Taxi Driver Online

Guildford taxi drivers launch petition to fight council plans to slash fares

A petition objecting to the plans was signed by 214 people unhappy about the proposals but the council has said falling fuel costs are a factor

Taxi drivers across Guildford , worried about their livelihoods, are fighting Guildford Borough Council’ s proposal to decrease their fares.

Some Hackney carriage drivers in the borough say they are concerned the local authority’s plans for 2017/18 and a petition against the taxi tariff decrease has been signed by more than 200 people.

A consultation on a variation to taxi fares in the borough ran until Tuesday November 1.

Taxi driver and Burpham resident Steve Brown said the current rate is £2.04 per mile after the first mile during the day and £3.07 at night-time after the first mile.

He said the council proposes to drop the day rate to £1.72 and the night rate to £2.58.

He told Get Surrey : “We haven’t had a tariff increase since 2013. They used to use the London fares as a bit of a benchmark, to set our tariff, which was fine.

“That was a proven method for years. The methodology in fixing the tariff seems to change with every new person who seems to come in to work for the council.

“People won’t be able to pay their mortgages and rents. There are people who are genuinely concerned, it will cause an awful lot of hardship.”

Mr Brown said the council asked every driver to supply their overheads and running costs of their vehicle to the council but said only five drivers responded out of a possible 200.

“They want this information to work out a tariff on an average of everyone’s overheads," he said. “It doesn’t work like that. As far as my running costs go, it’s between my accountant and HMRC.

“The other boroughs within in the county all run on a very similar tariff but Guildford want ours to be less than the other areas.”

Mark Rostron, secretary of the Guildford Hackney Association, said: “The drivers are very worried about it. The rate per mile reduction is going to put people out of business.

“These people have families and mouths to feed. They [the council] are using data from the AA which is the costs for private vehicle use, which is not appropriate for taxis.”

Taxi drivers have voiced their concerns about the plans

One Guildford Hackney carriage driver, who did not want to be named, added: “A petition has been set up by a couple of other drivers and it is petitioning the licensing committee at Guildford Borough Council to actually rethink reducing the fares.

“We have got 214 signatures. It shows that all the drivers are singing from the same hymn sheet. It does affect every single one of us.”

The petition has since been handed in to the council.

A spokesman for the borough council said: “In 2013, after considerable consultation with the licensed taxi trade, the executive approved a methodology of calculating taxi fares.

“This takes the running costs of a vehicle, with data from the AA, along with other costs such as licence fees, fuel, station permits, together with an average salary for Guildford and allows this costs to be recovered over the number of annual miles taxis do with a fare paying passenger on board.

“We have recently made a couple of minor amendments to the costs inputted into this calculator, so that drivers can cover the costs associated with the new policy, including livery and BTEC. Whilst the costs change annually, such as fuel, the method of calculating the fares based upon costs and mileage hasn’t changed."

Fuel price fall

The spokesman added: “In April/May we consulted with all licensed drivers about their running costs so we could ensure the calculator allowed them to adequately recover their costs, and asked if they had any suggestions about what they would like to happen with the fares during this current review. Out of all 260+ consultations sent, we received only five responses.

“On the basis of this consultation, we ran the calculator using the most up to date data which indicated that fares should be reduced. This is in part due to the decrease in the price of fuel.

“Currently fares are set at £6.90 for two miles, which was agreed at a time when diesel was over £1.40 a litre. On the basis of current data, fares are proposed as £6.24 over two miles.”

The council spokesman said if any objections to the variation to the taxi fares are received, they will be considered by Graham Ellwood, lead councillor for licensing and community safety, after November 1.

source: http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey- ... n-12104796

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

There is no mention in the Councils statement of the additional cost of insuring a TAXI,this is can be 10x or more above the insurance data the AA use.

I wonder if the council will lower the council tax bill on account of the savings made in fuel?

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

Is this the thickest council in the country?

You get the vehicle running costs from the AA. You just need to adjust for insurance and licensing fees.

You get the average wage for your area via the Office of National Statistics.

Should take no more than 10 minutes to sort.

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IDFIMH

Our council does no such thing they wait till drivers write and ask for an increase in the default rate they certainly don't go to the trouble of calculating what the drivers should be charging and also have a policy of creating oversupply to ensure KEEN competition between taxis

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Guildford taxi drivers block council plans to slash fares with High Court injunction

Guildford Borough Council has been ordered by the High Court to put on hold plans for a 16% reduction in taxi fares

Guildford taxi drivers have obtained an emergency High Court injunction to stop Guildford Borough Council (GBC) reducing fares .

A fare decrease of 16% was due to come into force on Wednesday (November 16) but Mark Rostron, secretary of the Guildford Hackney Association , successfully applied to the High Court for an injunction ordering the council to suspend the coming fare change until a full judicial review could be carried out.

Mr Rostron said: “GBC has been trying for a long time to reduce taxi driver fares and then suddenly it came to a head last Thursday when they sent an email saying the lead councillor Graham Ellwood was imposing a 16% decrease in the rate for taxi fares."

Mr Rostron added: “The drivers were not happy about that so we got together over the weekend and had a meeting on Monday and decided to raise some funds to finance an application for an emergency injunction to the High Court to stop the council from doing this.

“So we instructed some barristers and even though the time was short we got the application in and the judge has found in our favour.”

Guildford Borough Council wants to reduce taxi fares in the borough

Mr Rostron said he is hoping a full judicial review could take place before Christmas and confirmed that taxi fares will remain at their current rates until the decision is made.

He added: “I am confident the council has made serious mistakes in their calculations of the fares. A lot of them are the same mistakes they made in 2015 when we had to get a barrister to write a letter to them.

“They are the only council I have heard of anywhere in the country that are proposing such a thing, it is completely exceptional.

“They are driving this through against the advice they are receiving from all quarters. They first tried to do this in 2013, then in 2015 and again this year.

"They keep doing this and we keep having to go to court and threatening them with lawyers. It should not be like this. The other councils in the area are not like this.”

Lead councillor for community safety and licensing, Cllr Graham Ellwood with proprietor of Rent-a-Taxi Richard Gough, and the first Guildford taxi to be rebranded with a teal colour.

Taxi drivers can currently charge £2.04 per mile after the first mile during the day and £3.07 at night-time after the first mile.

The council wishes to drop the day rate to £1.72 and the night rate to £2.58.

A spokesman for GBC said: “We received an order from the High Court to suspend the reduction in taxi fare charges due to be implemented today (November 16 2016).

“We will comply with the order and suspend implementation of the new fares until the High Court has considered the application for permission for judicial review.

“We are waiting to be served with papers for the application for the judicial review.

“We have followed the correct consultation procedure and adoption method to vary the table of fares and we are currently considering our position.”

source: http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey- ... l-12186937

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

More chance of a second coming of the Lord than that happening.

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IDFIMH

It is in our policy that fares will only be reviewed when the trade ask for a review. I use a formula similar to what Sussex has suggested. The AA running cost figure has an additional feature that allows for the cost of fuel to be adjusted up or down to reflect the current price. I also use an insurance escalator to allow for the difference between private insurance and taxi insurance. Also on the annual mileage I have a breakdown of hired miles and dead miles. Just change the relevant figures each year and the formula will give the rate per mile to earn average wages. I also include the cost of the licenses. As Sussex says, it takes about 10 minutes.

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Grandad,