Cost of a taxi ride goes up from Monday

Friday 22 November 2024

Maximum taxi fares will increase by 4.75% and some tweaks will be made to the tariff structures.

But Environment & Infrastructure has knocked back other requests from the Guernsey Taxi Drivers Association after consultation revealed they could have had unintended consequences.

The annual increase was calculated using a formula which takes into account taxi operating costs and Guernsey's median earnings.

The increase will apply to all tariffs and will mean that a two-mile journey on Tariff 1 will increase by 40p from £6.10 to £6.50, while a five-mile journey on Tariff 2 will increase by £1 from £23.10 to £24.10.

The committee has also agreed to some changes to the taxi tariff structure which were proposed by the Association:

• Start the evening/public holidays tariff (tariffs 2, 4 and 6) at 6pm on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, instead of 7pm
• Amend the tariff seating capacity categories from 1-4 passengers, 5-7 passengers and 8 passengers to 1-4, 5-6 and 7-8, as although the same type of vehicle could be used for 5 or 6 passengers, normally a larger vehicle is required for 7 or 8 passengers.

Three other proposals were included within the consultation, but having listened to feedback, the committee has decided:

• Not to start the evening/public holidays tariff (tariffs 2, 4 and 6) at 7pm on a Friday, instead of 10pm to mirror Saturday and Sunday
• Not to apply the evening/public holidays tariff (tariffs 2, 4 and 6) to all day on Saturday, and/or all day on Sunday, and remove the 60p surcharge currently in place for Sundays

Feedback suggested that if the committee had agreed to apply higher tariffs earlier on Fridays and also all day on Saturdays and Sundays, this may have caused a reduction in the number of taxi drivers operating late at night or in the early hours of the morning, because they might have received sufficient income during the evening and weekend daytime.

There were 13 responses to the public consultation, which included responses from the public as well as those working in the industry.

Deputy Adrian Gabriel, Vice-President of the committee, said: "We're grateful to those who took part in this consultation giving us an opportunity to hear from many of those at the coal face of this industry.

"This consultation has been really helpful in highlighting what could have been some unintended negative consequences of the proposed changes to the tariff structure, so we've quickly taken this feedback on board and have taken steps to continue to support the industry.

"It's certainly worth emphasising that these are the absolute maximum fares that can be charged for a taxi journey. Taxi firms are under no obligation to apply the charge stated on the meter and could decide that they want to offer fares which are lower than the maximum to put themselves on a more competitive footing."