Taxi Driver Online

Taxi fares to rise by 10 per cent in bid to settle drivers' pay dispute

TAXI fares will rise by 10 per cent from April in a bid to resolve a row over drivers’ earnings. Private hire operators in Bolton had a meeting this week following a walkout by drivers just days before Christmas demanding more money — claiming in some cases they were earning less than the minimum wage. The association represents 18 out of the 25 private hire companies in Bolton.

Asif Vali, chairman of the Private Hire Operators’ Association, said: “We told drivers that we would hold a meeting on January 15 after the walkout just before Christmas. We had already agreed to look at an increase at our quarterly meeting in October and had planned to hold a meeting in January. “Operators have agreed to increase fares by at least 10 per cent. All our members charge different fares and this is a minimum percentage increase on that.

“Drivers were asking for a rise of more than 50 per cent, but customers would not accept that. “The increase in fares will go to the drivers and is above the rate of inflation.”

An hour-long walkout took place in December, as a number of drivers staged a peaceful protest in a bid to force an increase in fares. Drivers were calling for a 50p extra for every mile of a journey. A Christmas strike was averted as operators agreed to consider the pay demands.

An increase of 50p per mile would have meant a five-mile taxi ride would increase in cost from £7.50 to £10, if a private hire company charged £2.30 for the first mile and £1.30 for every mile thereafter. Under the new pricing structure the journey would cost £8.50. Mr Vali said a 10 per cent price rise would give drivers a substantial pay increase.

A spokesman for the drivers said members are pushing for an extra 10p on the mile on top of the 10 per cent rise — and they were unhappy that the radio rental charge was also going up by five per cent. Mr Vali said: “Potentially drivers could earn more than £5,000 as an example, depending on the hours they work.”

He added: “Customers will see fares go up and taxi operators have a public duty. Customers would not have accepted the initial increase being demanded, business would be affected. A customer who uses a taxi to and from work could find themselves paying an extra £10 a week. We think 10 per cent increase is fair, but we will keep a dialogue going with the drivers, who we know are not happy. We have met with the drivers and listened to them and given them increase which is more than many other workers are getting.”

Yasir Amir, Chairman of the Private Hire Drivers’ Association said: “We had a meeting the with operators this week. I have yet still to speak to my members, but I do have concerns. I am happy there is a rise being put forward but we would like an extra 10p on the mile. “But we have also been told that there will be a five per cent increase in radio rental charge, which we are not happy with. What is the point of giving us 10 per cent and then taking back five per cent. “The feedback I am getting from drivers is that they are not happy. They would not mind an increase of up to £2.60, but five per cent is too much.”

Mr Vali said an increase in admin charges was up to the individual operator, but would not rise by more than a nominal fee, with some thinking about £5 extra, saying it would not be more than £240 per annum against the pay rise. He explained: “Advertising is a big expense and we expect customers to shop around so more will have to be spent on publicity and associated costs.”

The price increase is expected to come into force in April.

_________________
IDFIMH

whilst I can understand the drivers frustrations this sounds to me a little like market fixing and that could mean even bigger trouble

it sounds to me as if the rates up there are better than in many areas so they need to tread carefully if customers think they are not getting a good deal they might vote with their feet or start using the facebook brigade

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

Is this legal ? Surely this is price fixing and could be called a cartel ? I know on the Wirral quite a few years ago (before satellite cars etc) a few of the firms got together and decided to charge an extra 50p on Bank holidays. After informing the council and giving the required notice of a fare change they were told is was illegal and was indeed, price fixing.

Did cross my mind, but it appears they start off at differing rates, so the price isn't being fixed, just the % increase.

And as the extra fares are helping drivers to meet minimum national wage rates, I'm not convinced the authorities would intervene, nor a court support such an intervention.

_________________
IDFIMH

Legally I suspect it's a slam dunk - any collusion of any sort on pricing probably illegal.

And intention behind any agreement not relevant - even if drivers being paid a wage, which of course they aren't.

But even if authorities did intervene it would probably administer little more than a slapped wrist.

But if the Arabs put up fuel prices does it not follow petrol stations, as one, put up theirs prices to take that into acccount.

Surely in this case it’s the cost of labour increasing.

_________________
IDFIMH

Indeed, but it's the element of collusion that's the problem - basically if businesses get together to distort the market in any way then it's an illegal cartel.

The official government page says:



Pretty sure what the firms in Bolton are doing would fall foul of the highlighted part.

And it's not just collusion on pricing that's covered - if, for example, each firm drew up a list of school contracts that each would go for and agree not to compete for them, then that would amount to a cartel, even though pricing was never mentioned. See the bid-rigging section on this page:

https://www.gov.uk/cartels-price-fixing ... e-activity

As regards the 'Arabs' and the price of oil, of course OPEC is another interesting one - I don't think they actually fix prices - what they do is agree to limit production, and that indirectly pushes up prices. So it's a cartel, although it doesn't fix prices, but there's no world wide regulator that can put a stop to these things. Of course, OPEC can't fix prices because it doesn't cover all suppliers, and pricing is decided on worldwide crude oil markets, so they can only use their size and power to reduce production and therefore influence price that way, rather than actually fix prices.

A rough parallel with the cab trade could be if two firms in a town decide to limit the number of cars they take on - this could allow them to keep prices to customers high, so although no price fixing they've distorted the market to keep prices high.

As for petrol stations charging the same prices, that's OK as long as they don't actually agree to charge the same. Because there tends to be few outlets and prices are easy to compare then they tend to charge the same. For example, I think Tesco and Morrisons charge the same (35P and 21p) for the value line sweetcorn and garden peas that I buy.

If you had two cab offices next door to each other and with their prices to the airport in the window then they'd probably charge the same - if one put their prices up then they'd get zero runs basically, because people would simply go next door if they were saving a tenner, say.

So basically I think it's when there's collusion and that distorts the market in any way then that's illegal.

Bolton taxi firm backs drivers in dispute

A TAXI company has revealed why its drivers will not be taking part in Monday's strike, stating that their demands should be met. The drivers at PAL Cars in Bradshawgate will not be taking part in the 24-hour walkout, which was announced by the Private Hire Drivers' Association on Wednesday. The decision was made after negotiations with the operators for an increase in fares broke down.

Azhar Mahmood, business development manager at PAL Cars, said: "I think we should be paying the drivers the extra money full stop. "About 20p extra for the drivers is neither here nor there. "We are trying to help the drivers and by helping out drivers, we help our customers."

Mr Mahmood recently wrote and published a book called the Pal Cars 500 Constitution Rules Book. Its aim was to help drivers to provide the best customer service. He said: "At the end of the day, we have got to be here for our customers. We do a lot of school runs, there will be people going to the doctors and we will be doing all of those on Monday. We are not going to be striking."

Bolton operators offered a 10 per cent rise in fares earlier this month, saying customers would not accept a larger increase. But in a statement, a spokesman for the drivers said: ""On January 15, the operators called the BPHA to the meeting to inform us that they will not increase the fare to £2.80 but to £2.50. Not only that, they also informed us that they have decided to increase the rent on drivers by five per cent.

"They are using this opportunity to make even more money out of their drivers, which we think is quite shameful."

Asif Vali, chairman of the Private Hire Operators’ Association, said: "We as operators have a duty to ensure we run a safe service for the public and we will run as normal. "There will be a lot of drivers who will be working and some drivers will choose to stay off work and that is their decision."

_________________
IDFIMH

wrong analogy petrol stations work on very tight margins often only about 3 or 4 pence a litre so a penny rise in their input costs means a big dent in margins they simply cannot afford that loss unless they are very high turnover and some petrol stations do shift 5 million plus litres of fuel a year

here if fares change that effects the drivers income but not necessarily the owners and the margins in our trade are much wider as each vehicle is generating the salary of 1 or 2 persons so a very different business model

now if each individual driver could choose their fare structure rather than the company owners then it would probably be seen as not market fixing if they one by one upped their fares over a period of weeks but in reality that would not happen as people would pick and choose the drivers who were on the lower rates

The only way round it would be for the government to calculate a MINIMUM fare level to ensure that all drivers could make minimum wage and then it would be up to companies to choose to adopt that or a higher fare structure then they could all charge the same

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