Taxi Driver Online

Cabbies Driven Out of Work as Rising Fuel Costs Hit Taxi Trade

18th July 2008

Dozens of struggling cabbies are leaving the city's taxi trade in the face of spiralling fuel costs.

Key figures from the cab industry today revealed how drivers are turning their back on the trade with the economic downturn, fuel prices and tram roadworks being blamed.

It is understood a number of cabbies are retraining as bus drivers, while others who have passed the city's taxi examination are choosing not to take up work.

And with fuel prices up by a third in the last year alone, drivers are also now sticking to the ranks rather than cruising the streets looking for fares.

Council chiefs have agreed to a 20p rise on all starting fares after pleas from the trade but taxi drivers have called for a wider review of fares to get under way. The most recent fares review took place last November, when prices were frozen at May 2006 levels.

Murray Fleming, secretary of Central Radio Cabs, said: "There has been a definite change over the last few months. There are more and more shifts available and a lot of the guys are struggling to get cover for holidays.

"It is the first time I can recall in my time in the trade that we have seen significant numbers leaving.

"The other thing we have noticed is that a lot of the guys who have gone through their taxi brief have decided to stay in their current jobs for now.

"I think there is a public perception that cabbies are all rolling in it, but there hasn't been a fares increase since 2006 and they don't have the fringe benefits of normal jobs, such as sick pay."

Taxi fares currently start at £1.50 before 6pm on weekdays, and £2.50 at night and at weekends, rising in increments of 25p based on time and distance.

Although the taxi fares review is likely to begin by the end of this year, the council has no legal obligation to carry out another review until May next year.

Eric Shade, chairman of the Edinburgh Taxi Association, which has close to 400 members, said: "There has definitely been a slip in the numbers of drivers operating.

"Those I've spoken to who have left have just quit the trade completely.

"It is particularly hard at the moment and it is not just the fuel prices.

"You have a general economic downturn and when you throw in the roadworks, then people are just thinking it's not worth it.

"The fuel costs are really hurting – this is why you are not seeing people cruising for fares because it is just not economical to do so."

Phil Capaldi, a city taxi driver for 25 years, said: "You definitely can't afford to go cruising around like you could in the old days.

"A lot of the guys are just parking up at the ranks now and that can cause problems because of the space available."

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Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

Not what I heard sailor.

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IDFIMH

If the rentals where not so expensive drivers might stay.
so a £1.50 start so how far can you go per £0.25 click, the price of a click seams to be the problem.
it would be better to have a £2.00 start and £0.10 a click like we have Oh you can go 112m per click.
Then we have a £3.00 start from 10PM daily and £0.10 a click.
They could even ask the council to licence saloons, or even Diablos they are a WAV with better fuel economy

Committeeman Murray Fleming, has his taxis fully covered. The bold boy is far too busy screwing the CRT owners, and with the hours he claims he can't afford to get behind the wheel. His side kick Colquhoun is up to the same gig . . .

That's 30K each plus their taxis are on the road full time.


They don't have a clue how bad it is.



Btw, I know two taxi drivers who are now driving buses.

I know another guy who is panicking because he can't find someone to buy his plate. I wonder why?

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

What's the going rate for a plate now?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

£10 and you get green shield stamps.

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Grandad,

Well Mr Skippy, you set-up a conundrum, so I have taken you up on it.

I have looked up Edinburgh’s ‘Fare Table for Taxis’ on the ‘net downloaded it, printed it off, had a look on the PHTM site for the National League Tables of Taxi Fares & done some number crunching.

Call me a Sad Bar Steward if you like, but I love numbers & here are my answers to your questions & my views on the Edinburgh fare structure. I won’t be looking at tariffs 3 & 4, as they are Christmas & New Year charges.

The first problem with the Edinburgh ‘Fare Table for Taxis’ is that the distances are in metres, just to confuse folk & taxi driver alike. But, if you add on as a ‘ball-park figure’ 10% to the distance in metres, you will have the distance in yards to within 0.6%. And that is near enough for rough calculations. However, to be totally accurate in my calculations, I always use the exact conversion rates from Metric to Imperial, which in this case is 1 metre = 1.0936133 yards.

Edinburgh’s position in the latest PHTM’s National League Tables of Taxi Fares is 256th out of 375 LAs. The league tables are classified on the fare at 2 miles on Tariff 1, the day tariff. For the Capital City of Scotland 256th out of 375 is ssiP Poor! Not a good sign!

The first thing I always look at in a fare structure is not the distance charges, but the Time (waiting) Charges, because in a lot of cases this is the problem. I think they are at least as important as distance charges especially in large cities with increasing traffic congestion. This element of a fare structure is becoming more important.

The Time Charges on both Tariffs 1 & 2, (day & night tariffs respectively) are 25p for 45 secs, which equates to £20.00 an hour, which is reasonable to decent. So, I don’t see much of a problem there except for Tariff 2, nights, but I will come back to that later & also the night tariff in general.

I will deal with Tariff 1 first, which operates between 6.00am & 6.00pm, Monday to Friday. The Tariff 1 Flag Fall/Drop is £1.50 for 450 metres, which is 492.1 yards. The average national (UK) Flag for Tariff 1 (days) is now £2.38 & in Scotland it’s £2.26. So, not only is there a very low Flag, but the distance a passenger can travel, before the next drop (click), is over a quarter of a mile, which seem to be an important part of the problem with the tariff.

Next the ongoing distance charges immediately struck me as the main problem, certainly for journeys of over one & a half miles. The distance charges are 25 pence for 225 metres (246.1 yards), until 2250 metres (1 mile & 700.1 yards) have been travelled & thereafter 25 pence for 260 metres (284.3 yards). So, instead of your fares going up after a certain distance, they actually go down; which is backwards to what usually happens on most Fares Tables with graduated/progressive fare structures. (Yes, I know about Leeds & Stafford etc, but I did say usually).

What these figures for Tariff 1 mean is this;

25 pence for 225 metres (246.1 yards) = £1.79 per mile until 1 mile & 700.1 yards have been travelled.

Thereafter;

25 pence for 260 metres (284.3 yards) = £1.55 per mile for the rest of the journey.

That means that your distance/mileage charges drops by 13.4% once the passenger has travelled 1 mile & 700.1 yards.

With the very high cost of fuel today, the longer the journey, to suburbs & beyond, the more it will cost in fuel to travel back to the city.

On Tariff 2, which operates from 6.00pm to 6.00am Monday to Friday & at weekends, the charges are identical to Tariff 1, with the exception of an increase in the Flag from £1.50 to £2.50. The average national (UK) Flag on Tariff 2 (nights) is now £3.19 & in Scotland it’s £2.91. So, what incentive is there for night drivers; an extra £1 for all the hassle of night time working?

Approximately 83% of LAs throughout the UK now operate a dedicated night tariff, with 50% above the day rate being adopted by a substantive number of LAs for night tariffs.

So, if you can persuade the council, I would suggest that you try to get the following variations in Edinburgh’s ‘Fare Table for Taxis’;

On Tariff 1

Increase the Flag Drop to £2.00/£2.40 & try to get a shorter distance for the Initial Flag Fall/Drop, perhaps 337.5 metres (1½ x 225 metres; your ongoing mileage charge). If you apply for both an increase in the Flag & a reduction in the Initial Flag distance you might get one if not the other & that is an improvement.

Remove the reduction from £1.79 per mile down to £1.55 per mile in the distance/mileage charge after 2250 metres. Keeping the distance charge at £1.79 per mile, will in effect give an increase of 15.5% (1.79 – 1.55 = .24 ÷ 1.55 = 0.1548 x 100 = 15.5%) on all journeys over 1 mile & 700.1 yards. This will be a good increase if you can achieve it. I know the old logic of trying to encourage passengers to take longer journeys, by reducing the mileage charge for longer journeys, but with the cost of fuel today, I think every mile has to be paid for at the proper rate.

The Time Charges are quite OK, so no need to look at those yet.

Tariff 2

I would suggest a complete revamp of the night tariff; £1 extra for night drivers is an insult in today’s times.

The best way to do this is to think through carefully how much extra as a percentage of the day tariff it would be reasonable to expect passengers to pay for travelling home at night. You may well have to adjust the Tariff 2 start time to say 10.00pm, because to expect passengers to pay Tariff 2 rates from 6.00pm in the evening might be a bit rich. I would caution against going for a 50% increase on the day tariff for the night rate. In large cities the percentage increases on day tariffs to achieve a night tariff is somewhere between 20% & 33%, although some are higher.

Once you have decided what you would like your percentage increase on nights to be, you multiply EVERYTHING in Tariff 1 (days) to achieve Tariff 2 (nights).

So, let’s say you go for a Flag of £2.00 on Tariff 1 & a 25% increase on Tariff 1 to achieve Tariff 2.

You should then;

Increase the £2.00 Flag on Tariff 1 to £2.50 on Tariff 2.

Increase the £1.79 Distance/mileage Charge on Tariff 1 to £2.24 on Tariff 2

Increase the £20.00 per hour Time (waiting) Charge on Tariff 1 to £25.00 per hour on Tariff 2

And your Cleaning Fee (Soiling Charge) at £20.00 is a joke. The way many taxi assoc/reps around the country now tackle this one is to get quotations in writing from say a half dozen valeting companies, take an average of those quotes & apply for that amount as the Cleaning Fee, enclosing copies of all the quotations. This should also be proportionate to the tariff on which it may be charged. The idea of a £20 puke fee on Christmas Day is just nuts.

One thing I really do like on your ‘Fare Table for Taxis’ is the £2.00 Cancellation Fee.

After writing all that though, I do fully appreciate that fares around the country are a matter of ‘Horses for Courses’ & I am aware that I do not know all the characteristics & quirks in Edinburgh. But, having visited your Capital City between Christmas & New Year in 2005 or 2006, (distance clicks were then 23 pence on days & 24 pence on nights; my mind boggled), I know that it is not cheap to live there; but what a lovely City!

I hope this helps.

P.S. Out of curiosity, what is the weekly settle/rent on a 24 hour & 12 hour cab in Edinburgh?

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

I would have to totally rely upon Tom to find Edinburgh but, what a wonderful piece of analysis Brummie.

Thank you.

A lot less if they de-restricted.

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IDFIMH

Brummy, I'm in the Scottish Borders 196 in the fare league

the same is happening in dundee ,the fact is we are giving up our social life working excessive hours for the same money a labourer on a building site earns plus he would have sick pay and holiday pay ,once the number of drivers really go down the money will rise and attract other new drivers and so the cirlce starts again,the trick is to leave and return at the right time

The Edinburgh public perceive cabbies as being greedy robbing bas*ards.

It's PUBLIC PERCEPTION that makes or brakes a business these days .. . . .


Nice exercise though pity reality has nothing to do with it . . . .

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"