Taxi Driver Online

Taxi fares to go up in Stafford

https://www.staffordshire-live.co.uk/ne ... rd-7829999

They will cost among the most in the county

Taxi fares are to go up for passengers who hail a cab in Stafford after the drivers requested a rise. Operators of hackney carriages, which can use taxi ranks or be stopped in the street, can now increase their starting fares by 40p after Stafford Borough Council cabinet members gave the go-ahead.

The rise means that a two-mile journey by hackney carriage will go up to £6.50 on “tariff one”. A higher “tariff two” can be charged for hires starting between 12am and 7am on any day, between 6pm and 11pm on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve or on any public bank holiday, it was agreed.

The national average cost for two-mile “tariff one” fares is £6.55, a report to the cabinet said. This means Stafford Borough is below the national average - but is now charging one of the highest fares across Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent.

Tamworth has recently seen a fare rise, bringing a two-mile hackney carriage journey up to £7.12. As of September a similar journey cost £5.10 in neighbouring South Staffordshire and £5.90 in Stoke-on-Trent.

The report added: “The local authority controls the maximum fares charged by hackney carriages. This is enforced through the use of a meter for all journeys, which measures a combination of time and distance travelled.

“Taxi fares are set at a maximum and, in principle, are open to downward negotiation between passenger and driver, although at ranks or for on-street hailing, this could result in confrontation or unreasonable customer expectations. However, local licensing authorities can make it clear that published fares are a maximum, especially in the context of telephone bookings, where the customer benefits from competition.

“Members of the taxi trade have requested that the fares be increased which, in effect, is an extra 40p on the starting rate of the journey. There are no other changes requested within the mileage tariffs.

“During the consultation period there have been no objections received from the public and only one comment out of 199 consultees within the taxi trade. The comment made several criticisms regarding the cost of living and asked for a higher rise than requested.”

Councillors heard the borough has lost taxi drivers during the past two years for reasons including illness, the effect of inflation and better pay in other sectors. The main costs for the trade are fuel, vehicle purchase. maintenance, insurance and labour.

Councillor Mark Winnington, cabinet member for environment, said: “We’ve had a significant loss of licensed drivers since the Covid-19 pandemic. Sadly two members of the trade have died (from Covid-19).

“The overall decline has been in the region of 26 to 30%. We are losing taxi drivers at a quite frightening rate really.

“The proposal is we add 40p to the initial payment. That will help the drivers to carry on delivering a service for the residents of Stafford Borough.

“We have done a check against the national Hackney carriage fare table (for a two-mile journey). Cannock Chase with their new fare rate will be £6.40 and Stafford are looking to take it for a two mile journey up to £6.50, so we are midway on the league table.”

Council leader Patrick Farringtion said: “I wasn’t aware we had lost such a high proportion of drivers – that’s an interesting thing to raise. In terms of the fact that a taxi requires petrol, we know of the effect on local drivers.”

It's years since I've read it, but immediately recognised the wording from the DfT's best practice guidance (or at least, from the Scottish version, which uses the same wording). But the above has substituted 'could result in confrontation and unreasonable customer expectations' from the DfT's 'risks of confusion and security problems'

Fair enough, but they're encouraging competition for telephone bookings. Er...

I mean, HCs charging discounted fares for telephone bookings doesn't lead to 'unreasonable customer expectations' at the ranks?

What planet do these people inhabit?

Anyway, had a quick look at this year's DfT consultation document on the guidance, and they seem to have updated the competition part to take account of app bookings

But let's not go down that particular rabbit hole at the moment

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... ngland.pdf (paras 10.4 and 10.5)


Obviously the council leader well up to speed with what's been happening in the trade

Every service trade has lost workers since the pandemic started.

Amazed the council leader was unaware.

_________________
IDFIMH

Of course, worth pointing out that in the real world neither the above nor the near-identical DfT guidance likely to make any difference as regards what happens on the ground. So maybe a bit like the £200 'fouling' fee in Moray

On the other hand, that's not to say that price competition doesn't exist, just that I doubt if the official viewpoint or guidance on it makes much difference.

But what probably is the case is that, all else being equal, the higher the official tariff in any particular area, the more likely competition in fares is likely to be