Taxi Driver Online

Fee rises making it hard to operate, say taxi drivers

Rises in taxi-licensing fees are making it "increasingly hard to operate", taxi drivers in Bury have said.

A new fee schedule due to come into operation in May has been delayed due to opposition from drivers and private-hire operators.

Thousands of Greater Manchester drivers are registered instead in Wolverhampton, where fees are lower.

A Bury Council panel will meet to discuss taxi-licensing fees next week. Bury is in Greater Manchester.

The authority approved increases in fees and charges for 2023-24 in February.

The change would see a yearly licence for a taxi that is more than three years old rise from £294 to £320, while operators with more than three vehicles would see their yearly licence fee rise from £410 to £450.

The borough's private-hire-drivers association said Bury's fees were higher than other licensing authorities, such as Wolverhampton, and urged the council to reconsider.

Latest figures show that of 21,853 private-hire drivers who are licensed with the City of Wolverhampton Council, 4,049, of those were registered at the time of their application as being in Greater Manchester, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The association called for "a fair and reasonable charging structure" in Bury.

"We understand that the cost of licensing is essential for the provision of regulatory resources and necessary services," the association said in its objection.

"The charges are making it difficult for our members and partners to continue operating.

"[Meanwhile] Wolverhampton licence-holders working in Greater Manchester take full advantage of [Wolverhampton's] low-cost licensing structure."

There are currently 752 private-hire vehicles, 33 hackney-carriage vehicles and 28 private-hire operators licensed in Bury.

A spokesperson for Bury Council said the cost of the taxi-licensing service for the financial year 2022-23 was £372,000 and the income received by the service was £45,000 less.

The authority said it was working to balance the books and because the costs for the service will increase in 2023-24 due to inflation, fees and charges also needed to be increased.

If approved next Thursday the additional income from fees in 2023-24 is estimated at £13,180.

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IDFIMH

So Wolverhampton license anything from anywhere, which in turn means less licensing fees for those working in licensing departments in those anywhere places.

Which in turn leads to less enforcement, or higher fees, in those anywhere places.

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IDFIMH

Perhaps the operators finding the fees hard to swallow should switch to wolves.

This is more evidence of the need to take licensing away from local and make it regional or national the benefits being

1 standards are fair and equal
2 wider choice of MOT testing stations doing MOT+ to a single national standard
3 fees might be more reasonable due to economy of scale
4 Enforcement can be left in hands of local government with powers against any licensed vehicle

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

We still have to have both an MOT and a Council inspection. One garage in particular takes the mich. If you have seperate tests say 2 months apart you oviously have to pay the fee for each one at £45.00 each but if you have both done together, because much of the test for each is the same 2 of the 3 garages will charge you £55.00 total but this other one will charge you £90.00 because they say it is 2 tests even though they only carry out the one test.

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Grandad,

if there were national or regional rules the DVSA would mandate that they can't do that it is a problem we have one here that taxi test £55.00 but if you also want an MOT an extra £45.00 ie. £100

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