Wheelchair taxis - silly money?

Richie-from-the-Boro

elsien wrote: »

I've just spoken to a colleague who's on the local council and he's confirmed what Richie says - private hire so they can charge what they like, especially where there's no competition to keep prices down.
Normally I'd have checked the price beforehand but I was just so keen to get my relative out that it didn't occur to me. And I really didn't think I'd be paying so much for a journey of not much more than a mile. Well you live and learn - I'll put my MSE negotiating head on next time.
No wonder people's DLA mobility doesn't go that far.

- flag down a hackney on a meter and you pay by the mile
- ask a hackney to pick you up at the door you pay both directions
- call a PH [minicab] and you always pay both directions
- PH fleets rely on the fact that they are radio / datahead controlled, this means that there's always one empty near you. You still pay both ways - they only travel one way so 100% charge to you 50% cost in time & fuel for them
- flagged hackneys are 30% average more than PH on short journeys over a mile or two
- flagged hackneys however are cheaper under a mile and can cost considerably less than PH at a mile or less
- BUT check the meter is at ZERO when you get in

Ask for the price, then ask how much the same journey is if its in their quiet period ! The question is if two people want a cab in the busy period one is a £70 airport job and the other is a mile to the shops - guess who does not get the cab ?

So find a local driver and tell them you want a regular once a week / biweekly / whatever outside the rush hour and get a price for a regular booking cash~in~hand job.

NOTE: all cabbies have a B&B black book with hundreds of phone numbers in it - B&B means bread and butter - its these 52 week regulars who make his / her money year after year.

HB58

"BUT check the meter is at ZERO when you get in"

There are legitimate extras that can appear on the meter from the time of pick-up. These vary between areas but can include things like extra passengers, luggage in the boot and money for the phone booking.

Richie-from-the-Boro

HB58 wrote: »

"BUT check the meter is at ZERO when you get in"

There are legitimate extras that can appear on the meter from the time of pick-up. These vary between areas but can include things like extra passengers, luggage in the boot and money for the phone booking.

Not quite true my friend, there are legitimate extras they can charge for that must be agreed before the journey commences .. .. but which must not appear on the meter

"BUT check the meter is at ZERO when you get in", thats exactly why you check it - its at zero - or ask why not ! - any greedy company that tried to charge extra for extra passengers, luggage in the boot or money for the phone booking I would report to the hackney office immediately. Charging for luggage is illegal. Charging for a wheelchair for example is illegal but charging for an armchair is legal

- pre-booked can charge for the phone call, that's permissible but very greedy - would only get away with it in a small village area
- extra passengers over 4 is chargeable, pay by mile includes the maximum [any age] number of persons its licensed to carry
- out of area is extra but does not apply in this case and is pre-collect [runners] by the driver
- road tolls notified in advance of the journey
- congestion [out of area] charge
- soiling / or / fouling charge

- all hackney offices will have an updated 'Maximum fares table published for both hackey & PH
- it will be available and almost certainly on the net somewhere in your area

The tariff for the journey should be clearly showing on the meter and any extras should be agreed in advance [ most of those examples above are not allowed on the meter]. Neither the proprietor nor the diver is entitled to demand or take a fare greater than that recorded on the face of the taximeter, if they do so take the badge & reg number and report him to the hackney office.

NOTE: All hackney offices in addition to the info I gave in other threads, have an 8 x 10 colour photo of the driver for passenger recognition purposes.

loulou123

I work in a care home and the wheelchair taxi we use, charges approx £1 more per journey then a 'normal' taxi.

The driver comes into the home, pushes the wheelchair out of the building, into the taxi, does the straps and seatbelts etc, so I think the extra charge is fine, but if it was considerably more per trip it wouldn't seem fair.

HB58

My hubby is a PH driver. In this area the PH cars are metered the same as the Hackney cabs and the fares are the same, as laid down by the council.The drivers are not allowed to charge any extra for WAVs. We were both very surprised to learn that this is not the same in every area!

Richie-from-the-Boro

HB58 wrote: »

My hubby is a PH driver. In this area the PH cars are metered the same as the Hackney cabs and the fares are the same, as laid down by the council.The drivers are not allowed to charge any extra for WAVs. We were both very surprised to learn that this is not the same in every area!

- the OFT and others are as they say consulting at the moment and will give their findings in August
- a lot of the legislation is archaic, the hackney stuff goes back to horse drawn and the victorians
- most of the PH stuff relates to law made before the internet and GPS and is yonks out of date
- most of this legislation relates to quality of services, the fitness of drivers and per this debate - fare regulation
- the only bit of the law that apples to PH and this debate is that 'the driver shall not demand from any hirer of a PH vehicle a fare in excess of any previously agreed between the hirer and operator'

As far as I'm aware fare regulation [in law] applies only to hackney [Section 65 of The Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions)Act 1976 permits any Council in the UK including Scotland & NI to fix the fares for hackney carriages.] but there is no legislation on PH.

Now its entirely possible / probable that your better half and indeed others in different areas of the UK have local arrangements [by laws] that, by consultation and agreement have fixed pre-agreed prices but its not general throughout the UK.

SailorSam

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

Ask for the price, then ask how much the same journey is if its in their quiet period ! The question is if two people want a cab in the busy period one is a £70 airport job and the other is a mile to the shops - guess who does not get the cab ?

Sorry Richie but what you're suggesting just isn't true. It's quite the opposite in fact.
As i've said i drove a Hack around Knowsley, going back say 8/10yrs we'd quote about £25 for a trip to Manchester Airport, depending where about in Knowsley you were going from you were looking at a 1.5/2hr round trip. But that was the last thing you wanted at the time kids were going to school and parents to their local jobs. At that time you wanted the £1 fares where as one person got out you drove up the road to go your next short fare then as the rush died off you could go and sit outside Asda on the rank
Mid mornings or early evening when you could wait for half hour or more between the £1 fares, that's when you wanted a longer run.

Richie-from-the-Boro

SailorSam wrote: »

Sorry Richie but what you're suggesting just isn't true. It's quite the opposite in fact.
As i've said i drove a Hack around Knowsley, going back say 8/10yrs we'd quote about £25 for a trip to Manchester Airport, depending where about in Knowsley you were going from you were looking at a 1.5/2hr round trip. But that was the last thing you wanted at the time kids were going to school and parents to their local jobs. At that time you wanted the £1 fares where as one person got out you drove up the road to go your next short fare then as the rush died off you could go and sit outside Asda on the rank
Mid mornings or early evening when you could wait for half hour or more between the £1 fares, that's when you wanted a longer run.

HiYa SailorSam, .. .. :beer:

- that's what I said

"""Ask for the price, then ask how much the same journey is if its in their quiet period """

- I agree - that's what I said

"""Mid mornings or early evening when you could wait for half hour or more between the £1 fares, that's when you wanted a longer run"""

LimeLight

In Liverpool, Hackney cabs are metered and tend to be dearer than Private Hires.

The PH's have a fare table with the milage next to a price, though for even cheaper fares, i order a PH from a neighbouring council.

CKhalvashi

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

- the OFT and others are as they say consulting at the moment and will give their findings in August
- a lot of the legislation is archaic, the hackney stuff goes back to horse drawn and the victorians
- most of the PH stuff relates to law made before the internet and GPS and is yonks out of date
- most of this legislation relates to quality of services, the fitness of drivers and per this debate - fare regulation
- the only bit of the law that apples to PH and this debate is that 'the driver shall not demand from any hirer of a PH vehicle a fare in excess of any previously agreed between the hirer and operator'

As far as I'm aware fare regulation [in law] applies only to hackney [Section 65 of The Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions)Act 1976 permits any Council in the UK including Scotland & NI to fix the fares for hackney carriages.] but there is no legislation on PH.

Now its entirely possible / probable that your better half and indeed others in different areas of the UK have local arrangements [by laws] that, by consultation and agreement have fixed pre-agreed prices but its not general throughout the UK.

HB58 wrote: »

My hubby is a PH driver. In this area the PH cars are metered the same as the Hackney cabs and the fares are the same, as laid down by the council.The drivers are not allowed to charge any extra for WAVs. We were both very surprised to learn that this is not the same in every area!

elsien wrote: »

I have a relative in a nursing home and booked the wheelchair taxi to take her to town and back at the weekend. Trip of a mile or so, cost of ordinary minicab £8 return max, cost of wheelchair taxi £15.
This is in a town with only 2 or 3 accessible taxis, not a city where there's more availability. It wasn't metered, the driver had a sheet of paper with the bookings and costs on when he arrived to pick us up.
So my question is, is it normal for them to charge these much higher rates - I can see they need to cover the costs of an adapted vehicle, and that it takes longer to load and unload passengers but it still seemed steep to me. And who sets the rates - is it the local council as with ordinary taxis?
Unfortunately if it's going to cost that much we're not going to be able to do the trips as regularly as I would like.

It's illegal to discriminate on the basis of needing a WAV.

If there are less than 4 people in one of ours, it goes on rate 1.*
If there are more than 4 people, it goes on rate 2*

Simple as!

CK

* = Journeys Monday to Saturday between 6am and 10pm