Taxi Driver Online

Nothing particularly new about this kind of thing, but can't recall a trade-related piece being so specific about it all

And although the basic thrust of all this is fine, there's a distinct lack of nuance about a lot of the points made...


Potholes cost Oxford taxi firm more than £240,000 a year

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/26130 ... -000-year/

A taxi firm says its business is struggling due to being forced to fork out more than £240,000 on wear and tear repairs due to potholes.

001 Taxis, which is in St Aldate's in Oxford city centre has told this newspaper it has spent thousands of pounds on fixing pothole damage for its 500-vehicle fleet, of which 90 are company cars.

In April alone, the business forked out £25,000 on car repairs.

Manager Jay Akhtar says these figures have increased dramatically in the last couple of years due to the state of Oxfordshire's roads.

Suspension related issues cost a minimum of £15,000 a month, including replacing or fixing shock absorbers, control arms, bushes, and track rod ends.

These figures don't include its annual £65,000 bill it spends on replacing 1,200 tyres and its £120 MOT charge per car - and that's if there are no faults.

Oxfordshire County Council revealed that between February 20 and April 19, a total of 13,760 potholes were fixed by repair teams with the rest being dragon patcher repairs.

In total, it said 24,330 repairs have been completed while 4,725 are still waiting attention.

But RAC research found Oxfordshire County Council had 488 claims made against it in 2021 and 1,941 in 2024, a 297 per cent increase in three years.

Mr Akhtar says he is being "deprived" of good roads which is doubling his business costs.

He said: "In my 55 years of life I've seen what the roads were like and what they're like now and I'm not angry, I'm furious because it's costing the business money and I can't change the taxi fare prices."

Mr Akhtar says he feels "ripped off", estimating he spends approximately £30,000 a year on taxing his vehicles and £4,000 a year on taxi plate registration.

"The only reason why the suspension gets his so hard is purely because of potholes", he said.

"For example, on my 1995 car, I only had to change the shocks and springs four years ago."

He refers to roads he has driven on, comparing them to the current state here.

Mr Akhtar said: "I've driven on roads near Italy which were sweet as dust. I didn't hit a pothole for nearly 12 miles.

"Up until now the roads were fine and being built properly as money was being invested into them.

"Now, it makes me sad to say but what's so great about Great Britain because the people are being deprived."

He added: "We are struggling but if we don't do what we need to do, the drivers and passengers will be in dangerous cars."

Oxfordshire County Council has been contacted for a comment.

The council previously announced declared plans to resurface more than one million square metres of road by late June 2026.

The council has utilised special repair teams, dragon patcher repairs and bobcat patching machines to fix the counties potholes.

Well there's an inaccuracy for a start - if over 400 of the cars are driver-owned, then the firm hasn't actually spend the money on them.

Another clue is in the fact that 90 of the fleet are company cars - like, you know how the drivers of such cars will treat them, and how they will go over speed bumps and suchlike, as compared to the average owner-driver


A meaningless figure, particularly given that it relates to a fleet of 500 cars. Or was it just the 90 company cars


That's presumably figures for 'taxi' inspections, and not MoTs in the strict sense.

And, again, the headline figures are a bit meaningless over a huge fleet of cars. And, I mean, cars have always needed money spent on repairs and maintenance. I don't doubt that's increased due to the state of the roads, but not much in the article to actually quantify that


'Sweet as dust'? A strange turn of phrase, and not one I can recall hearing or reading before

Anyway - and maybe the potholes in Fife aren't as bad as elsewhere - whenever I hear or read of stuff like this I always wonder what they're on about. Obviously I don't like potholes, but as compared to the speedbumps, roundabouts, ped crossings and the like in the local area, I think the latter are the stuff that have proliferated here in recent years and causes a lot more damage and wear and tear to vehicles than potholes per se.

If I could choose between repairing the potholes or getting rid of all the bumps, roundabouts, crossings and various protuberances, then I'd definitely choose the latter.

But chances of either happening in my remaining time in the trade? Nil, approximately

Who proof-reads these things?

No point getting too pedantic about that sort of thing these days, even as regards a piece in the mainstream press.

But even at first glance the highlighted word should surely be punctuated "counties' potholes".

And in fact it's only referring to the one council, so should be "countys potholes". Or, indeed "county's potholes"

Two clangers for the price of one

AI

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

Potholes are a problem all over the UK, but I question the tale of woe the Oxford firm is telling us.

But, as is always the case, the press lap it up.

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IDFIMH