Taxi Driver Online

Glutton for punishment.

I wouldn't mind, but when the fourth one left me, she didn't take the kids, yet she still got to keep the house! There is no justice!

_________________
There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

No wonder you said you couldn't afford Mercs Andy.

Dusty

My council doesnt do the fares this way. Is it used in many areas?

how does your council do it?

ours you just apply and these days rarely refuse

Wharfie

I suspect Pete's council reviews the fares like most.

The drivers and unions ask for A, the council 6 months later say C, then another 6 months later they agree on B.

But by then, another review is due.

The Council does not set fares at all in our district. It is for the operators to charge what they like. It works.

It works because this is a rural area and one needs to rely on developing a customer base of regulars. Would it work in a big city like London, for example?

I think not. But, having said that, it might if everyone were forced to display their fares on the door to a pre-set pattern that is understandable. Eg> £50 per mile or pro-rata.

_________________
There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

Now that could be viewed as a sensible system, if worked by reasonable people.

However, I wonder how OFT will view that?

In districts where councils set fares, you could have a good defense of 'not me guv', against a cartel inquiry. I'm not so sure in your manor.

Perhaps that's what holding up the report.

Your qualification of "reasonable people" is where the problem lies. Sadly, the world is only partially populated by reasonable people. For the rest, we need definitive and in some ways prescriptive, qualitative control, which, in an area heavily frequented by "non-locals" prone to be "ripped off" by the unreasonable ones, may be better served by the setting of some statutory maximum charges.

God, I wish I knew all the answers. All I can seem to do is raise more questions.

Like Dusty, I live in hope that the OFT will provide some reason, but, like yourself I think, I have absolutely no conviction that they will. I am just another cynic I'm afraid.

_________________
There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

I'm hopeful enough about the OFT and/or CC Andy, it's the politicians that worry me - at the end of the day, the competition authorities can't do much without Parliament.

Dusty

Perhaps Andy, but £50 per mile is a bit extortionate, innit??

It could work on longer journeys, but not on short ones, since it would be like comparing half a dozen tariff cards on the rank, which would be difficult, even assuming you knew where how far you were going.

In any case, people would still tend to just go to the first taxi on the rank anyway, and as far as street hails are concerned they couldn't compare anyway, and would tend to take the first cab that came along.

As for maximum prices, these are no use if they are way above the 'market rate' since, those who know the score will pay less than those who don't know that discounting is rife, and will just pay the metered price.

It's a bit like that in my manor - the LA sets an out-of-area fare (possibly illegally), and on mega-long journeys a cab can be secured for up to half the metered fare.

Of course this is good for those in the trade who manage to secure fares at these rates, but I doubt if the OFT would like that kind of thing from the consumer angle.

Dusty

Dammit, is there no solution to anything! If we go single-tier, and the prices are pre-set by Government of some form, then we remove peoples choice of whether to hire a saloon, a black cab or a Mercedes E-class. As they cannot all be reasonably operated at the same rate.

So how should this one be sorted?

_________________
There is Significant Unmet Demand for my Opinion.

Good point Andy, for one thing there would still have to be a PH sector operating, but this would be chauffeur stuff and suchlike, not just cabs that don't have access to the street market.

I think for a one-tier trade you would have to specify a reasonable standard for cars and drivers, and a reasonable fare structure to match.

This might not leave much scope for a superior service, but the public would gain from a more uniform service for a uniform price.

As for PBs and WAVs, these could conceviably be part of a one-tier structure, on the basis of the kind of incentives we discussed earlier.

Dusty

So what kind of incentives do you believe the government, be it local or national, offer.

How would such things be financed and administered.

Any sort of P/H provision is two tier mate, as nothing could stop me using a Ford Sierra as a chaffuer car working for a pound a mile and therefore licenses to operate would need to be issued. Is that not contained within the 76 act.

B. Lucky