Taxi Driver Online

Anger as taxi licences to go up 71% to cover council red tape costs

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north- ... p-14750189

Firms are warning the moves could spell a shortage of drivers if they go ahead

Concerns have been raised that plans to increase the cost of taxi licenses could lead to a shortage of drivers.

Gwynedd council will discuss plans to increase the cost for driver and vehicle licenses in order to cover their own administration costs.

If the proposals are adopted by the General Licensing Committee, it would mean an average increase of 28% across the board - with a 71% increase for a one year cabbie's licence.

As a result, a one year driver’s license would increase from £136 to £233 with a new hackney carriage license being shunted from £204 a year to £232, with a renewal also going up in cost from £169.20 to £197.

Meanwhile, a one year operator license is set to increase from £180.80 to £236 and a five year version from £297.80 to £329, with new private hire licenses also being hiked from £240.50 to £269.

According to the report that will be discussed next week: “The fees have not been changed since the 2015 Deregulation Act introduced the right to apply for taxi driver licences that remain valid for three years, and operator licence that are valid for up to three or five years.

“Most taxi drivers decided to apply for three year driver licences when it was time for them to renew.

“As we approach the end of the term of the first three year licences issued since the Deregulation Act came into force, the fees assessment has shown that the cost of the current three year licence is insufficient to recover the true costs of administrating these licences.

“The Treasurer’s Department has assessed the proposed fees and has concluded that the proposed increase is reasonable to recover the costs incurred when processing an application, in accordance with what is permitted within the Act.

“The percentage increase reflects the average percentage increase across the different licences. Some fees have lesser or greater increase than the average percentage depending on the additional effort involved in the processes.”

However, one prominent taxi operator in the county has hit out at the proposed hikes, fearing the impact on the industry.

“It will put a lot of people off becoming drivers,” said Huw Edwards who runs Tacsi’s Huw (Huw’s Taxis).

“You’re looking at £400 if you throw in a medical and a CRB check, its going to have a massive impact on whole industry in Gwynedd.

“It will also eat into our profits as the fares are set by the council, our hands are tied.

"It's just another squeeze and it will be even harder to find drivers.”

According to the authority, if a decision is made to increase the costs of a license, a full public consultation will be held before their implementation.

The General Licensing Committee will discuss the report when it meets in Caernarfon on Monday, June 11.

Good job they provided a translation

But certainly makes more sense than the explanation of the fee increase

I was always under the assumption that drivers badges where ring fenced, and a council could only charge what it cost to produce the licence

Aren't drivers licenses supposed to be 3 years now and operators licenses for 5 years? Why do they still have one year drivers and operators licenses when the law says otherwise?

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Grandad,

Try telling that to SBC , badge is £86 PA and operators £192 PA

The article doesn't make sense. Only explanation I can think of is that it means the one year licences (that are now three year licenses) have increased from £x to £y.

I mean, why would administration costs increase if they're issuing licenses less often?

Reading between the lines, suspect they mean that when they moved from one year to three year licenses they didn't put the fees up enough to cover the shortfall in revenue, so now they're going up accordingly.

The change in the legislation didn't apply to Scotland - here the standard period is three years, but councils can specify a shorter period if they want.

In Fife we have one- or three-year options - do you have a three year option in the Borders?

ours are more expensive than that and no shortage of drivers coming into the trade here !

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