Taxi Driver Online

Higher taxi fares equals more attacks - cabbies


CABBIES fear an increase in attacks from angry customers after Mansfield District Council agreed to introduce high fare rises at a special meeting last week.



The drivers are furious that a council licensing panel – which met last Tuesday to listen to their objections – has insisted that the fares must go up by much more than they had asked for.
It means revellers catching a Hackney Carriage home after 11.30pm must now pay more than they did during last year's peak Christmas and New Year festive period.
The changes to be introduced include:
-Travelling the first half mile in a taxi after 11.30pm will rise next month from £1.90 to £3 – with travelling the first two miles shooting up to £5.70.
-During Christmas and New Year the first half mile will cost £3.50, up from £2.40.
-During the day there is a more moderate rise from £1.70 to £2.
-The waiting time cost — which applies when the vehicle is stationary — will double to 20p, while the soiling charge will go up from £30 to £50.
At the stormy meeting licensing manager Chris Rowlston defended the council's stance, insisting that fares had not risen for years and had left Mansfield cabbies struggling to earn a decent wage.
The council believes the extra increase in the early hours would encourage more taxi drivers to work at night, solving a shortage of vehicles to ferry revellers home, and that cabbies deserve at least time-and-a-half pay for working unsociable hours.
Mr Rowlston said the new fare table drawn up by the council was for maximum fares and that cabbies can negotiate a lower price with passengers if they wish.
But a group of cabbies revealed to the meeting how some drivers suffer abuse and threats and that some passengers run off to avoid paying — and also sometimes vandalise their vehicles.
They claim that the incidents would increase under the new charges because customers would then blame them for the rise in fares.
Nigel Marchant said: "If these increases go through then we will have to go out in armoured cars. We are not talking about an affluent town but a deprived area surrounded by minimum wage jobs that can't support this price increase. It's suicide."
Fellow cabbie John Norman agreed, saying: "You will have Hackneys parked up and drivers on the dole."
And ACE ABC owner Kewel Krishan accused the council of trying to 'strangle' the industry, saying: "The trade asked for a very moderate increase so why is it the council is hell bent on loading more onto it when the trade does not want that?
"What are they trying to do? Are they trying to push more people on buses or to private hire?"
The council received three objections from members of the public and 72 from licensed taxi drivers out of the 322 registered with the authority.
Council chiefs say the figures show that the majority of taxi drivers have not objected to the increase, but the cabbies say that only 84 are Hackney Carriage drivers — most of whom have objected — while the rest are private hire drivers who will benefit from increased fares for hackney carriages.
The council says it is committed to helping increase security for taxi drivers, including plans to install CCTV cameras and hire taxi marshals.

Yes.

_________________
IDFIMH

knew it hire marshals reduce police put cameras in cars.

there is a strategy here

Bath have also got a fair increase, it must be getting near xmas.

http://www.thisisbath.com/displayNode.j ... K=10946955

Best wishes

JD

Going up a whole 2.54%.

Fancy wanting to be able to pay your bills.