Taxi Driver Online

Fares set to rise marginally in Harrogate as official rejects trade call to abolish flagfall distance

https://www.strayfm.com/news/local-news ... harrogate/

Taxi fares in Harrogate could soon be set to rise – though not as high as first thought.

On Tuesday, Harrogate Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing and Safer Communities, Coun Mike Chambers MBE, sent a request to increase Hackney Carriage rates in the district to the council’s licensing committee and to the taxi drivers and operators for consultation.

Coun Chambers had been asked to move forward a rise that would have been equivalent to a 4.78 per cent increase.

However, he is recommending a rise of 2.5 per cent across the board. He is also recommending that the starting charge, or flag fall, be raised to £3.30 from £3.20.

In a report that was produced for Coun Chambers, council officer Gareth Bentley said that local drivers had asked for increases to be put onto shorter journeys. He wrote:

“The hackney carriage trade have this time requested a revision in the fare structure rather than an across the board rise.

“The request is to remove the initial 440 yard distance meaning that the first 20p charge is added to the initial flag fall of £3.20 at 185.93 yards and then every 185.93 yards thereafter.

“The effect of this request would be to load the tariff increases onto the beginning of the journey meaning that shorter journeys see a higher increase.”

For example, a one-mile journey would have seen an 8.7 per cent increase on its 2017 price, while a 10-mile journey would only have gone up by 1.8 per cent.

The report states that the town’s Taxi Liaison Group has been consulted and all bar four of the 32 responses had been in favour of a rise in some form.

Coun Chambers said: "I understand there has to be a balance between the drivers making a living and the cost to the passengers.

“I just felt that the proposed rise was too much and that is why I have made my recommendations.

“It will now be up to the licensing committee and the taxi fraternity to have their say on my recommendations.”

If the original recommendations had been implemented it would have seen Harrogate have the 22nd highest cost for a two-mile journey out of 370 local authorities.

However, he is recommending a rise of 2.5 per cent across the board. He is also recommending that the starting charge, or flag fall, be raised to £3.30 from £3.20.

how much

ours is only £1.70

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

Dark ages.

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IDFIMH

What the trade asked for, in effect, was 20p a job rise.

Is that really asking much?

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IDFIMH

our council REFUSES to allow any distance to be included in the flagfall

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

Well then Councillors need to be educated.

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IDFIMH

There's been several different articles on this process, never really saying much more than the previous one, but looks like it's finally reaching some kind of conclusion.

Still not particularly interesting though, but the odd feature here seems to be how a single councillor takes the initiative regarding the council's side of the procedure.

Harrogate taxi fares increase is given the green light

https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/n ... -1-9383793


Image: Harrogate Advertiser

Taxi fares in Harrogate are set to rise from December after a ‘compromise’ was reached between the borough council and local firms.

The council’s cabinet member for Housing and Safer Communities, Coun Mike Chambers, decided to implement a 3% rise in fares from December 1. However, the move has upset taxi drivers who were hoping for a larger increase.

Coun Chambers had himself, earlier in the year, put forward a 2.5% rise in response to the Harrogate Hackney carriage trade asking for a 4.78% rise. Had the original recommendation from the trade been implemented it would have seen Harrogate have the 22nd highest cost for a two-mile journey out of 370 local authorities.

Under the 3% rise, the cost of a one-mile journey will not change. A two-mile journey rises from £6.60 to £6.80, three-miles from £8.60 to £8.80, a five-mile journey rises from £12.20 to £12.60 and a 10-mile journey will increase from £21.80 to £22.40.

The flag fall for journeys would also increase from £3.20 to £3.30.

This will leave Harrogate joint 26th highest of all local authorities with fares averaged out over two miles.

Coun Chambers said: “I’ve tried to be balanced across the board with this increase. Three per cent is fair to passengers and drivers alike.”

There will now be 10 days of further consultation on the decision with people in the Hackney carriage trade and the public and if there is no objecting the increase will come into effect from December 1.

The last rise in maximum fares in Harrogate took effect on 1 May 2017 which resulted in a rise of 2.5% in the running mile and waiting time only.

Kevin O’Boyle, owner of Central Taxis, and the longest holder of a taxi license in the district, has previously called on the council to consider a rise of 4.84 per cent, with full-time drivers currently working 60 to 80 hour weeks to cover rising costs.

He said: “Its absolutely and totally disgusting, I don’t know where this compromise has come from.

“We started negotiating this fare raise 12 months ago, last October, they dragged their feet and we have this pathetic increase and its taken 12 months to get that.

“This increase was to cover rising costs and we don’t get that with a three per cent rise, the remaining amount will have to come out of the pockets of the drivers.

“They will struggle along as they always have and have to put in more hours, living to work and not working to live.”

This is still rumbling on - this piece is mainly about one driver's call for the council to start using the fare formula again:

Harrogate taxi firm boss calls for price rise 'fair to all'

https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/n ... -1-9405833

The owner of a Harrogate taxi firm has called on the Borough Council to reconsider its plans to increase Hackney Carriage fares by three percent after a consultation was launched earlier this month.

Harrogate Borough Council's consultation draws to a close this week over whether to increase taxi fares by three percent from December 1, after it received approval from Cabinet Member for Housing and Safer Communities, Coun Mike Chambers.

While the cost of a one mile journey will not change the increase would see a two mile journey rise from £6.60 to £6.80, three miles from £8.60 to £8.80, a five mile journey from £12.20 to £12.60 and a 10 mile journey to £21.80 to £22.40.

However this is unlikely to cover the rising costs that drivers face, says Kevin O’Boyle, owner of Central Taxis, and the longest holder of a taxi license in the district, adding they needed to be able to cover the costs of living in the district.

It followed HBC officers quoting figures from Private Hire Monthly, a taxi trade publication, which ranked Harrogate as 70th for the most expensive for charging over two miles, which Mr O'Boyle says is not an 'exact science' for ranking costs.

He said: "The impact is we are not getting what we should be, if we aren't where is the shortfall coming from? Its coming out of two things, the driver is taking out less wages for himself, or he puts more hours in, or both."

He added: "They have said we would be high up in the league table, but its not an exact science by any means. We have other authorities behind us in the league table over a two mile area, over 10 miles they charge more than we do. Its just not that exact.

"The other thing is, yes it might be one of the highest in Yorkshire but my answer to that is someone has to be first, and where is the dearest place to live here? Its in Harrogate, and taxi drivers have the same expenses as everyone else and need to be able to live here too."

Coun Chambers said that the three percent increase was chosen to 'strike a balance' for passengers and drivers.

He said: “As we’ve said previously, the setting of taxi fares is a statutory duty for the borough council, and our aim is to strike a balance between setting a fare that is acceptable to the customer and to the taxi driver.

“As a result, we felt that three per cent achieved that fair balance."

The past 10 years have been hard for Hackney Carriage drivers in the district, said Mr O'Boyle, adding that HBC previously used a formula used in other areas - Which would see a 4.84 per cent increase introduced. Mr O'Boyle, called on coun Chambers to apply the old formula which he says 'would produce a figure fair to all parties.'

He said: "10 years ago there was a formula in place (in Harrogate) that has been used in London and other councils for the past 30 years. Its a proven formula, takes into account the facts of running taxis and comes up with a percentage increase to keep up with the costs of living, and running a taxi.

"In other areas the fare increase, whatever the formula says that it should be, gets rubber stamped - Whatever it says is given to them. The formula is based on pure fact, and takes the politics out of it.

"This council followed the policy at first, in the second year however they refused. Since then they have never given us the full increase recommended by the formula since then. We also lose out on a double whammy, while they don't increase on what the formula says whatever increase they do give us isn't applied across the board.

"For this to be a true three per cent it needs to be on everything, the meter, flag fall, everything. In the past its only been applied to the running mile and waiting time. Also if you take whatever percentage they have given us, and take the average over each mile it works out less, quite a bit, as to the percentage being given.

"In this case, Councillor chambers has said he is trying to be fair both to the travelling public and taxi drivers. Well there is a formula that is fair to everyone, it gives taxi drivers what they need, and not claiming more than what they require."

He added: "I am calling on him and saying there is a formula there, why aren't we using this when it is fair to all parties?"

So the council had a formula based on our costs and I hope local earnings.

Yet they ignored it because it would have put fares up by too much.

Thus ensuring the local trades take home earning decreased.

Toss pots.

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IDFIMH

quite normal councils see their role as keeping public transport costs down to protect low income families and the disabled

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

Could you kindly tell me how councils keep air fares down, or train fares down, or bus fares down, because as far as I know, they are not responsible for setting any of them. Councils such as yours (illegally) suppress taxi fares because they (think that) they can do.

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Former taxi driver

councils do have a say on bus fares I believe as they can choose at what level to subsidise them

But our fares stay low because of fear of losing trade after all we can set our own but no company would dare stick their neck out as the competition would keep theirs down and shout from the roof tops about it

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