Taxi Driver Online

Abolition of EXTRAS on the Fare Table . . . what's it worth?

By that I mean, if Extras Charges for passengers & luggage were abolished in a LA where they are still on the Table of Fares, what would be a fair, one off increase in the flag drop to compensate for the abolition of Extras?

Has this happened in your LA in recent years?

If so, what was the one off compensation on the flag drop/fall, if any, that was added, or was it done another way?

Although Extras are somewhat archaic in concept, I personally don't believe that Extras should be given up without some compensation built into the fare structure or flag drop/fall.

I believe that Newcastle gave up Extras some years ago & ever since have been trying to get them back, but to no avail.

Your thoughts from your areas please gentlemen & ladies & Ms Toots (you're not a lady . . . your a QUEEN on TDO)

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Brummie Cabbie.

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Most of our extras are fixed in the meter i.e. Sunday/Bank Holiday/Night extras.

In fact the only extra we have that can be manually added is a 20p booking fee, and I doubt the legality of that.

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IDFIMH

So you don't have Extras for passengers & luggage any more.

When was that abolished & was there any compensation on the flag drop/fall at the time?

If the booking fee is on the Table of Fares it's legal, otherwise NOT!

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Brummie Cabbie.

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Thats correct, the farecard is a byelaw.

CC

I'd have to ask some of my taxi driver friends with regard to the extras they have on their meter and get back to you. Being ph we don't have extras as such the fare is the fare. The only extra charged is for more than 4 passengers in the vehicle and then it's fare and a half. We don't charge for luggage etc but some drivers will charge waiting time if they are loading the vehicle. I do also know that one half of our company prior to the merger use to charge 10p per bag of shopping but that was stopped.

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Just because something is on the tariff sheet doesn't make it in line with the provisions of the 1847 and 1976 acts.

There are no provisions in any acts for a private hire/radio booking fee.

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IDFIMH

I beg to differ strongly . . . & it's not like you to get things wrong!

Section 65 of the LG(MP) Act 1976 states;

65 Fixing of fares for hackney carriages
(1) A district council may fix the rates or fares within the district as well for a time as distance, and all other charges in connection with the hire of a vehicle or with the arrangements for the hire of a vehicle, to be paid in respect of the hire of hackney carriages by means of a table
(hereafter in this section referred to as a "table of fares") made or varied in accordance with the provisions of this section.

As regards PH, they can charge what they like.

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Brummie Cabbie.

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Sometimes I do get things wrong, but my view on this is fixed.

A booking fee is not a reasonable fee to be added to the fares table, and if I was a High Court Judge, then I would get rid of it if an appeal came before me.

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IDFIMH

In the old days when I had just joined the trade, the radio system I was on (& am still on until 19th April) used to ask the customer if they would pay for a cab from an adjacent area if there wasn't one available in the area of the pick up address. If the customer agreed, the meter went on as soon as the driver accepted the job.

Alas, we can't do that now.

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Brummie Cabbie.

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We have provision on our table of fares for a booking fee of up to £12.00 introduced after the council lost a very expensive case about 20 years ago this is to cover the fact that we are in a large rural area and fares can starty and finish many miles from your normal base of operations

Doesn't one of the acts make provision for additional charges if you are more than 3 miles from the main post office in your district ?

I like your Table of Fares & which case is it?

And if they keep closing post offices at the rate they are, we'll all be f*cked!!

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Brummie Cabbie.

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it was SKDc vs Discount cabs of Grantham


It all centred around the cab firm taking a fare from Corby Glen ( 10 miles away) to go to the next village they put the meter on at the edge of Grantham and charged the fare from there. The customer complained to SKDC who took discount cabs to court and lost the case because of provision in one of the acts for taxis picking up more than 3 miles from the main post office council promptly deregulated fares and to this day we can set our own rates but most stick to the "default" rate because even after 20 years customers don't understand how two different taxis on the same taxi rank can be on different rates

In Plymouth we have a river, the Tamar, you can cross by chain ferry or by bridge and leaving Plymouth is free. Whe you want to come back it costs £1.50 (or 75p if you have an electronic prepay tag). It's just gone up from £1.00 (or 50p).

Last tariff increase (July 2008) for the first time stated £1.00 for crossing the Tamar if using the meter. Now we are stuck so many drivers will no longer use the meter (crossing the river is "de facto" leaving the district). Personally I would rather use the meter but would be breaking the law (tariff is in itself a byelaw) to charge £1.50 as an extra. Fares are therefore "negotiated".

This despite other wording at the bottom of the tariff "Any legitimate charges incurred during or as a result of the fare paying customer's journey will be charged as extras."

Taxi's plying at the station, booking fees and entrance to MoD establishments may charge 40p extra.

At the station the fee to (Railtrack?) use the rank must be paid.

Once in a MoD establishment (Dockyard) you are out of area so may not be hailed (by definition MoD is out of local authority - comes under Defence Minister not local Government Minister - so as well as Royal dockyards would also mean Barracks, RAF Airfields etc). You may have to go 2 or 3 miles to the wharf where the Ship is berthed that the passengers want to get to and you have to leave by the same gate you enter (so you can pick up your badge). By the way if you get a booking, that is allowed to be picked up in the same way as you can be booked from another LA area.

Booking fee IMHO is towards paying for the Office staff.

We can and do charge for extra passengers beyond 2. More passengers means more fuel used.

Finally, Soiling charge £50.00. The beauty of this is "bilking" is an arrestable offence (2006 act) even though 95 out of a 100 Policemen either don't know or prefer not to know that. Just a chance that a puker will cool his/her heels overnight and then end up coughing up for throwing up. When it was £20.00 our lovely University Students started treating puking in a Cab as a right of passage, a 150% hike soon stopped that.

As to a one off raise in flag fall - not gonna work long term. After the next tariff increase (or 2 or 3 down the line), it's going to be wanted back on the list.

By the way Toots, fare and a half for more than Four seems a bit steep, at least ours goes in steps and will only cost 40p for 4 Px, 60p for 5 Px and 80p for 6 Px. Put four in and the taxi can be cheaper than the bus!

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Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

The way the passengers see it is if there are more than 4 it would normally mean 2 cars but you get a 5+ vehicle then fare and a half is a better deal. Personally I don't agree with it but we're PH so as stated before we can set our own tariff. My concern is we have a lot of E7 taxis on our system and they are supposed to charge the cheapest rate so I wonder if they can legally charge fare and a half. I would have to check our table of fares for the taxis to see what the council has set

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

The only Extras we have left on our Table of Fares are passengers, luggage, New Street Station & Penalization of the Pewker.

The only ones in question are passengers & luggage & those are charged at 20p for every passenger after the first & 20p for every article of luggage carried outside the passenger compartment.

I believe many LAs have now abolished these & to be honest if you have a good fare structure, why have the aggravation of adding 20 or 40 pences to the fare only to have an argument with Mr & Mrs P*sshead?

_________________
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.