For Members of the Committee to consider the review of the ‘Taxi Table’ of Fares (taxi tariff) and to determine whether to accept the proposal detailed in the following report and send the proposal out to consultation as set out in the prescribed process under Section 23 of the Plymouth City Council Act 1975. 

Graham Hooper (Senior Officer, Intelligence and Licensing) introduced the report and highlighted the following points:

a)    The report laid out the statutory procedure and timeline for a change to taxi tariffs;

b)    The consultation would commence on Wednesday 16 August 2023 and would end of 31 August 2023;

c)    If objections were received they would be heard at the Taxi Licensing Committee meeting on 7 September 2023 and either the existing tariff would be retained, or the proposed, or further amended, tariff would commencing no more than 4 weeks after the meeting;

d)    The Taxi Licensing Committee resolved on 13 January 2022 that the officers review the tariff on an annual basis and furthermore the Secretary of the Plymouth Licensed Taxi Association submitted an email proposing a small increase in the tariff to reflect increase in the cost of living;

e)    The increase would be in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI);

f)     With consideration of the increase in the cost of living and inflation it was proposed to apply an average uplift across the 3 tariff structure of 10% and to facilitate this, the mileage distance rate would be changed to the following:

                      i.        Tariff 1, which could be considered the daytime rate was currently set at 1/7 of a mile, which would change to 1/8 of a mile;

                     ii.        Tariff 2, which could be considered the night time rate was currently set at 1/8 of a mile and would change to 1/9 of a mile;

                    iii.        Tariff 3, which could be considered the Christmas rate, and was always set as double tariff 1, would change to 1/8 of a mile;

g)    Appendix 4 showed how the proposed changes to mileage rates would affect the costs for representative journeys of 1 to 10 miles and that an average of 9-10% uplift was applied;

h)    There were no proposed changes to the tariff structure or any of the extra charges;

i)     Officers had considered the need to keep late night fares fair for both the drivers and the general public so it could remain affordable whilst high enough to encourage drivers to work at night;

j)     Officers had considered that the proposed uplift would assist taxi drivers licensed through the Council to face the significant cost of living rises and support them in making a viable living, therefore reducing the number of drivers leaving the trade for better remunerated work and encouraging consideration of investment in newer environmentally-friendly vehicles.

The following comments were made in response to the report and in response to questions:

k)    Wanted to acknowledge the hard work of officers and the important contributions from the taxi trade, and the importance of co-operative working;

l)     An increase based on inflation was preferable to a sudden, larger increase in following years;

m)  If approved the new tariffs would be implemented from late September/early October.

The Committee agreed to:

1.   Approve the proposed tariff set out in Appendix 3;

2.   Resolve to authorise the advertising and public consultation of the tariff set out in Appendix 3, as required by the Plymouth City Council Act 1975.