means many are earning less than the minimum wage, and some are forced to work up to 20 hours a day just to make ends meet.
Robert Laurie has worked as a hackney driver in Barrow for 17 years, and said some cabbies were getting so desperate for fares they were a risk to themselves and others.
He said fatigue, stress and tensions between hackney and private firm drivers were a potentially explosive mix that could be eased by higher tariffs.
“They’re having to work those hours because the income’s so bad,” Mr Laurie said. “No one’s making any money at all.
“The average, if you’re lucky, is £4 an hour, and tempers are rising.
“It’s every man for himself out there and unless it’s sorted, it will lead to violence.”
Hackney cabbies work mainly from the town’s ranks and are outnumbered almost two-to-one by drivers from private hire-only operators.
While private firms have discretion to set their own tariffs, hackney drivers are completely at the mercy of the town hall.
Mr Laurie, who works 54 hours in an average week, has presented the council with a detailed report into the costs associated with being a hackney driver. He said the tariffs, which start at £2 before midnight and rise to £3 after midnight, have contributed to ever-shrinking profit margins and added competition for precious fares.
“When I first started this job 17 years ago you didn’t even overtake a fellow taxi going down Abbey Road,” he said.
“You followed that car all the way into the rank and pulled in behind him and nobody ever picked up behind anyone else.
“That’s what I’d like to see come back, because it’s just total chaos.”
Fellow hackney driver Ted Clark has 20 years’ experience behind the wheel in Barrow, and said there were simply too many cars serving too few people.
He said the economic downturn meant fewer late-night revellers in the town centre on Friday and Saturday nights, meaning drivers were increasingly reliant on the limited daytime shopping trade.
He said as a result many taxi drivers had to rely on welfare payments to top up their weekly wages.
“It’s like a subsidised job,” he said.
“There’s more taxis in this town than there is in the whole of the rest of the Furness peninsula.”
Barrow Borough Council’s health and safety team leader Owen Broadhead said at this stage, there did not appear to be enough support within the local industry for the council to consider rising tariffs.
“I can confirm that a rise in the tariff for hackney carriages has to be requested by the majority of the trade before it can be taken to the licensing sub committee,” he said.
“We have received a recent petition which is in favour of a rise and as this has only 25 signatures it is some way short of the requirement.”
source:
http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/taxi-driv ... Path=news/
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