Taxi Fare Review

We Asked

Aberdeenshire Council, as Licensing Authority, are statutorily obliged to review and fix the maximum fares that taxis in Aberdeenshire can charge every 18 months.

To gather opinions, before fixing the maximum fares, we undertook two distinct consultations. We conducted a pre-consultation exercise with the taxi trade which is not statutorily required. This sought the views of the trade in respect of the proposed fare scale to be taken forward to the statutory consultation phase. Views were sought on all aspects of the fare scale and the survey was active between 1 July 2024 to 22 July 2024. A link to the survey was sent to all relevant licence holders within the trade.

The statutory consultation was open to the public and the taxi trade. Views were sought on the proposed fare scale with a view to fixing the final fare scale. The survey was active between 4 September 2024 and 4 October 2024. A link to the survey was sent to all members of the trade, a notice was published in the Press Journal on 4 September 2024 and the consultation was also publicised through the Council’s social media channels. The notice provided details of the proposed scale, the dates of the consultation and detail as to how parties may respond.

You Said

Initial Consultation With The Trade

• We received 31 responses to the pre statutory consultation with the taxi trade;
• The majority of the respondents from the taxi trade sought no change;
• The highest level of support was in relation to the standard initial charge (19.4% of respondents seeking an increase);
• Support in respect of change to other aspects of the fare scale range from 0.0%-16.1%;
• Some respondents indicated issues with practicalities of the current fare scale (need to carry change) and impact of the festive season rate in December in addition to costs increasing for operators;

Public Consultation

• We received 29 responses to the statutory consultation – 21 from members of the public and 8 from the taxi trade;

Taxi trade respondents:

• 50.0% did not agree with the proposed fare scale. The majority of those indicated that an increase was needed to cover increasing costs;
• 42.9% stated that the incremental charges caused an issue in terms of the need to hold change. However, the majority indicated no issue with this as they tended not to charge the pence and more and more people were paying by card;
• A large proportion of those who responded felt that the inclusion of all weekends in December within the festive season rate did have a negative impact on their business.
• Those who sought an amendment to the fare scale proposed various increases ranging from higher set amounts to inflationary increases across the Board.

Members of the public:

• 76.2% did not agree with the proposed fare scale;
• Those who agreed felt it was fair and reasonable, given the costs faced by the trade.
• Those who did not agree felt it is too expensive, with the majority stating that their main issue is in relation to the inclusion of weekends within the festive season rate. They felt that was unfair and had too much of an impact on those who were reliant on taxis to get around or required such transport to get to and from work;
• Some of those who disagreed with the proposed scale put forward proposals for consideration with the majority of these relating to the removal of weekends in December from the festive period something which was also supported by some of the trade when responding to the initial consultation (15.4% of the trade).

We Will

A report summarising the engagement with the taxi trade during the pre-statutory consultation was presented to Licensing Sub-Committee on 30 August 2024. Committee considered the views of the trade and agreed that the current scale with no changes should be taken forward for public consultation. This being the view of the majority of the trade who had responded. Committee also instructed officers to seek further details in respect of the issues raised by some of the trade in respect of the current scale and for this to be done as part of the statutory consultation so that they were fully aware of the impacts before fixing the final scale.

A report summarising the second round of statutory engagement with the taxi trade and members of the public was presented to Licensing Sub-Committee on 11 October 2024. Committee also heard from a member of the trade. The Committee sought answers from the speaker in respect of some of the practicalities caused by the current fare scale as well as the impact that this has had in terms of their business. The speaker had previously responded to the consultation and also spoke to their responses.

On considering the responses in front of them the Committee were split in their decision. The majority voted to approve a 5% uplift in the initial and additional charges across the board with the festive season rate being retained for weekends in December on a temporary basis with this being reviewed at the next pre-consultation phase.

We will seek further feedback from the trade in early 2025 in terms of of how their business was impacted by the decision to retain the festive season rate across all weekends in December and with a view to establishing whether this remains appropriate moving forward.

The fare scale was set as agreed and there were no appeals lodged with the Traffic Commissioner for Scotland. The fixed scale was therefore published in the Press and Journal on 5 November 2024, in line with the statutory requirements, and came into effect on 1 December 2024.