Brummie Cabbie wrote:
More drivers are going part time, he notes, or switching from night to day shifts to make journeys more cost-effective.
Makes no sense to me that one.
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| London Cabbies Seek Fare Deal on Fuel http://taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8937 |
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| Author: | Brummie Cabbie [ Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:55 am ] |
| Post subject: | London Cabbies Seek Fare Deal on Fuel |
London Cabbies Seek Fare Deal on Fuel 16th Julty 2008 Steve McNamara, a cab driver for more than 20 years, winces each time he visits the pumps. "Every day, virtually, fuel costs go up," he says. "If you think it is affecting the average family who fill up their car once a week. I fill up that cab every two days. It is making an enormous dent into my running costs." As one of London's 24,000 licensed black cab drivers, fuel is the essence of his livelihood. Being self-employed, he has no means of shelter from soaring diesel costs, which he says have risen 30% this year alone. At current prices, his "cost of tank" - the amount spent on fuel - is likely to amount to a painful £2,500 this year. "Our costs are very high anyway," he adds. "The vehicles are very expensive and the maintenance colossal and we are now facing sky-high fuel prices. "It will come a point when the straw will break the camel's back." Things have not reached crisis point yet, he stresses, although he is "fearful" about the future should prices continue to climb. During a typical rush hour in London it would be hard to sense any such looming nightmare for the capital's famous old "hackney carriages". Cabs seem as ubiquitous as ever, treasured - by their various users - as a combination of congestion-buster, human satellite navigation device and, if need be, a shelter from the elements. But as sole traders in a highly regulated industry, drivers are more vulnerable in the worsening economic climate than many other workers. "Nobody has gone bankrupt as yet but it is having a big impact on drivers' earnings," Richard Massett, from the Licensed Taxi Driver Association (LTDA), says of the rising fuel burden. Drivers are in the unenviable position of seeing their costs escalate without being able to adjust their prices in response. Unlike the capital's 44,000 private hire taxi drivers, who can charge what they want, fare rises for metered cabs are capped by Transport for London. Drivers argue that April's annual 2.7% rise - which bumped the average cab fare up to £10.85 - was insufficient to cover earlier fuel increases let alone the further sharp rise since then. Transport for London, which calculates fare rises on the basis of changes to average national earnings and drivers' costs, says it needs to strike a balance between protecting drivers' income while also giving passengers value for money. But with fuel costs far outstripping the headline rate of inflation, drivers argue they need more support if they are to maintain current levels of service and choice. "You just can't go on with costs increasing the way they are," says Richard Massett. "If it continues to increase, people won't be able to afford to go to work." Short of working fewer hours, there are few opportunities to economise, Steve McNamara says. More drivers are going part time, he notes, or switching from night to day shifts to make journeys more cost-effective. "People are always telling you you need more cabs in the evening but this is beginning to have the reverse effect," he argues, explaining the financial risk of making the return leg of a long night time journey without a passenger. "If I take a job 18 miles out of the centre, it is going to cost £6 [in fuel] to come back," he says. "It starts to lose its attraction." Many passengers will be sympathetic to the situation drivers find themselves in but the industry's preferred solution to its financial challenges may be less palatable. It is lobbying for an airline-style fuel surcharge to be added to all cab fares in London, irrespective of their length or cost. "That is not something we have been able to do and that is what we want to do," says the LTDA's Richard Massett. "I think it has to happen." As Steve McNamara explains, a flat-rate charge of 50 pence per journey would enable drivers - on the basis they do an average of 20 journeys a day - to take home an extra £10 a day. "It wouldn't cover the increase in running costs but it certainly would go some way towards it." Confronted with such an increase, he accepts that some customers may take umbrage and choose other forms of transport but he hopes the impact will be limited. "The public understand there has been a vast increase in the cost of fuel and someone has to pay for it," Richard Massett adds. "It can't continue to be the drivers." For its part, Transport for London (TfL) - under the leadership of new London Mayor Boris Johnson - says it is looking at options for helping drivers, while stressing it has no firm plans in mind. "Drivers associations have expressed concerns about rising costs of fuel," a TfL spokesman acknowledges. "We are considering what action could be taken to support drivers if prices continue to rise." Passenger groups, not unsurprisingly, are rather ambivalent about such a prospect. For many people, the idea of fuel surcharges has been discredited by the seemingly "only way is up" trend for airline charges as well as the high-profile price-fixing allegations in that industry. "I think we would be wary of a changing the pricing mechanism," a spokeswoman for London Travel Watch, which supports the current annual review of fares, says rather diplomatically. In reality, it is worried about constant fare changes as prices fluctuate and whether charges will then be removed if the outlook improves. Worries about the poisonous cocktail of rising prices and falling consumer confidence - hitting the number of people using cabs - are unlikely to abate for some time. With the spectre of the 1990's recession hanging over the current slowdown, cab drivers are as well placed as anyone to gauge how fragile the economic mood in London really is. "It is probably not as bad as 1991, which was the worst period in living memory," Richard Massett believes. A small consolation for the time being, but the question is how long it will last and how much more cabbies will end up having to pay? |
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| Author: | Sussex [ Thu Jul 17, 2008 6:35 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: London Cabbies Seek Fare Deal on Fuel |
Brummie Cabbie wrote: More drivers are going part time, he notes, or switching from night to day shifts to make journeys more cost-effective.
Makes no sense to me that one.
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| Author: | wannabeeahack [ Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:25 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
£2500 a year?.... i was putting £75 tankfulls in 3 times a week not long back £12K almost and that was in ONE van, i had three..... he doesnt get out much then?... |
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| Author: | Sandy McNab [ Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:17 am ] |
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wannabeeahack wrote: £2500 a year?.... He marshalls the ranks,sorts out the cab shares, does work with the LTDA. Puts in a lot of effort. Don't suppose he has too much time to get in the cab.
i was putting £75 tankfulls in 3 times a week not long back £12K almost and that was in ONE van, i had three..... he doesnt get out much then?... |
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| Author: | wannabeeahack [ Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:22 am ] |
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so just what do you spend on fuel, how many ltrs and what has the rise from 90p tp 1.30 ltr cost you, taking into account any meter or fare rises? |
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| Author: | thomasthetaxi [ Sun Jul 20, 2008 3:52 am ] |
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Steve McNamara, a cab driver for more than 20 years gave the advice to cabbies in Taxi Mag just to wash their cab and take it to the passing stations and just get the stop notes fixed Like he does. He is one of the main reasons why at least one third of mid terms inspections have failed. The main reason they probably wont scrap the mid term inspection. Now he wants us to upset the public by bringing London to a stand still if we dont get a 50p surcharge Not a very cleaver cabbie I'm afraid. What we actualy want is our extras back. Ken took them away after going to San Fransico and seeing a sign on the side of a cab that said, five ride for the same price as one. It was such a shame they never made him mayor of San fransico instead of London. They would have shot him. |
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| Author: | Brummie Cabbie [ Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:51 am ] |
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thomasthetaxi wrote: What we actualy want is our extras back. Ken took them away after going to San Fransico and seeing a sign on the side of a cab that said, five ride for the same price as one.
You'll never get your extras back. I believe Newcastle lost, or even gave up their extras in 2003 & have been trying ever since to get them back & have met with a stone wall of councillors on each ocassion. Having said that, my own belief is that extras should only be charged for passengers & any other charge that cabbie has to directly incur during the course of or when picking up a fare, such as tolls, contributions towards airport & station fees etc. In any other form of transport, charges for luggage (except if excessive on airplanes), pushchairs, dogs, bicycles etc, are not customary. BUT, conversely there is no form of transport that I can recollect off hand, that does not charge extra beyond one passenger if a group of people travel. Yet we in the cab trade are queried regularly about charges for extra passengers. |
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| Author: | GBC [ Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:49 am ] |
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thomasthetaxi wrote: What we actualy want is our extras back.
What he means is He and a handful of other old age past their sell by date pensioners who go under the banner of the 'LCDC' want them back. They're not coming back, get used to it. 
The 'LCDC' represents under 900 drivers from a total of 25'000. They spend most of their time, like Flannagan, slagging of the other representative bodies. That's when they're not all fighting themselves over who gets the Chaiman's job. Quality. 
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| Author: | thomasthetaxi [ Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:13 am ] |
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GBC wrote: like Flannagan, slagging of the other representative bodies. You missed an F off there good buddy. Not like you to make a mistake, must be the red mist. |
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| Author: | GBC [ Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:28 pm ] |
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thomasthetaxi wrote: GBC wrote: like Flannagan, slagging of the other representative bodies. You missed an F off there good buddy. Not like you to make a mistake, must be the red mist. I did'nt, it's just your paranoia taking over again. 
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