| Following the
publication in London's evening standard of an article which
appeared to show that it was now ok to haggle with the driver
with the fair, Roy Ellis - Head of the PCO - has now written to
calsign: HAGGLING - THE PC SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT |
 Brian Rice and Roy Elis |
|
"There has been a
good deal of media attention recently over taxi fares and in
particular, over the issue of the metered fare being the maximum
that may be charged. Contrary to the impression given in the Press, the situation is that nothing has changed. No new rules or regulations have been introduced. The Government supported a recommendation in the nationwide report by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) on taxi and private hire regulation that taxi fares should be a maximum, and agreed that the situation in London should be clarified because it was clear that the metered fare was the maximum elsewhere in England and Wales. The advice that the PCO obtained at the request of the Department for Transport confirmed that taxi fares set by Transport for London were the maximum. In other words, that London is no different from the rest of England and Wales and that drivers have always had discretion over the fares they charge so long as they did not charge more than the fare shown on the meter. As far as haggling or negotiation is concerned, the PCO does not expect anything to change. There is no obligation on a driver to negotiate a fare and it remains the case that drivers are entitled to the full metered fare at the end of a journey unless they agree to accept a lower fare. There are no grounds for complaint by a passenger because a driver would not negotiate a fare. There is also no change to the situation in respect of journeys where the destination is outside London. The driver is not obliged to accept the hiring and the fare for such a journey may be negotiated between the driver and the hirer prior to the commencement of the journey." DaC Chairman Brian Rice told Call Sign: The confusion doesn’t surprise me at all. In my Chairman’s column from April last year, I wrote at length about the OFT report and said that I was confused about the final part of the report which stated that where the local authorities set Taxi fares, they should be a maximum. The OFT said that was already the case in England and Wales outside of London and the Government agreed that the situation in London should be clarified and was grateful that the licensing authority for the capital had agreed to make clear through secondary measures that fares set in London were a maximum rather than mandatory. I asked in April just what on earth did that mean and that we would have to keep an eye on in the future! The Evening Standard certainly did! I’m delighted that the PCO have now straightened out the matter. |
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