Taxi Driver Online

Cabbies say extra licences ‘un-fare’



A plan for Reading Borough Council to generate more money has caused concern among Reading taxi drivers.

The proposals put together by financial consultant Deloitte is intended to raise £1 million in revenue for the council in the coming year.

There are a series of proposals including organising commercial waste collection like a business, hanging advertising banners on lampposts and selling off council property.

But a plan to recover the full cost of running the service which licenses taxis by charging the drivers more and by issuing more licences has worried the cabbies.

The report to the cabinet suggested the £260 annual charge to taxi drivers could go up by 13 per cent a year until 2014 to recover the actual cost of the licensing service.

It also said the Department of Transport did not consider imposing restrictions on the number of licences issued as “best practice”, acknowledging that while there was a demand from would-be taxi drivers for more licences there was “not any unmet demand from a passenger perspective”.

Asif Rashid, who chairs Reading Taxi Drivers’ Association, spoke to the cabinet last Monday of the “harsh economic climate”.

He insisted now was not the time to issue more Hackney carriage licences saying the ranks were already overcrowded.

He said the taxi drivers had paid £10,000 for a council survey on the subject a year ago and were not due to be surveyed again until 2012.

Issuing more Hackney carriage licences, he added, would lead to “more pollution and more congestion”.

Deputy leader of the council Councillor Kirsten Bayes said: “We understand the very difficult situation that Hackney carriage drivers find themselves in because of fuel costs and the economic situation that is happening.

She added: “The council has a duty to cover its costs in this matter.”

But she reassured the cabbies present the decision would not be made by the cabinet but would be passed for consideration to the licensing committee and the Hackney carriage drivers would be kept fully informed.

Cllr Tony Page criticised the Deloitte report for its emphasis on “charging the council tax payers more” and “flogging off the council assets”.

He said he hoped to see something “more imaginative”. He also asked why the report on taxi licensing only referred to Hackney carriages with no mention of licensed private hire drivers.

Cllr Tom Stanway, lead councillor for culture and sport, said of the limit on the number of licences: “If the limit was removed it would be after consultation with drivers.”

Leader of the council Cllr Andrew Cumpsty reassured the drivers: “Genuinely, this council and this cabinet now believes in consultation.”

source: http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Why should the council tax payer subsidise their fees?

Regardless of anyone's views on restricted numbers, if they want a restricted trade, they should at least be prepared to pay for it.

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

I fully agree.

However has anyone mentioned to those accountants that any new revenue generated by extra taxi licensing fees will be reduced by the loss of revenue from private hire licensing fees?

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IDFIMH

Unless they're currently HC jockies being shafted

But who knows? Certainly not the people who did the SUD survey

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Caledonian Cabbie