FRUSTRATED CABBIES
MABLETHORPE FIRM ABUSED BY PASSENGERS FOR INTRODUCING METERS IN ITS PHVs
A firm in Mablethorpe, Lincs is con- demning the abuse of its staff by angry customers who are frustrated at rising fare costs brought on by the introduc- tion of taximeters. According to the Lincolnite, A1 Taxis installed meters to its eight PHVs at the start of April, in a bid to cope with the rising cost of living as inflation hit 7%, compared to 1.5% in April 2021. This, on top of the soaring prices of fuel and tyres has left the firm with no alter- native but to adjust its prices, given the costs to run its eight vehicles. The company used to offer standard fares of £3.50, but the new meters now start at £3.40, with customers now like- ly to pay between 40p and £2 more.
The move has been criticised by some in the community, and it has sadly resulted in a spate of abuse aimed at the staff, according to the firm. Rhett Levett is a driver for A1 Taxis, and he said that customers have sworn at him, refused to pay and there’s even been an instance of someone spitting at an operator. The abuse reached a point that saw the firm take strike action, only doing pre-booked journeys over the weekend of Friday, April 22, and they say there could be no week- end trips again if the abuse continues. Rhett told BBC Look North: “You’re try- ing to provide people with a service and this is your thanks for that service, abuse for taking them home safely.”
A1 Taxis also took to Facebook to shut down accusations that the introduction of the meters were illegal, stating: “I would just like to reassure all cus- tomers that what we have done with the taximeters in our private hire cars is completely legal, despite rumours stat- ing otherwise. “We made sure it was allowed before we took this into consideration, I have had conformation from East Lindsey District Council’s licensing office, and this paragraph is also from the taxi driver licence book. A hire car is not required to fit a taximeter, but if such a meter is fitted, it must be correctly cal- ibrated, tested for accuracy and approved. Section 71, LG(MP)A.”
LEWES TAXI DRIVER HIGHLIGHTS THE PROBLEMS CABBIES ARE SUFFERING WITH THEIR COUNCIL
Dear PHTM
My name is James Kiernan and I’m a hackney carriage driver of 20+ years within the Lewes District, East Sussex. We are having major issues with our council doing silly things such as want- ing us to have a “rate my driver” type sticker on the headrests of all vehicles; not giving hackney carriage vehicle age extensions (max is 10 years old) yet we currently have 32 private hire vehicles over 10 years old, one being 17 years old, and that’s not including the vehicles getting to 10 this year. The council has now said that finances or condition of the vehicle don’t come into it when wanting an extension, they gave very little help during the pan- demic so how do they expect driver’s to afford new vehicles as the hackneys need to be white in colour. Many man- ufacturers have also stopped taking orders for new vehicles and prices on used vehicles has shot up. We have
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been told for years to organise our- selves so after many years we have finally done that. Many of us have joined the Unite union and I have become the shop steward for the hack- ney carriage drivers. Now that we have finally got organised, the licensing team don’t want to work with us and all the changes they want to make are detrimental to us as a trade. Back in November we asked for a fare rise, our last one being in 2015 - we are still waiting. Myself and Ian, our Unite officer, asked the councillor dealing with the rise for a meeting to discuss the changes we wanted to make around the increase (time rates changed especially Christmas and NYE, waiting time adjustment, rounded up or down to nearest 10p) which at the time the councillor agreed but it never materialised. We were only given three choices on the rise: 5%, 10% and 15%. We as a trade chose 15% as it had been seven years since our last rise and the
way fuel and everything else has risen the other options wouldn’t be enough. We weren’t told at the start to put in the other changes we wanted so we didn’t. We got the go ahead for the rise but due to council rules it has to go into the local paper for public consultation for two weeks, Friday 27th May being the last day. We have been told by the company that adjust the meters they did offer to help the council put the 15% onto meter and give them the correct figures to publish, but the council declined the help, so now we have a tariff that won’t go onto a meter as it involves pennies. There are many other things that are wrong - this is just the tip.
Kind Regards James Kiernan
Unite Shop Steward For Lewes District Hackney Drivers
JUNE 2022
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