Taxi Driver Online

Why Cornwall taxi fares are among the most expensive in the UK

Truro and Falmouth cab fares are sixth most expensive in UK, two airports and parts of London

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornw ... uk-1358475

Hailing a cab in Truro and Falmouth could cost you more than in Birmingham or Manchester, new figures have revealed.

According to the Private Hire and Taxi Monthly (PHTM) magazine, which compiled the figures, taxi rates in the former Carrick District Council area, which includes Truro, Falmouth, Penryn and St Agnes, are the sixth most expensive in the UK behind Heathrow airport, Luton airport, Watford, Epsom and Ewell and London.

According to the specialist site, a two-mile taxi ride in the former Carrick area or, in effect, a drive up to Royal Cornwall Hospital from Truro city centre, will cost you £7.30 – compared with £7.80 for central London.

Elsewhere in Cornwall, the former Caradon District Council, which corresponds now to the South East Cornwall Parliamentary constituency, was ranked 23rd most expensive area in the country for taxi rides at £6.80 for a two-mile journey.

North Cornwall was ranked 29th most expensive with a two-mile fare costing £6.80 while Kerrier, now largely the Camborne and Redruth constituency area, came in at 32nd with fares of £6.85.

The former Restormel area, covering St Austell and Newquay, came in at 61st out of 366 councils in the UK with fares of £6.45 for two miles.

Penwith, covering the Penzance and St Ives area, was ranked 89th with a two-mile taxi ride setting you back £6.30.

By comparison, a similar journey in Plymouth will set you back £6, putting the Devon town in 144th position on the league table of most expensive taxi fares in the UK. Exeter was however ranked 47th most expensive area in the UK for taxi fares with fares of £6.60 for two miles.

In Torbay - 82nd - the same journey will cost you £6.39.

Gary Clark, owner of Team GC private hire taxi company in Truro, said prices should be brought down to almost half or closer to £2.5 a mile (£5 for two miles) to inject a bit of life into the night-time economy.

He said: "If prices were brought down it would certainly help bring in people into the city. I've been in Truro 12 years and I have seen the decline in the town centre in that time. It used to be bustling but it's so expensive now. Even on Friday nights and Saturday nights it's quiet.

"The problem for people is getting in and getting out. If it costs them a lot of money just to go into town they're not going to do as often as they used to or they'll just stay at home."

Taxi fares in all six former district council areas are set by Cornwall Council, but it said the fees stated were the maximum taxis can charge for the distance covered.

There are about 1,740 licences currently issued to taxi drivers. These are a mixture of private hire driver only, hackney carriage driver only or dual licence for both types. There are also 630 Hackney Carriage Vehicle Licences across the six taxi zones and 545 Private Hire Vehicle Licences.

The local authority’s website says that, as a result of a re-organisation, taxis can only operate in a particular zone. While of course journeys may take you across several zones you will pay the price set in the zone where you began your journey.

The zones within Cornwall reflect the boundaries of the previous district and borough councils within Cornwall.

The authority said: "This will not change unless Cornwall Council decides to amalgamate the zones, which is subject to consultation. We did publicly consult on whether we should, or should not, amalgamate the six taxi zones into one licensing area. The outcome was to retain the six taxi zones."

Cornwall Council said any request for an increase in the table of fares normally comes from the taxi trade based on operating costs. However the local authority said there was a maximum fee that was permitted but this may not be what every taxi company charges as they have discretion to charge less.

A Cornwall Council spokesman said: "The council sets the table of fares for each of the six taxi zones in Cornwall. We publicly consulted on whether the six zones should be amalgamated into one licensing area. The outcome was to retain the taxi zones.

"The table of fares is the maximum that taxi operators can charge. Taxi operators have full discretion to charge less than the table of fares.

"The taxi operators can approach the council to request an increase in the table of fares. Requests are submitted to the council’s miscellaneous licensing committee to consider."

Only read that piece because thought it would answer the headline, but it doesn't really say why fares are so high

Its about time PHTM stopped circulating this league table to newspapers it does the trade more harm than good especially as they haven't got a clue HOW to read a table of fares and the league table is WRONG

putting out false and misleading information is not in the trades best interests something the PHTM mob need to learn but still they are from the PH side of the trade so what would they know about matters hackney

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

Does PHTM actually circulate the tables to newspapers, or do newspapers just find them online? I mean, the tables are featured very prominently on PHTM's website.

But agree that the info can be a tad misleading. OK if used as a rough guide, but there are so many different parameters that it's impossible to crudely compare fares in different areas.

Don't know if they still do it, but there was a time that the tables were getting into ridiculously detailed comparisons that were just way OTT and served little useful purpose, in my opinion at least. Talk about over-analysis/too much detail.

Someone has got to be the most expensive.

Nothing to be ashamed of.

Even cab drivers have a right to live sleep and eat.

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IDFIMH

BUT the table is WRONG it is FALSE data and being misused

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

So the answer is drop the fares, get more punters (potentially), do twice the mileage for the same price! No doubt there is a lot of dead mileage in rural Cornwall as there is where I used to operate on the Romney Marsh. Somebody has to pay for it.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Taxis don't run themselves. If the punters don't want to pay it use a bus. If there aren't any buses tough shit.

Don't want to open up a hornets' nest here , but think it's wrong to conclude that higher fares automatically mean higher profits.

I mean, would you rather have one airport run at £100, or eight at £80?

precisely isn't this what happened in blackpool and one poster on here was saying how much more he was earning !

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

I agree, but being the most expensive over two miles isn't such a bad thing and someone has to be the dearest and they shouldn't be castigated for it.

A balance has to be met between punters not being ripped off and drivers earning a reasonable wage in reasonable hours.

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IDFIMH

I've said it before, and I'm going to say it again !

My outgoings (total cost of going to work) is £350 per week, if we base that on a standard working week of 40 hours (what most people in 'normal' jobs work) that's £8.75 per hour. Add on the minimum wage of £7.80 an hour and I have to earn an average of £16.55 every hour to achieve that minimum wage. That is almost impossible considering the only time I might earn more than that is on a Saturday night.

When you also factor in things like holiday pay, sickness pay, pensions then in reality the average hourly rate is much higher.

Fares really need to be based on someone being able to achieve at least the minimum wage after 40 hours work after costs, not as in some cases with me lately, working an 8 hour shift for £35 before expenses. Some days it's costing me more to go to work than I actually earn.