The North Tyneside Regulation and Review Committee meets at 6pm tomorrow evening ,Thursday 10 Dec 09.
One of the items on the Agenda is the review of Hackney Carriage fares, after the NTHCA requested a modest increase of 10p per mile.
This was passed last month but 19 subsequent objections to any increase in fares were lodged with the council and so it is in front of the committee once more tomorrow.
I was one of those objectors and will give my reasons why here.
It says something about the business sense of the Hackney Carriage trade,on North Tyneside when we allow a fare increase to go through unchallenged at the height of the worst economic recession in my lifetime at least.
It may only be a 10p per mile rise,and it may well be negligible on an average fare, but there are those that will make it their business to proclaim to the world….or at least North Tyneside, that the nasty black hacks have had a fare increase…..
by way of weekly full page ads in the local news guardian.
Even the Tyne & Wear metro has frozen fares for the next 12 months.
As Hacks we have to sit up and take notice,we are fast being left behind,by Private Hire companies and we think the answer is to raise our prices? We sit around pathetically through the week doing little or no work (people would not believe our takings on an average weekday). It’s not that there is a lack of work it’s just being done by someone else,cheaper than we do it. This will only get worse if we keep having fare increases and private hire fleets continue to expand.
Hackney Carriages are willing to charge less, judging by the numbers of them that work from low rate private hire offices, it’s a bit nonsensical to, on the one hand,price ourselves out of our own market and on the other hand drop the rate in order to help the private hire market out because that’s where all the work is.
As 10p per mile is negligible,why not freeze our rate and let private hire catch up? we already have a £100 advantage as we have no office rent to pay. 
Him that likes CoKe asked me yesterday “sniff! er when are the hacks gettin their increase…sniff!” he’s itchin to the tell the world, er, North Tyneside that we are expensive, he tells them that every week anyway but he’ll be planning ahead to about March for his own increase. So any readers from that particular office look forward to £118 rent per week from March.
There is a paragraph in the Review & Reg. Agenda,presumably from a Licensing officer which states the following:
“To put the number of objections from proprietors into context there are currently 204 hackney carriage proprietor licences in force.
There are approximately 124 licensed hackney carriage drivers and approximately 328 combined hackney carriage/private hire drivers, all of whom are eligible to drive a hackney carriage.”
This is an attempt to mislead the committee. Out of the 204 hackney carriages approximately 8 are owned by insurance companies for use as replacement licences, approximately 20 to 30 are owned by low rate private hire offices and are predominantly used to convey people for those offices on low rates. Approximately 25 to 30 work solely from street ranks whilst the balance work predominantly from low rate private hire offices and only work the streets on a weekend night.
Regardless of how many badges are currently in force and we all know that badge applications rise at this time of year,there are less than 200 hackney carriages on the street and of those less than 15% make their entire living by charging north tyneside hackney carriage rates, therefore the 19 objections to the fare increase by hackney carriage drivers was significant.
Our ability to compete with private hire and all of the technological advances that they bring to bear is nil. Our only bargaining chip is price.We have no advertising budget,no free phones,no computer dispatch systems with ringback,textback or pat you on the back. We just sit about like lemons and when someone hires us …we charge them more than the majority.
The punter sees us as an expensive minority…..So what do we do?
We ask for a fare increase!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello to all the North Tyneside Proprietors and Drivers,
Let me first of all just try to explain the current situation in relation to the fare increase.
Firstly, there is an Association who were instrumental in setting up the current Licensing practices & it is much accepted by North Tyneside Council the debt owed to those founder members of the Association, because of its assistance in 1973, when the New Town Clerk was in need of assistance, because North Tyneside was being split from Northumberland, just like Northumberland has now been split up into 150 Parish/Town Councils with New Town Clerks.
The North Tyneside Hackney Carriage Association (NTHCA formerly the NTTA) who were formed before even North Tyneside Council came into existance in 1975, became of much assistance to the Town Clerk and Councillors of that time in 1973, with the Councillors of that day & of the current North Tyneside Licensing Section, because the Licensed Taxi Federation Committee, with Councillors W.F. Fawcett and I. Arkley, along with the then “Deputy Traffic Commissioner” of that day MR Fixter, who was also on the Committee, requested that they were included in all the decision processes.
The new increase of 10p a mile, works on the process of reducing the distance by 17 yards, with no change to the flag-fall on both T1 and T2, but because the meter moves in 20p incriments this means at 1 mile 1760 yards there is no rise, but at 2 miles or 2520 yards there is a 20p increase, but at 3 miles there is still only a 20p increase and at 4 miles there is a 40p in total increase the the charge, meaning as the average job is by HMRC seen to be 3.3 miles only a 20p increase on the average passenger journey, but for the North Shields Rank drivers you will be happy to see no rise in you under 2 mile jobs that you keep saying is all you get at the North Shields Rank.
(NOTE FROM ADMIN. don’t be guilty of twisting words Davy. we state our AVERAGE fare is around two miles)
I would urge all Hackney Carriage Proprietors to ask Bob Snedden or Paul Barton when you see them on the Ranks for the new application form that only requires a payment of £35 to become a new member and have a platform that is reconised by North Tyneside Council.
The North Tyneside Hackney Carriage Association does have a big business plan for the future of our trade, but we would like all current proprietors to join the Association & then attend our AGM to hear our plans for the future of the Hackney Carriage Trade, because suprisingly we are all in agreement with where things need to be taken to achieve our goal.
I hope this expression of intent will mean you drivers & proprietors with a closed mind-set will be willing to pay the £35 to join and assist in achieving these changes that we need to achieve to be competetive in the future without needing to join a “Private Hire” establishment to achieve you aims as “Hail and Ride” Proprietors in the future.
Hope this personal explanation goes some way to establishing a piece of common ground for the doubting Thomas`s within the trade.
Thanks
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
Can we all chip in and buy David Walls a pair of boxing gloves for Christmas. I don’t even think he stops typing to take a dump.
We all know he talks to himself becsause he’s the only one who makes sense of what he writes.
Rumour has it there’s a vacancy in his local care home with his name on the door ‘nil by mouth’.
J.T.H.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade