News

Public consultation on taxi surcharge cut

By Jon Nurse
March 13, 2013

Plans to cut a hefty surcharge on large groups taking taxis will go to public consultation.

The borough council’s licensing and appeals committee voted on Monday to consult passengers on a move to slash a 50 per cent surcharge for five or more passengers.

But cabbies predict drivers will refuse to pick up more than four people if the surcharge is changed.

The proposed change would scrap the surcharge for groups larger than four, to a set fee of 50p per person.

Committee chairman Cllr Patman said: “We want to hear from the public to see if they are happy to pay a 50 per cent surcharge.”

The committee consulted with the borough’s 101 Hackney Carriage drivers after voting in favour of the change in January.

Just over a third of the drivers responded – 15 called for no change and 19 suggested saloon cars should be reintroduced.

Taxi driver Imran Hussain said: “If they do away with these tariffs there would be no financial incentive to own or run a large vehicle.

“It’s good that it’s gone to public consultation because there’s some transparency but how many members of the public really understand the tariff structure?

“If you compare our price structure to others, our customers have a good deal.”

Mr Hussain estimates larger vehicles cost an extra £3,000 to £4,000 per year in extra road tax, insurance and costs.

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It probably doesn't help that the Standard accompanied the story with a picture of a row of black cabs which have been designed with seating for five passengers suggesting five is the norm rather than four which sneaked in on the back of mini-cabs.

Do it first and consult later is quite normal in politics as it is in most forms of bullying. Never mind, they will squeeze a few more meetings and expenses claims out of it.

timespassing
18/03/2013 at 18:43

Two things:

Committee chairman Cllr Patman said: “We want to hear from the public to see if they are happy to pay a 50 per cent surcharge.”

--well that's a very leading question, isn't it? Who answers the question 'Do you want to pay 50% more?' in the affirmative? If it's an existing charge/surcharge, the question is dishonest and encourages the answer the council's looking for.

"The committee consulted with the borough’s 101 Hackney Carriage drivers after voting in favour of the change in January"

--see that - 'consulted' and 'after' making a decision. Standard government approach.

'We've made a decision, now let's pretend to listen to people so that we can pretend this is democratic'.

What is the motivation to drop this surcharge; why is this controversial change being suggested? Who does it benefit? It's not the taxi drivers, that's for sure. All very fishy.

And akin to the story of the ice-cream-van-driver for who licensing costs are increasing to (what was it) £2,400 whereas in Reading it's £300.

Or the story of the cafe in Pinewood, where the council suggested this year that hey would increase their rates by 2000%, didn't they?