Taxi Driver Online

Some on here will be happy

But maybe there's zero work, so they've all given up


Taxi operators miss chance for fare rise after consultation gets zero responses

https://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news ... responses/

NOT a single taxi operator in East Lothian asked for a fare increase to be introduced this year, leaving charges frozen for the third year in a row.

A meeting of East Lothian Council’s licensing sub-committee heard that more than 70 operators were contacted ahead of its regular review of fares – with no response from any of them.

Committee members agreed to keep the fares at the same price following the lack of response; however, concerns were raised over the lack of communication between the council and the taxi trade.

Councillor John McMillan told a virtual meeting of the committee that, given this week had seen the highest increase in fuel prices in the UK in a single day, he was “uncomfortable” keeping the status quo.

He said: “Costs must be going up for them.”

The council is required to review taxi fares every 18 months and the last review followed a consultation with the trade which was launched on March 20, 2020, as the country went into its first lockdown, and ended six weeks later with no responses, leading to no increase.

This time around, the trade was contacted between January 10 and February 21, but again failed to request an increase.

'Zero responses'

Licensing sub-committee convenor Councillor Colin McGinn asked officers “you are saying there were zero responses at all to the consultation?” and was told that was correct.

It means that fares have not gone up since June 2019, when an increase was requested from operators and agreed by licensing chiefs.

Mr McGinn told members: “I think we need to go back to the drawing board about how we engage with the taxi trade.”

Neighbouring Midlothian Council agreed to increase taxi fares for its operators by up to 20 per cent in March after a six-year price freeze.

The East Lothian licensing sub-committee agreed to write to operators in the county again informing them of the decision and urging them to get in touch for talks, with a review of the position possible next year.

Councillor Tom Trotter said: “It is not that we are not in touch with the trade, it's the trade that is not in touch with us.

“We need to look at ways to get them more engaged.”

maybe they are frightened those famous tight Scottish purses will get even tighter

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

Be proactive, go out to the ranks or to the offices.

There is no excuse for the apathy the trade has shown, but sometimes the trade need to be dealt with face to face.

_________________
IDFIMH

a council officer actually talking to members of the trade outside of their sanctum I've heard it all now !

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

Well that was a bit weird

Had zero recollection of this article, and didn't bother searching for any previous mention of East Lothian. But when I started to type the thread title for today's article, my browser (which has a much better memory than me), suggested almost word for word the title I was about to type in

Anyway, obviously a lot of engagement between the council and trade in East Lothian. Not

But this one's got a bit more stuff about the lack of engagement, while the newer article doesn't really mention that much, and goes more with other stuff...

Hope everyone was paying a bit more attention than me, but what I didn't notice about the two East Lothian articles is that they're both about the same fare round, while yesterday I didn't look at the date of the earlier article and assumed the earlier article was about the last fare round

But according to the passage above, there was no consultation response to the last fare round in 2020, so to that degree there have been two processes with zero consultation response, it's just that the first one isn't the one in either of the two articles here

Anyway, what's maybe interesting is that a process that started on January 10 is only now being reported as complete in the local press...

And that readers on here knew more about what was going on back in June than the local operator who looks like he only got to know about it all when contacted by the local press

Taxi licensing, eh?