Row over cabbies’ cutprice fare plan
8:55am Thursday 7th October 2010
A Bolton taxi drivers leader has hit out at council licensing bosses over their refusal to help them scrap double fares over Christmas and New Year.
Charles Oakes, chairman of the Bolton Hackney Drivers Association, claims the council threw out his request for all black cabs to charge normal fares on key dates over the festive period.
He said drivers in his association would be willing to pay the £20 it would cost to readjust their calendar-controlled meters for Christmas Eve and Day and New Year’s Eve and Day.
But council bosses say because Mr Oakes is only speaking for a section of the black cab community, they cannot justify the financial outlay for officers to spend time “sealing” the meters once the readjustment has been carried out.
Mr Oakes, who claims 80 per cent of the 106 Hackney Drivers in Bolton are in his association, said: “We wanted to do something not only to help the trade out but also to try to bring people back into the town centre because it is dead at the moment.
“A night out costs a lot of money and we wanted, for a period of three years, to stick to the normal fare over Christmas and New Year.
“Our view is it is better to keep a vehicle moving, rather than having it sat at the rank.”
Town Hall licensing chiefs say charging double fare over the Christmas and New Year period was discretionary and they could not justify the outlay in officer time.
However they have offered to provide all drivers with a Bolton-branded sign that alerts passengers to the fact they are offering a 50 per cent discount on the specific days.
Cllr Jim Lord, who chairs Bolton Council’s licensing and environmental regulation committee, said: “We do not set the fare drivers charge, so they could offer the discount at their discretion.
“We are willing to provide free stickers and posters to highlight the discount if they wanted to stick to the flat rate and we would actively encourage them to charge normal fare.”
Mr Oakes rejected the idea and claims it could lead to rows on the black cab ranks.
He said: “Doing it our way, which is what the majority of drivers wanted to do means that there is no chance of anyone trying to undercut anyone else.
“We have never done that as a trade for the simple reason that it would cause arguments.”
The licensing and environmental regulation committee will meet on November to discuss Mr Oakes’ proposals again.
Source; http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/dis ... fare_plan/
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