Taxi Driver Online

West Suffolk taxi fares could increase but drivers left with concerns

https://www.suffolknews.co.uk/bury-st-e ... l-9350980/

Taxi fares in a Suffolk district could go up but some drivers have still been left with concerns.

The proposed changes were discussed and approved for consultation on Monday evening by members of West Suffolk Council’s licensing and regulatory committee.

If approved, they would see prices increase across the board for the first time since August 2022, with the initial mile costing 8 per cent more.

Although drivers have welcomed the increase, they have raised concerns over the initial price being too high.

Mark Goodchild, a driver who spoke at the meeting, said: “You will have many customers accusing you of ripping them off; you’re going to have arguments before you’ve even left the rank.”

The new fares would see trips under a mile go for the initial price of £5.40 between 6am and midnight (tariff one), £8.10 between midnight and 6am (tariff two), and £10.80 for the whole day during Christmas and New Year.

Tariffs four, five, and six, which relate to trips where there are five or more passengers during the same time periods, would also see similar increases.

Initially, trade suggestions were made to hike the initial one-mile tariff by a lower amount and increase it by a higher rate per subsequent mile.

After the meeting, several drivers said the changes would not only present a smaller increase than they had hoped for but also an increased safety risk, particularly during nightly shifts.

After the meeting, one driver said: “Some people will only see the initial price and be mad even if it then doesn’t go up that much after — there have even been drivers who were held at knifepoint.”

A consultation on the changes is set to start on February 5 and run until February 26, with meters to be updated from March should it be approved.

As per usual that's not particularly clear for an anorak like me

Reads like those figures could be the flag, which covers one mile. Alternatively, those could be the figures for the first mile.

Might have a look for the papers later, but the current tariff card says it's a £6.90 T2 flag, and that covers 1,424 yards

But the card also states that the first mile costs £7.50 on T2.

So I'd guess the proposed £8.10 T2 figure is for the first mile rather than the flagfall - the flag is going up from £6.90 to well over £7?

https://democracy.westsuffolk.gov.uk/do ... ix%20A.pdf

Well give every punter a pound back.

But I bet they don't.

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IDFIMH

I would need only be accused of that once, and the punter would be walking.

B&H are usually in the top ten of PHMT's table (although currently 44th) and I have never been accused of ripping anyone off.

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IDFIMH

Sussex, could easily write 1,000 words in response, but nothing I haven't said before, thus all a bit pointless. So we'll just have to agree to disagree.

But everyone in the trade knows (or should know) that fare disputes are perhaps the number one source of kick offs between drivers and members of the public. As literally hundreds of articles on here demonstrate. So, in my opinion, you can't just hike fares to whatever level it's thought the council will wave through, then expect drivers to take the flak and, for example, lose work to private hire and Uber etc, and perhaps lose customers to the trade altogether

But is 8% a hike?

When they were doing the numbers I suspect that's about what the inflation rate was.

I understand it's now lower, but 8% on a £5 fare is hardly going to kill the trade.

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IDFIMH

The current increase isn't that much, admittedly, but it all depends where the starting point was.

It's like saying, re licensing fees, that it's fine that a one-year badge costs £1,000 because the last increase was only 5%, or whatever