Cardiff Council considers increase in taxi fares following pressure from drivers

Ted Peskett, local democracy reporter

Hackney carriage taxi fares in Cardiff could be increased after pressure from drivers who are calling for support with the rise in the cost of living.

Among the proposals that the Hackney Carriage Alliance has put to Cardiff Council is for the starting tariff to increase by £1 from £2.50 to £3.50.

Proposals also include a waiting time charge increase from 20p for 48 seconds to 30p for 30 seconds, and an increase in the charge for soiling the vehicle from £50 to £60.

The application by The Hackney Carriage Alliance is above the rate of inflation since the previous increase, but the trade argues their operating costs over this period have increased significantly.

Other proposals put forward include:

• Setting three different tariffs depending on when the customer wants to travel – Tariff 1 would be for usual daytime travel during the weekdays; tariff 2 would be for weekday evenings and weekends during the day and tariff 3 for weekday nights, weekend evenings and bank holidays.
• A price increments increase from 10p to 20p to be charged according to the tariff that the customer is travelling on – for tariff 1, the increment would be charged every 170 yards, for tariff 2, every 150 yards and for tariff 3, every 130 yards

Based on the proposal, the cost of an average three-mile journey will increase by 21.8% during the day, 32.1% during the evening and weekends, and 28.4% during the night and bank holidays.

If the cabinet approves the increase in fares, the variation in the tariff will be advertised for 14 days to give the opportunity for people to object. If no objections are received, it is anticipated that the new fares would start on September 1, 2022.

If objections are received, the objections would have to be considered by cabinet before any changes to the tariffs are made.

Cardiff Council’s cabinet will make a decision on the proposals at a meeting on Thursday, June 23.