Taxi Driver Online

Don't think there's anything particularly radical here, apart from T2 starting at 9pm rather than 11pm


Night-time taxi charges set to be extended in Glasgow by two hours and fares to increase by almost 10%

https://www.glasgowworld.com/news/night ... 10-4664931

Night-time taxi charges in Glasgow are set to be extended by two hours and an almost 10% rise in fares is planned.

The move — which will allow an extra £1.50 to be charged from 9pm rather than 11pm — has been proposed in the hope of boosting the supply of taxis in the evenings.

Changes were recommended to Glasgow City Council in an independent report by Dr James Cooper, who assessed production costs — including fuel, vehicle and insurance fees — for drivers between September 2022 and February this year.

They include:

• An increase in the minimum charge flag fall from £4 to £4.40
• A rise in the additional night-time charge from £1.40 to £1.50
• A change in the night-time hours from 11pm to 6am to 9pm to 6am
• An uplift in the soiling charge from £42 to £46

Additional Christmas and New Year charges — between 9pm on December 24 and 6am on December 27 and 9pm on December 31 and 6am on January 3 — could rise from £2.50 to £2.70.

Currently, these charges only apply on December 25 and 26 and January 1 and 2.

Robert McLean, of Glasgow Taxis, said the public “rely heavily on taxis to get back out of the city” at night-time. He would “encourage” an increase of the night-time charge from £1.50 to £3 to improve the availability of taxis.

Glasgow’s licensing committee agreed to propose a 9.72% rise to the rates, which will now be open to representations before going back in front of councillors for a final decision.

Last year, an increase of 19.36% was agreed following a previous review. It came into effect in April 2023. Under the latest plans, the flag fall distance and time are also expected to be changed from 886 yards to 889 yards and 166 seconds to 167 seconds.

Each additional increment could change from a distance not exceeding 196 yards to 179 yards and the time changed from 42 seconds to 38 seconds. However, the distance and time charge would remain at an increment of 30p.

Dr Cooper concluded there had been a 9.72% increase in “the cost of operating a taxi in Glasgow”.

His research considered a range of factors including fuel costs, vehicle purchase and maintenance expenditure, insurance and licence fees and the costs of Low Emission Zone compliance.

A council report stated Glasgow Taxis believe the 10p increase in the night-shift flag fall would “not be effective”. The firm wants to see it rise to £3 at nights and £5 over Christmas and New Year holidays.

It has also suggested the night-time charges should stop at 5am rather than 6am as to “not penalise” workers who start early.

Glasgow Taxis Owners Federation suggested the night charge should be changed to £2, and wants extra charges per person after two passengers.

Dr Cooper’s report stated: “Socio-economic benefits arise from the support of night time industry, with additional safety benefits in encouraging taxi supply to get people home after partying.

“While the decline in the number of drivers within the trade has had an impact and is likely to continue to reduce the active supply at points of key demand – a decrease in the number of vehicles within the fleet can have the impact of refocusing supply away from the least attractive times of day.

“It is noted that evening, family, and night time cusp participation in city activities can and likely will continue to be affected by declining supply. We have therefore proposed an update to the measurement of night time supplements.”

Consultation on the plans has been held with the trade and 325 responses were received.

Dr Spreadsheet's been at it again


Wonder what formula he uses to come up with those figures

Not sure I really understand what he's havering aboot at the end there about supply and demand. 'Night time cusp participation' etc

Apart from the health risks to drivers, of course, including night/shift work being a category 2A (ie 'probable' carcinogenic

Meant to ask, by the way - does the extension of pub and club opening hours in Glasgow since lockdown affect the trade much? Or do none of the Glasgow drivers on here work nights?

never work nights,dont have the patience anymore to put up with all the idiots

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i started out with nothing and ive still got most of it left

I know they need to pay for those shiny new LEZ compliant vehicles but I doubt the punters will be impressed especially if there are cheaper alternatives.

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Can't say I've noticed much consistent difference - there's busy nights and quiet nights. The Garage (venue) has just cut its opening from 7 days to Thu/Fri/Sat only. Don't think they'd do that if they'd been getting customers.

Saw the tariff report in the council docs here

My first thought was the tariff went up only last year, so I can't see passengers being delighted. But I suppose the better/faster/cheaper rule still applies - HCs aren't cheaper but should still be ok if (and it is *if*) they're better and faster.

I'll soon find out as I only work nights. I don't have the patience to put up with the idiots either, but I'm not a morning person.

Thanks to the Glasgow guys (and I'd kind of guessed Jozef didn't work nights, and that Mr XH did, but not too late, if only because of the times they usually post on here...).

But I should maybe have phrased the question differently - has the late opening made any difference to how late drivers have to work, or doesn't it make any difference because it would be non-stop anyway until the same time, and the later opening times would just spread demand out a bit?

When I worked in Dundee, the pubs closed at midnight, and the clubs at 2.30am. The streets were pretty much cleared by 3.30. Now the pubs open till 1am, and clubs I think till 3.30, and the all night 'casino' (aka all-night drinking venue) has also dragged things out further. So to my mind it's all just dragged out the same work by an extra hour or so at the end of the night

And I've read the same about the 24-hour drinking Blair introduced in England (although in reality maybe more like 4/5am closing and the like, rather than a couple of hours earlier).

And I know for a fact that it's been a huge factor in St Andrews, and it's more obvious because there's rarely people queuing for a car in the streets these days. Most obviously, back in the day, on a Tuesday night (say) everything would be closed by midnight, and most taxis would be home and hosed by 1am at the latest. But years later and I've regularly seen maybe 15 cars queued on the rank at about 2am waiting for the worst of the drunks to appear from the worst of the licensed premises.

Which was what I did for years and years, but which I just haven't been able to get back to since lockdown

And which is why I'd be mightily pi$$ed off I was a driver in Glasgow working till the bitter end of the night, although I don't know if the, er, supply/demand dynamic is the same down there - as I said, if the drivers are non-stop anyway then it might actually be a good thing in that it will spread the demand out, and most drivers would finish at the same time anyway.

Anyway, just meant to rephrase my question, but it dragged on a bit - just like the nights in St Andrews

(And, apart from several other factors, the licensing hours thing is one big reason for the chaos on our night rank, and the kind of thing that lead to the recent incident...)

Down here 24-hour licensing did the trade no good whatsoever. Longer hours for the same money.

As for the nighttime economy, speaking to the lads who work it it has gone down a fair bit over the years.

Nothing to do with Uber or more cars out, just down to people being far more careful with their money.

I picked up a couple the other day and they told me the night before they bought a round of four drinks and it cost them £76.

Admittingly it was half a bottle of wine and three doubles, but FFS £76.

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IDFIMH

Had a couple in the car last night, and they said the service charge in a restaurant they'd been in was £120 for the table

Don't think it was particularly posh or anything like that. And certainly not the kind of money I'd be paying, although I'm not often in restaurants - I'd be looking at that being more like the total bill for a table of four

And, I mean, that's probably why a lot of people will park all night on our rank and just aren't bothered - even if they did get a parking ticket (a once in a blue moon event) then the £60 charge is just small change to some of them.

So they view the rank as their paid-for VIP parking space. Except that 99.99% of the time it's free parking

Maybe some, but not a huge difference. I mainly work north-west Glasgow and work usually picks up 9pm-midnight, probably as most sensible(ish) people head for home or to Queen St/Central. But it's not really consistent - some nights are stone dead and just stay that way. And last night, nothing was moving until about 11, likely due to the football.

I don't often stay out past 2am as it starts to become like Dante's Inferno.