in a year or so the other two main companies who had bland numbers did the same with Radio Cabs getting 204060 and City Cabs getting 205205 which I have often smiled about.


BRIGHTON & HOVE FARE REVIEW


My ramblings last month reported on the fare review I was putting together and I am pleased to state that the first stage of a meeting with the licensing chair and the council’s accountant went fine. This now goes to the next stage of being put to the Licensing Committee in February with a probable implementation for April. So the whole process takes around six months which has resulted in gaining 10p per mile more since 2019. For tariff 1 this now gives us £2.50 per mile with a flag of £3 (unchanged), with one mile at £5.20 and two miles at £7.60.


This is the usual slow process for hackney carriage fare reviews throughout the country which has always been an accepted practice. However, when we see Uber here charging £25 when it rains, and even when it doesn’t, for what would be a £10 fare, you have step back and think there is something wrong when the hackney trade has to effectively go cap in hand to the council to put bread on the table to justify a fare review. But then again I have to tap myself on my head and remember that the council does not want its hackney fleets taking advantage of all those people who have spent their money in pubs, clubs and restaurants and need to get home safely at an affordable price. In other words “No ripping people off laddie!” Tell that to Uber when it takes over the world.


However, ultimately I know that whilst Brighton & Hove is supposed to be in the affluent south I cannot see any reason why the absolute bare minimum should not be £2 per mile in every area, as when looking through the PHTM Fares Table I find it quite shocking as to how low a lot of fares are and that professional drivers seem to be happy accept this. So, if you are in one of those areas and reading this, I would like to respectfully suggest that you get you act together and start the process of getting a proper return for reasonable hours.


2022 AND A LOOK BACK AT THE PAST


I am going to be self-indulgent here as 2022 will be my 39th year in the trade and over the years it has often crossed my mind to get a proper job. So, having started when I was 21 in 1983 as a driver for my brother-in-law’s hackney, I then took it over in 1985 and subsequently I became a member of the Hove Streamline Taxis Association (est.1936) which is an owner driver cooperative.


When I first joined I was the youngest driver on the fleet at that time and I have to say I was given the odd ‘look’ of disapproval by some of the old boys. Within about three years I was elected to be on the committee of the Association. One of my best achievements was to get the company to drop its then phone number of 736226 much to the horror of the old boys and to get 202020 in place. With-


68


We were looking to expand the company in the 90’s so we decided to take on PHVs. I have to admit that that I was very hesitant about this but it proved to be a shrewd move to quickly expand the fleet as hackney carriages were limited to 90 in Hove at the time. Having taken the decision to do this we then had to have an Operator licence in place because we didn’t need one as an exclusive hackney fleet.


In the late 90’s Hove Streamline was one of the very early companies to use data dispatch with the Auriga system and we become a test centre. It is a shame that Trapeze didn’t put in the investment for Auriga as it was the best system around at the time. When looking to expand many years later we then merged with Brighton Streamline to become one company/association in 2010 of which I was the project manager and I have also recently come back as a director. At our peek we had 360 cars and around 700 drivers.


I have to say that I have always been immensely proud of being part of a large organisation of taxi proprietors/owner drivers that is essentially non-profit making, although it hasn’t always been easy along the way because the strength of being a membership-run company can also be its weak- ness. But, I could never imagine doing this job any other way being self-employed and working when I want to and not when someone tells me to. I strongly believe that there should be more taxi/PH Cooperative Associations which allow owner-drivers to be fully involved in their own destiny.


So, as a keen twenty-one year old starting out in this profession (I even wore a collar and tie for the first few years), I took a great deal of pride in keeping my cab in pris- tine condition which I still do, and jeans were then banned!


As a journeyman for the first year I was on one-third of the meter and I distinctly remember on my first day taking £21 from 8am to 5pm of which I earned the grand total of £7 plus tips. Today that would be £21.45 for one day so multiply that by five would be 107.25 a week in today’s money so it was very badly paid for a journeyman but I was also doing DJ work as well which made up the money. This is why I bought my own cab, which came with a huge premium to become a member of Streamline, and I had to really slog it out for a few years to pay this debt off. At that time we had sixty cabs on the fleet. My hackney plate number was 85 and still is, along with my driver licence being number 85 as well which is very rare and shows how long I’ve been doing this job.


I often smile to myself when I think back and remember that we still had a couple of Austin Oxford’s/Cambridge’s as taxis when I first started which really shows my age, and these were still using the Bell Punch mechanical meters as well! I remember the meter chap trying to explain to the owners of these that very soon they would not be able to fit the cogs


JANUARY 2022


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