Source: Daily Echo
A TAXI trade body in Southampton is requesting fare hikes after council bosses ordered drivers to pay for spy cameras in their cabs.
The Southampton Hackney Association (SHA) wants city councillors to approve fare rises of around 10 per cent for a typical journey.
SHA chairman Ian said increased business costs were hitting drivers’ livelihoods. He said in the past year insurance premiums had risen four per cent, docks permits had gone up from £40 to £50, while the introduction of four new taxis had increased competition for customers.
The introduction of compulsory £710 “taxicams” and a requirement to have two MoTs a year had also added to costs, he said.
Over the past decade fares in Southampton have dropped from among the most expensive the in the country to 116th out of 380 authorities, according to a trade survey. Fares last went up two years ago.
It comes as licensing chiefs plan to charge drivers an extra 10 per cent for the cost of a licence, from £150 to £165.
Mr Hall said: “If the council can apply for the licence fee to go up, I cannot see why they cannot agree to a fare rise.”
If the new table of fares is approved, a one-mile trip will go up from £4 to £4.20, a three-mile trip – for example from Bitterne Park Triangle to St Mary’s Stadium – will cost £7.40 instead of £6.80, while a five-mile journey, for example from the city centre to the airport, would cost £10.60 rather than £9.60.
However, Christmas and New Year fares will be reduced from £4.40 to £3.90 a mile.
The SHA, which has 126 members, claims to have the support of the trade. A majority of the 161 responses from a survey of 480 Hackney Carriage drivers and proprietors backed a fare increase.
