Taxi Driver Online

Brighton and Hove taxi drivers could be made to take cards

Brighton and Hove based taxi drivers could be made to take card payments as part of their licensing conditions.

The council is currently asking the trade for feedback on plans to impose the condition for drivers to have card readers.

Andrew Peters from GMB Brighton and Hove Taxi Section said: “At the moment it is thought that about 75% of the trade have these already but there are places like Coventry which have recently made it a condition of licensing.

“And whilst it would certainly be make it easier for the customer it is questionable as to whether it is correct to impose such a condition which is in effect a commercial decision for the individual drivers.

“When it is taken into consideration that the council issues licences for the selling of alcohol we wonder if the council could also impose a condition on those vendors.

“However at the moment it is too early to make a judgement on this because we don’t know the full details of the conditions that are being proposed and we are currently making enquiries on this.”

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IDFIMH

Personally I support the mandating of cards.

If the trade are serious in wanting to compete with the app companies, then they need to offer the same level of service, if not a better level.

But one other reason, is that certain sections of the hackney trade are using the 'sorry don't take cards' excuse when it fact it's a 'sorry I don't do round the corner jobs' excuse.

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IDFIMH

I'm running an iZettle for my card payments and am keeping proper books because I'm trying to buy a house. I pay something like 14p on an £8 job and I don't need to make a special trip to the bank with the money.

The cost of taking card payments these days is negligible, if I take £400 on a Saturday night and it's all on card it's gonna cost me £7 in fees and it's in my bank on Tuesday. If I put the cash in myself I'd have to drive to the bank and pay £4 to pay it in, I'd rather stay in bed thanks.

We all know that the elephant in the room when it comes to taking card is the tax man.

Or the Housing Benefit man.

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IDFIMH

With universal credit the way the minimum income floor works the benefits office assumes you're making £15k profit per year even if you're reporting less to hmrc. Tho obviously if you were really earning less than 15k a year you'd be better off working in Tesco.

The one thing I have found since sorting my books out is that I'm not scratching around for money as much as I was. Cash is too easy to spend, it disappears and you never really know what you spent it on. Now I try to pay for everything on card and I can see if I'm [edited by admin] it up the wall in the pub or spending it on food.

So your shift starts on Friday morning?

Time to change banks.

Be careful of this bandwagon. At the moment rates are low because government and banks want us to all take payments BUT I also reckon to lose up to £100.00 a year because the card reader doesn't accept the card and people have no other means of payment so it is a lot more expensive when you factor that in

secondly it is only a matter of time before these smaller terminal providers get snapped up by the big boys. (I think Izettle already has)

These are the same banks whose own payment systems charge monthly rental and higher transaction charges and for these boys 0.1 percent interest can add a billion pounds to the profits so it becomes an easy way to boost bank performance

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

Obviously some conflicting views from the B&H trade. Thus unlike Bristol, was it, where there was no opposition and the HCA were pushing for it?


Rollout of card payments for taxi fares considered

https://www.brightonandhoveindependent. ... ed-2446423

Cabbies may be told to allow customers to pay by card or app if new rules are approved by councillors.

The rules are up for debate after the taxi and private hire trade was asked about the increased demand for cashless payments.

Brighton and Hove City Council Licensing Committee is looking at two options later this week.

One would mean that drivers would have to take payment by card or app while the other option would urge operators to offer alternatives to cash.

But a move to force cabbies to take card payments attracted 170 letters of opposition.

Drivers said that they already face too many rules, many of which did not apply to drivers for firms like Uber which are licensed outside Brighton and Hove but operate locally.

Members of the Independent Drivers Brighton and Hove (IDB&H) asked the council’s Hackney Carriage Office to consult drivers about the proposals.

They said that British businesses took more money in cashless payments than anywhere else in the European Union.

And fewer passengers carry cash, according to a report to the council’s Licensing Committee.

During the consultation the council received 17 responses from trade bodies, including operators, with 12 supporting cashless payment.

A joint response from the Sudanese Taxi Forum, United Taxi Driver Association, City Cabs, Radio Cabs, Streamline, IDB&H, Unite and the GMB was submitted, which included most of the 170 objection letters from drivers.

A driver who supports the change, whose details were redacted in the report to councillors, said: “Many other taxi drivers in Brighton and Hove are refusing this service. They argue it’s all about personal choice.

“I feel this is their own selfish choice and contrary to most customers’ preference to have the choice of both payment methods available (cash or card).

“This often results in the embarrassing spectacle of customers sometimes loaded with luggage or shopping going from car to car at a rank looking for a car that accepts card payment only to be refused many times.

“This, I believe, is detrimental to our business and in consequence unfair to the drivers that accept this form of payment and are striving to compete with the scourge of out-of-town cars invading our town and taking our business.

“I am confident and have been informed by customers that acceptance of cashless payment is a main factor in using app-based company cars rather than local taxis.”

A self-employed driver wrote that it should be their choice whether to take cards.

They said: “I am aware of many licensed drivers who live on a day-to-day and hand-to-mouth basis and a condition imposing compulsory credit card readers could force these drivers to leave the trade and even put off new drivers from being licensed in Brighton and Hove at a time when the number of new drivers being licensed here has dropped.”

The Licensing Committee is due to discuss the proposal at Hove Town Hall on Thursday (12 March).

The meeting is scheduled to start at 3pm and should be open to the public.

Not sure precisely what the latter option means, but I think this has to be done at the level of each individual car. Anything else is a bit messy.


A submission from the Sudanese Taxi Forum wasn't quite what I was expecting


I mean, £30 for an iZettle card reader and the payment is in the bank in a couple of days?

The PH ops out here take card already, but the driver gets dinged for 20% of the fare in VAT and then 6% of the remainder in commission to the op for account work. It'd be much better if the punters would choose the cash option on the app and pay the driver with card, but nobody wants to take the risk that the driver doesn't have a reader.

Tickles me that the operators are objecting to the compulsory card machine proposals at the same time as demanding drivers on their circuits have one.

Uber must be pi**ing themselves laughing.

I get (to a point) why some of the drivers are objecting, even if I disagree with them. But we are in the year 2020 and the kids want to use cards.

The hackney trade is losing work hand over fist to Uber, and it's so noticeable at the station rank where Uber vehicles are taking 100s of jobs a day (legally) from the hackney trade, and the main reason is punters can't be arsed going from cab to cab to find one that takes cards.

However I will be surprised if the council adopts the compulsory policy.

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IDFIMH

I have been taking card payment for a good few years now.

There is a definite year on year usage of card payment.

The last two weeks have seen almost all payments made by card.

Contactless. People don’t want to handle cash, in my very recent experience.

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Former taxi driver

This tax year I'm currently on 27% paying by card/phone/watch compared to 21.5% (2018/19), 15%(2017/18), 10%(2016/17), 6%, 4.5%, 2%. I didn't keep a record prior to 2013 as they were that infrequent.

At the weekend I suspect the card % is about 25-33%.

Not so much during the week.

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IDFIMH