Taxi Driver Online

A lot of stuff here about the rates revaluation and how that supposedly justifies the drop-off fee hike

£8.50 seems an odd sum to raise it to since it was previously £5, then £6. But I think Bristol also charges £8.50.

And it'll make it easier to hike it to £10 in a couple of years' time


Big hike in Edinburgh Airport drop-off charge announced to help offset huge business rates bill

https://www.scotsman.com/news/transport ... ll-8516282

42 per cent rise will make fee the most expensive in Scotland

Edinburgh Airport has been accused of treating passengers as a “cash cow” after officials announced drop-off charges will be increased to £8.50 next week.

The £2.50 hike from £6 - or up 42 per cent - will make Edinburgh Airport the most expensive in Scotland for drivers to drop-off and pick up passengers.

Taxi drivers said the increase would be passed on to passengers.

Scottish Taxi Federation chair Jim Kyle said: “This is shocking. I can't see how £8.50 is justified. After all, we are dropping off the airport’s customers.”

The union Unite, which represents taxi drivers, said it was “appalled” at the increase, which it described as “excessive and unjustifiable”.

Its stance was backed by the city council’s transport convener Stephen Jenkinson, who said: “I am fully supportive of Unite the Union’s position and think the increased charge is both outrageous and unjustified.

“I would respectfully ask Edinburgh Airport to reconsider their decision to increase the fee so drastically.”

The Scottish Conservatives said: “Passengers are being used as a cash cow to offset the SNP’s brutal business rate rises”.

The 50 per cent reduction for electric vehicles will also be removed, but the free 30-minute drop-off area, ten minutes’ walk from the terminal, will remain.

Airport chief communications officer Gordon Robertson said it faced a 142 per cent increase in its business rates bill which he said was the highest at a UK airport.

The airport, Scotland’s busiest, said that would add £8 million to its rates bill, which will increase from £5.4m to £13m.

It said its rateable value had also increased, from £9.5m to £23m.

However, the Scottish Government said the airport’s rates bill would increase by only 50 per cent, from £5.4m to £8.1m in 2026-27.

Mr Robertson told a meeting of the Edinburgh Airport Consultative Committee (EACC), where the increase was revealed: “This is something we cannot absorb.”

The drop-off charge increased from £5 to £6 in January last year and the airport said it had had no plans to raise it until the new rates bill came in.

Airport chief executive Gordon Dewar told the committee: “We can’t pass it onto airlines because we’ll just lose airlines.

“We are going to have to look long and hard as to how we are going to recover that in other areas.”

He said the airport had originally faced a 325 per cent rates increase, but even the final figure “does not meet any transparency, predictability or fairness test” and was a “weird anomaly”.

Glasgow - Scotland’s second busiest airport with half of Edinburgh’s 17 million annual passengers - faces a 51.5 per cent rates increase, Mr Robertson said.

Its drop-off charge is £7 - the same as at Aberdeen, the country’s third busiest airport.

Scottish Government-owned Prestwick Airport in South Ayrshire has been given a 39 per cent rates increase, according to Mr Robertson. The drop-off charge there is £4.50.

Mr Dewar added: “This decision to impose an unplanned and wholly disproportionate £8m rates increase has an immediate and negative impact on our business.

“A 142 per cent increase reduces our ability to invest, grow and compete. In practical terms, it equates to funding around 200 jobs, two aircraft stands, or five new security lanes.

“We have always accepted that, given our size, we should pay more, but the scale of this increase is simply unacceptable.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The valuation of all non-domestic property is a matter for the Scottish assessors who are independent of central and local government.

“The Scottish Government estimates Edinburgh Airport will, with transitional relief, have a net non-domestic rates bill of around £8.1m for 2026-27 compared to £5.4m before revaluation.

“The Scottish Government’s revaluation transitional relief protects those most affected at revaluation - including airports - and will cap increases in gross liabilities up to the next revaluation in 2029.”

Tom Conn, convener of the Lothian Joint Valuation Board and an EACC member, told the committee meeting: “Edinburgh Airport has been valued on the same basis as other airports in the UK as part of a harmonisation of valuation of airports.”

A spokesperson for Unite said: “The taxi trade has no option but to pass these additional costs onto the travelling public, meaning the increase will ultimately be reflected in fares.”

Scottish Labour transport spokesperson Daniel Johnson said: “These steep charges will hit the pockets of Scottish holidaymakers and risk driving investment away from our city - and they are a direct result of the SNP’s business rate hikes.”

Lothians Scottish Conservative MSP Miles Briggs said: “Many people are reliant on these quick drop-offs as public transport in our cities under the SNP is too unreliable or simply not practical for an airport trip.”

Edinburgh West Scottish Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine said: “This hike will be extremely frustrating for passengers, but it also illustrates the impact of huge rates rises on businesses like Edinburgh Airport.”

This piece about fares increase is a week-old now, and I didn't bother with it last week, but it's now a tad more interesting because now the drop-fee is higher than that specified in the new fare structure

So the latest statement from the trade that the new drop-off charge will be passed onto passengers is incorrect, at least as it stands - the new tariff card will allow for only £7, as opposed to the new £8.50 charge.

Although it's not too late for the proposed tariff figures to be changed, so it will be interesting to see what happens.


Councillors to consider hiking Edinburgh taxi fares

https://news.stv.tv/east-central/counci ... taxi-fares

The cost of dropping off or picking up passengers at Edinburgh Aiport could rise from £6 to £7

Councillors are to consider hiking taxi fares across the city next Monday after a consultation on higher prices concluded.

If approved, the changes would see the city have the 13th most expensive taxi fares in the UK, level with Glasgow. Currently, a report by officers says it stands at 19th.

Survey work carried out by consultancy firm Jacobs supported proposals raised in March, which would see a range of changes to taxi fares.

The cost of dropping off or picking up passengers at Edinburgh Airport would increase from £6 to £7, as long as the journey price is greater than this.

Passengers can still ask to be picked up or dropped off at the airport’s free pick up and drop off area, which is located further from the terminal.

Charges for pre-booking a taxi anywhere in the city would go from 80p to £1, while the price for a cancelled ride would go from £2.20 to £3.00.

Fares would also increase by 5% over their current levels, in order to account for inflation since they were last adjusted about a year and a half ago.

This means that a two mile trip during the daytime period would go from £9.00 to £9.30, and for the nighttime period would go from £10.20 to £10.50.

And for a five mile trip, the price would go from £17.40 to £18.00 during daytime, and £18.60 to £19.20 during nighttime.

Increases would also apply to the higher fare rates charged during the festive period.

Further, it is proposed that the extra passenger charge, applied for rides with more than three passengers, go from 40p to 50p.

No change would be made for the financial penalty of soiling a taxi – when one must be pulled from service for cleaning – which sits at £50.

Fares for private hire cars are not controlled by the council, and as such are not subject to the review.

Additionally, most private hire trips to and from the airport arrive and depart from a separate area where the rates for the paid pick up and drop off area do not apply.

Councillors voted on March 16 to launch the consultation, which was advertised in the Edinburgh Evening News on April 8.

Interested parties were asked to submit representations by May 8. The proposed fares were also opened to consultation on the council’s website.

According to the report by officers, 19 consultation responses were received, of which about 55% were ‘broadly positive’ and about 40% negative.

Officers state ‘there is insufficient material therein’ the consultation responses to not go ahead with the fare hike.

If councillors vote to approve the fare hike, the new rates would come in from June 9, giving time for a 14-day statutory objection period to run.

Taxi operators would be able to lodge objections to the new fare tariffs during that window.

Operators, either individually or as a group, would be able to raise an objection to the new fares.

Prior to the consultation getting underway, various taxi firms signalled they were supportive of the new fares.

The fares advertised by the council represent the maximum taxis can charge – however, operators are free to charge less if they wish.

Most of the consultation responses were short, with many accounting to one word, including ‘fair’, ‘good’, and ‘happy’.

That makes it sound like the consultation period concluded after May 8 and thus the article was published after that. But the article is actually dated 4 May.

Thus it's all a bit confusing, and the consultation process typically convoluted, as per the legislation.

But at a rough guess it looks like it's certainly not too late to change track to accommodate the new drop fee