Cabbies threaten action as licence fees are increased

9:20am Thursday 24th May 2012 in News By Paul Rogers

TAXI drivers have threatened to bring Hereford to a standstill after being told that their licence fees will be increased with immediate effect.

A council meeting on Tuesday agreed to the proposal after hearing that the service costs around £28,000 more than the total raised through fees paid by taxi drivers.

Normally, the extra costs are picked up by council taxpayers rather than the taxi trade.

The new fees, which were based on costs, were derived from estimating future activity based on applications received for taxi licences in the last financial year.

But Keith Preen, from KMJ Cabs, said that many drivers cannot afford to pay the increases and are planning a protest.

“A programme of total disobedience is going to be discussed and we are very serious about putting an operation in place which will bring the city to a total and utter standstill and embarrass the council, especially when the Queen comes."

For the full story, see today's Hereford Times.

Comments(20)

megilleland says...
9:48am Thu 24 May 12

"we are very serious about putting an operation in place which will bring the city to a total and utter standstill"

I thought this was normal for most days in Hereford

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TwoWheelsGood says...
10:41am Thu 24 May 12

Perhaps the Council should look at reducing their own administration costs rather than just passing it onto others.

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ArmadilloSackRace says...
1:59pm Thu 24 May 12

TwoWheelsGood wrote:
Perhaps the Council should look at reducing their own administration costs rather than just passing it onto others.
At the prices our taxi drivers charge I'm sure they can afford it. Compared to most towns their prices are astronomical.

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RogerLFC says...
2:17pm Thu 24 May 12

We've got far too many taxis in Hereford so if an increase in the license fees thins out the numbers a bit then that's got to be a good thing. But I wouldn't be over the moon if the money was used to prop up an inefficient Admin Dept. at the Council.

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xantiaman says...
10:20pm Thu 24 May 12

Taxidermey,they all seem to stuff their TAXIS down BEWELL STREET outside Tesco on a Saturday daytime,and leave their engines running,outside the main entrance,Double Yellow Lines,does that mean that if you drive a TAXI,you can park here.what happens if an EMERGENCY VEHICLE wants to access an emergency down said street,ie,A BIG RED FIRE ENGINE,they are very big!and take up the total width of said street,bet you wont see a Council Official,Traffic Enforcement Officer or a Police Officer patrolling his beat area,this SATURDAY 26/5/2012,all you see is those silly persons that look like they should be banging tamborines together, no not The Salvation Army,they do a wonderful job, Community Support Officers,they cant even handcuff anyone or arrest,but when they do call for back up,it reminds me of when you are waiting for a bus,Waiting ages for one to turn up,then two,three,four,five six,seven,eight, BUSES you thought i meant Police no silly.IF YOU THINK IM TALKING A LOAD OF RUBBISH,FEEL FREE TO CORRECT ME.

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bernielb says...
10:24pm Thu 24 May 12

after reading the full story,keith preen said he worked 150 hours per week that works out as 21hrs per day( i dont think so) he'd be a danger on the roads with less than 3 hrs sleep a day

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xantiaman says...
10:35pm Thu 24 May 12

TAKE A LOOK AT THE VEHICLES THEY DRIVE,BMW,MERC,SKODA O,CTAVIAS,TOYOTA,CHR
YSLER,BIG PEOPLE CARRIERS, I USE SHANKSIES PONY,BECAUSE ON A SATURDAY,HEREFORD IS LITTERED WITH TAXIS,AND ITS QUICKER TO WALK AS THERE SEEMS TO BE MORE TRAFFIC ABOUT THAN ON A NORMAL WORKING DAY,he!he!.

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xantiaman says...
10:45pm Thu 24 May 12

THEY SHOULD BE REGULATED LIKE ME,AS A PROFESSIONAL HGV DRIVER, BY VOSA!.Medical every five years, tachograph laws,vehicle inspected every 6 weeks etc,etc, oh and a CPC. Drive a pig to market,comes to mind.

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xantiaman says...
11:03pm Thu 24 May 12

i know,ive got nothing better to do with my spare time,perhaps i should become a taxi driver and work 150hrs a week and earn not very much money,As a part time job,i could drive my lorry on weekends, end up falling asleep at the wheel because ive been working 150hrs, not had my Daily Rest Period etc,etc and end up killing someone, i dont think so, do you ?

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xantiaman says...
11:06pm Thu 24 May 12

comment made 10-45hrs and DVLA as well,Sorry.

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RogerLFC says...
11:28am Fri 25 May 12

Drivers who boast of working 150 hrs a week obviously make the argument for a Taxi tachograph. Too many cabs means that there is so little trade per driver that they have to work all day and all night. As regards to Bewell Street the Council has washed it's hands of that as it's too difficult. Far easier to pick off the low hanging fruit in the side streets or car parks ...

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Gywnner says...
1:16pm Fri 25 May 12

Do it then. as it will not change the councils mind. Taxis think they own the road, and will always do anything to get around faster, thats either by 1 breaking speeding laws, taking more than legally allowed, jumping lights. Your on our roads not just yours. YOU ARE NOT EXEMPT BY LAWS!!!!

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ArmadilloSackRace says...
1:55pm Fri 25 May 12

xantiaman - I find it painful trying to read your posts. NO NEED TO SHOUT!

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probono says...
9:33pm Fri 25 May 12

Seeing the number of taxis travelling on the A4103 from Worcester, it does seem that it is not Hereford firms that operate all our taxis. If you can afford the petrol to travel from Worcester to Hereford and back each day, surely a rise in fees is also affordable. Perhaps a discount for those firms who pay business rates or Council tax in Herefordshire might be an incentive. 28K comes out of my Council Tax and so why should I subsidise taxi companies who charge seemingly very high fares from what I hear ?

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General Cafuffle says...
6:50am Mon 28 May 12

To bring the City to a standstill,
double park in St Martins ST or any other city center street.

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retrexs says...
1:05pm Mon 28 May 12

yeh they need to get rid half of the Taxis in hereford belong to one man anyway bet you never knew that!

they're all mainly VW passats only seen one BMW and thats a worthless 520d anyway never seen a chrysler they're worthless anyway!

the knowlege test is too easy for hereford half the taxi drivers of non causican descent are using tomtom navigator to navigate the city i mean wtf!!!!!

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andy1981 says...
11:19am Tue 29 May 12

As a taxi driver i would like to point out a few things. First of all not every taxi driver owns the car they drive, as a driver i take 40% of each fare. that means at the starting rate of £2.60 i get roughly £1.15 per job. when a regular minimum wage is approx £6.50 per hour it shows how poorly we are paid. Put simply if I get a £10 job i get £4 of that which is still way below minimum wage! The owner gets the other 60% to pay repair bills, tax, insurance, mot, council tests and astronomical diesel costs. If we have increased fares each time the fuel went up we would probably be starting on about £9 pound starting rate. With these increases in licences you will not get the best taxi drivers who actually know there way around herefordshire and further, you will get only the ones that can afford a licence who still need satnav to get from tesco to moorfields. I get numerous customers in the taxi who say they use our firm because we are polite and know where we are going. Also do not forget we had a major paycut due to T1 taxis forming and so there is no regular tariff 2 anymore.Secondly we do have too many taxis in Hereford, this is because of our council who give licences too easily, they realise now they have screwed up so are trying to get the number of licences down by charging hardworking cabbies off the road and keeping the foreign guys on the road who can afford it. Thirdly regarding Tesco, im origonally from Hereford, the taxis have always parked like that along Bewell street. What causes the problem is everyone else parking on the right hand side by Rayners blocking the road to do their shopping, or the foreign shops vans blocking the road. I have seen Bewell st when it is just cabs parked on the left and a fire engine has plenty of room to get along there. There is a Tesco customer car park so use that. Also dont forget our wonderful council have shut Widemarsh street in the day where there is a taxi rank going to waste, Where else can we park if they keep closing roads. So our wages have gone down, whilst our running costs have gone up! And our council do nothing about the taxis swapping plates from Worcester to Herefordshire plates. Just think if thats your family or friend getting into a non hereford taxi and the driver has no clue where he going because he from Worcester? Surely the Hereford public want local drivers who know where they are going. You wont have that if this increase happens. Dont forget the buses are being cut so if there are not enough cabs how are you getting around. I took somebody to Bromyard lsat saturday, he had just missed the last bus there. This was at 615pm on a saturday night, so dont tell me the buses are reliable. In reply to cpc we do have medicals every 3 years, we have crb checks every time we renew our badge, and we cant have tacho graphs as very rarely are we in the car for say 5 hours in a row, we may do a 12 hour shift but we are having breaks in that time where i am sat around waiting for work. Hope this clears a few things up that people may not of realised. Your choice people of Hereford.

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ArmadilloSackRace says...
11:23am Wed 30 May 12

Andy, all you need to do is a couple of jobs an hour and you get more than minimum wage, easily Are you seriously telling me you only do one £10 job an hour?

Taxi drivers in other towns manage to work with far smaller fares. Perhaps they're not so lazy and do more than one job an hour...

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leftofmoorfarm says...
1:32pm Wed 30 May 12

When the late trains from London, Birmingham, Manchester etc arrive there are no cabs to be found, but throughout every day there are a dozen or more queueing up by Tesco in Bewell Street for hours on end. Maybe if taxi drivers worked when people want taxis and where people want taxis, they would get more work. Just a thought.

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andy1981 says...
11:20pm Wed 30 May 12

Im not getting into a slanging match with anyone but please check your facts before messaging. In reply to leftofmoorfarm, you need an additional licence to park at the train station not just a regular badge, you can pick up from station if u have been called there but u cant park there without the additional licence. council rip off yet again. Also people want taxis 24 hrs a day, work it out, you have shift workers through the day and night, you have school runs, u have shopping trips, social trips, pub runs and doctor appointments. Add the occasional airport runs and we are out when various groups of people want taxis. And to armidillosackrace i suggest you read my comment properly. Fron the time we get call from customer say it takes 5 minutes to get to customer address, wait for them to get in car, do the fare in hereford traffic and they exit the car how many jobs do you think we can do in an hour? Then there is no guarantee of a £10 job per hour. Secondly i get 40% of the fare so if on starting rate of £2.60 i get £1.05 ok. If i get 4 jobs in an hour that are £2.60 which is possible, that is £10.40 of which i get 40% that is £4.15 for me, how do u work out that is above minimum wage? To get in line with minimum wage I have to take £17.50 on the meter so my 40% is then approx £7.00. So dont go calling cabbies lazy ok. If you have a problem with the so called astronomical fares compared to other places complain to the council as they are the ones that set the fares, not the taxi firms or individual drivers as we have no control over them. Go to any taxi ranks and it should have a sign there telling u all the tariffs and what we can and cant charge for etc and who you can write to at council. Hope this has cleared up the misunderstandings you have.

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