Taxi Driver Online

Wiltshire Council licensing committee agrees review into Salisbury taxi fares

https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news ... axi-fares/


Image: Tom Gregory/Salisbury Journal

THE cost of taxi fares in Salisbury could drop as part of a review to make sure licensing arrangements are fair across the county.

Wiltshire cabinet member for adult social care, public health and public protection Jerry Wickham called for a review into the schedule of late-night tariffs after feedback that high costs in Salisbury are damaging the city’s nighttime economy.

A scrutiny task group previously recommended Wiltshire Council address issues surrounding tariffs, competency/qualifications of drivers, CCTV inside vehicles and the number of drivers able to carry disabled passengers.

Their findings were that, although tariffs in Salisbury appear to be in line with the rest of the county, passengers pay high costs for relatively short journeys. One example was a trip from Salisbury to Bulford, which cost £80.

Cllr Wickham said: “If you take at face value what the original task group was saying, it’s clear something is wrong. We do want to get to the bottom of it and sort it out.”

Wiltshire Council has agreed to set up a working group to investigate the matters, but recommendations will not be put in place until the end of an ongoing government consultation on statutory guidance for taxi and private hire vehicle authorities, on April 22.

Licensing committee chairman Peter Hutton said he was pleased to lead the review to “ensure that the licensing authority strikes a fair balance between the right to work for taxi drivers and the public’s right to protection”.

Chapel nightclub owner Amanda Newbery has been pushing for a review into taxi fares. She said: “With the pending university status of our college and with the recent leadership drive to try to attract more young people to live, work and stay in Salisbury, it is imperative that we align our policies for this demographic.

“Places to live, jobs for the future and a late-night economy fit for purpose are essential parts of retaining 18-35 year olds to set up their lives here and I know that many Wiltshire councillors recognise the importance of this in the context of our future economic prosperity.”

That's about 10 miles, according to Google

But don't get the point about tariffs in Salisbury 'appearing' to be in line with rest of the county - as far as I can make out the Wiltshire tariff card applies across all four zones in the county.

But recall what I said in another thread about Wiltshire fares, and in particular the premium tariff between 2.30 am and 6.00am.

Not much more to see here, but interesting that it took the Novichok incident to trigger the review into fares

Late night taxi tariffs reviewed

https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news ... -reviewed/

A SECOND group of councillors are set to look into late night taxi tariffs after fears were raised that it was putting people off having nights out in Wiltshire towns.

A task group set up by the Environment Select Committee has already looked into whether the set tariff in Salisbury was leading people to go to rival cities for nights out.

A blanket tariff for taxi drivers was placed on Wiltshire in 2014 in order to “harmonise” the different tariffs of its four previous county councils.

Despite calls from people who run and operate in Salisbury’s night life to have a tariff separate to the rest of the county, cabinet member Cllr Jerry Wickham had not authorised a review into Salisbury taxis until the Novicok incident occurred last year.

Following this he allowed an Environment Committee task group to be formed to investigate the possibility of offering different tariffs of the city.

The Environment group called on the council to consider removing the higher rate for early hours of the morning and review the difference in costs between five and eight seaters in a bid to lower costs and attract more people into the county. Higher rates, for vehicles providing lifts after 2.30am currently cost between £4-£6 per mile.

It also considered whether qualifications should be introduced for taxi drivers, more disabled taxis and more taxis with CCTV.

However it did not make firm recommendations on whether different taxi charges should be implemented in Salisbury due to the “complexity” of the issue.

Now a task group made up of at least three councillors from the Licensing Committee will investigate the issue for the whole county.

Cllr Wickam said: “I have been contacted by representatives from the Salisbury night time economy seeking a review of tariffs. I have consistently refused, stating that I would not consider it unless circumstances have not radically changed. However after the Salisbury incident and especially during the recovery days I was asked to reconsider, which I have done."

“In terms of moving forward, in the last few weeks central government indicated a number of new proposals that could instigate change.

“Therefore to start too much work would be premature. I do not know the full extent of the government proposals and accordingly I propose we pause further work.

“Should you wish to continue the examination by forming a task group, myself and officers will be only too pleased to assist. I will look very careful and welcome this approach.”

A national Department for Transport consultation into taxis is currently open until April 22.

This includes suggestions to increase CCTV and background criminal checks on drivers applying for licences to work. Chair of the Licensing committee Cllr Peter Hutton confirmed that the task group would focus on tariffs charged by taxi drivers across the entire county, as well as in Salisbury.

Cllr Pip Ridout added: “I have no problem being Salisbury as a priority but we also have military in Warminster who have to get to Salisbury and I know taxi tariffs has been complained about in the past, so we should widen it to investigate the whole of Wiltshire.”

Call for lower taxi tariffs in Salisbury dismissed

https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news ... dismissed/

WILTSHIRE Council has ruled out a separate lower taxi tariff scheme for Salisbury.

It comes as county chiefs have asked Wiltshire’s taxi drivers to come up with their own new county-wide tariff scheme.

However, some city businesses and councillors believe that having one tariff, including a standard late night charge, is “not fair” and is “putting drivers in the city at a disadvantage”.

Some connected to Salisbury’s night life also claimed that having a lower tariff rate to the rest of the county would draw more punters in.

But Wiltshire Council this week confirmed its plans to keep a single tariff in place.

In response, Salisbury councillor Atiqul Hoque said that while the rest of the county approves of a standard tariff, drivers in Salisbury want more flexibility.

He said: “The Wiltshire tariff is a concern for the late night economy in Salisbury. “The fundamental difference is everybody else is happy with the one tariff apart from in Salisbury.”

According to Wiltshire Council, the county currently uses a five-tariffs system which sees drivers charge a maximum £2 for every mile and rising to £3 after 10.30pm and £4 a mile after 2.30am.

However, these tariffs have been slammed by city taxi company All The Sevens - which itself uses a separate payment system.

Its director Gary Taylor said: “The problem lies with Wiltshire Council and the stupidly high tariffs they have set.

“We still operate on the old three-tariff system, which is day time, night time, and a separate tariff for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve.

“The council set a five-tariff system, whereby independent taxi drivers in the taxi rank can charge higher prices. They are not doing anything wrong, because its within the system, but people coming out of a nightclub in Salisbury wouldn’t always think to phone a taxi company, they just go to the first cab on the rank and may end up getting charged more.”

He added: “I do feel sorry for the people of Salisbury, and its late night economy, because they and it are suffering.

“These independent drivers, and again they are not doing anything wrong, are charging hugely inflated prices, especially after 2.30am.”

Trade representatives have until December 10 to put forward a new proposal for taxi charges in Wiltshire.

Let's all have a group cry for those people who have done bundles on a night out having to pay a pound or two extra to get home.

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IDFIMH

Didn't see any trade response in the paper's report. Would be interested to hear what the Salisbury drivers have to say about the late night tariffs. To me they seem ridiculous and would have thought they'd just drive the punters into calling a PH company.

Crazy! I don’t see the need for anymore than three tariffs.

Surely if the Salisbury drivers want to charge less than the metered fare they can do so.

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Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5

I am amazed there are people willing to pay those prices

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

Thousands pay the Uber surge, so it doesn't surprise me one little bit.

If folks want to get home late at night we shouldn't be under selling ourselves.

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IDFIMH

If it's anything like here (and lots of other places, by the looks of it) then I suspect a lot of drivers will think it's fine, others will think it's a bit of a nonsense.

Here we don't really have a separate PH sector, just HCs working on circuits. And while there's not a lot of variation from the meter on jobs round town, as far as 50-mile airport runs and the like are concerned there's at least a third off the metered price via the circuits.

Ditto the ranks, but it depends on whether it's negotiated, or otherwise. So a driver could legitimately charge £150 to Edinburgh airport if the punter jumps in and doesn't say anything about the fare, while the same driver could well do the same run for £80 if the passenger was a haggler.

Which in turn relates to what the circuit guy is saying in Wilts - the 'independents' are charging way over the going rate of the circuits, but they're not actually doing anything illegal.

So I suspect that some of the Wilts drivers think it's a nonsense, others will think it's fine because they'll get the odd long run on the meter.

Which in turn is another aspect that's effectively an unknown - by national standards the top Wilts fares are off the scale, but how often are they actually charged? As I said, the metered rate to Edinburgh Airport from here is around £150, but the going rate is well south of £100. But I suspect that the proportion of trips actually charged at the metered rate is miniscule in the grand scheme of things.

But many in the trade are quite happy with that scenario if they get the odd unsuspecting punter to pay the full rate, while others probably regard it as a tad unfair.

And I was looking at the prices charged by one of the Fife firms (not in my zone) who've been pressing for a fare rise. Don't know about the round town stuff, but on runs of 10 miles or more they've been offering discounts from meter of something like 40%

When we changed to private hire we implemented a rise in the fares which would see the starting rate on a bank holiday for a 5-8 seat vehicle being £9.00 but as it stands, that rate is academic because we don't even work on bank holidays.

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Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5

But what if some of your drivers fancied a bit of that rate on bank holidays?

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IDFIMH

We are now private hire and all bookings must be made through the booking office and the office is closed on bank holidays. if we were to take bookings in advance and the customer, for whatever reason wanted to make changes to their booking or even cancel it, there would be no one in the office to take the call so the drivers can't work on bank holidays.

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Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5

Get an app, and take app booking?

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IDFIMH