Taxi Driver Online

Nothing particularly out of the ordinary here, but spot the one or two unusual features

And not huge 'hikes' either, but a bit more of a jump than Glasgow's the other day.

And less of the official spiel about an 'active and vibrant' city, please


Coventry taxi fares set to go up after council approves proposals from union

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/ ... o-34451836

Council is advertising the new tariffs and will make a final decision in September to take account of any objections to the changes

Taxi fares in Coventry are set to go up after the city council approved proposals.

Union officials from Unite, representing the city's taxi trade, have asked for new tariffs to be introduced.

A report to the council explained: "The proposal would retain the existing start fares but reduce the initial distance and time covered by those fares, resulting in fares moving to the next increment sooner."

It says the aim is to protect passengers who hire taxis from the street or a rank, where there is limited opportunity to negotiate the amount they will pay.

It is proposed to reduce the initial distance covered by the starting fare from 0.922 km to 0.76 km, and to reduce the initial waiting time covered from up to 4.5 minutes to up to 3.7 minutes.

The starting fares would remain unchanged at £3.80 for daytime journeys (6am to 10pm), £4.60 for night-time journeys (10pm to 6am) and £4.90 for public holiday journeys. There are then increments of 30p for day and night journeys and 35p for holiday journeys for every additional 0.162km or additional waiting time of 48 seconds.

Holiday fares apply from 6pm Christmas Eve to 6am December 27, from 6pm New Year's Eve to 6am January 2, and on Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, May Day Bank Holiday in early May, Spring Bank Holiday in late May, and August Bank Holiday.

The last time taxi fares went up was in August 2022. Although the council does not have powers to directly regulate private hire fares, it is customary in Coventry for private hire fees to align with those for taxis.

Coventry City Council points out it does not receive any revenue from taxi fares. It believes any changes to fares will not affect the number of drivers, vehicle proprietors and operators who are either already licensed or applying for a licence.

It added: "The proposal supports the One Coventry Plan by helping to maintain safe, accessible and reliable taxi services for residents, visitors and businesses. This contributes to safer communities, improved access to services and a more active and vibrant city.

"The proposed variation is expected to support safe, available and good-value taxi services in Coventry, benefiting partner organisations and others who rely on taxis to support access, transport and community safety."

Mick Coggins, the council's senior licensing and enforcement officer, confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the new fares were approved for a 14-day period of advertising to allow people to make objections.

Any opposition to the increases will be reported back to the Cabinet Member for City Services, Cllr Patricia Hetherton, before a final decision is made. If no objections are received, the revised tariffs will be implemented.

The next meeting of the Cabinet Member for City Services is on September 15.

Gosh, maybe they could have used that highly innovative methodology in Fife, as opposed to now showing fares on the meter like £10.08 on T1 or £9.99 on T2


Unusual to have the increments expressed in kms as opposed to yards and miles.

Can't ever recall seeing the flagfall expressed in terms of time rather than distance either

I suppose it makes sense, but must be quite an unusual scenario whereby that would really be relevant, as opposed to just being a small part of the usual time and distance thing. So the meter would really need to be activated a few minutes before the HC actually moves. Which reverts back to the old thing about when the hire actually commences, but let's not go there. But, for example, I doubt Grandad's authority would be impressed by a scenario where the meter is engaged several minutes before the taxi actually moves


Reminds me of a point I made to the Office of Fair Trading about 150 years ago (at least, it feels like that ) during their investigation into the trade.

And which OFT actually mentioned in their report. But totally ignored the point I made then, and Coventry Council is making now - OFT said there was no link between HC and PH fares

Of course, the link isn't hard and fast. But, I mean, in places like Aberdeen and B&H at opposite ends of the UK (but at a similar place alphabetically ) lots of PHVs are literally fitted with HC meters and charging the official tariffs. Go figure


Which is kind of the obverse of the usual point made about drivers being able to charge less than the official tariff if they want

(And the latter point is also something I can't recall being made back in the day. But I often wonder if the source of that was again the OFT's report, which recommended that councils make it clear that fares can be discounted

I don't really think that ever caught on in any meaningful sense. But it's certainly a point often made these days in official reports about fare consultations etc.)