Taxi!

During Covid you probably wouldn’t have been allowed to visit. I hope your husband is improving.

After my husband died, I needed a taxi to get home at 2 a.m. for a journey of about ten miles. Then the driver would need to get back into the city. I thought the £28 he charged was actually quite reasonable in the middle of the night.

Crikey ….where are you living! I had to go to an hospital app last week a distance of 3 miles away. ….at the cost of £23 round trip !
I would have willingly paid £14

You wouldn’t willingly have had Cabbie’s sad circumstances though, would you? Perhaps an apology would be in order.

On a more jolly note re taxis, recently quite latish at night after a thing at the Albert Hall, I couldn't quite face walking a dog-tired 11 year old up to South Ken station and flagged down a black cab. The fare from there (for 4 of us) to Twickenham, about 14 miles and a good 35 mins was £40 and the driver was a cheery bloke. I think I'd have taken that cab even if he's said £60. So not all bad news!

I live in a village with buses once an hour, my daughter lives a 20 minute drive away. With the £2 bus fares it would cost me £4 and take an hour and a half after which I'm fit for nothing. Taxi costs £35!

I am just grateful there are taxis for the times I need one. Everything has gone up so understandably taxi fares have risen as well.

Approx 7 yrs ago a journey from the local hospital back home was £25 (14 miles) shudder to think what it would cost nowadays.

I took 2 taxi's yesterday from just outside Lincoln to Leicester and back, neither paid by me, I dred to think what they would have cost.

Last week I paid £25.00 for a journey of just over 8 miles in Cornwall. So your fate seems cheap compared with that.

As someone who managed a taxi office for over 25 years I'll explain about the taxi fairs. The council set the minimum start off payment on the meter, so if you get in a taxi and the meter says £3.10p then that is what it is for the first mile. If the fair goes over a mile it goes up every 10th of a mile thereafter (I think) by however much the council set it to. Obviously this differs in different areas, and will be more expensive nearer London. Often drivers hire the vehicle from a taxi company, so whatever a fair might come to, the driver only takes 40% of that fair, the rest goes to the owner of the taxi company. You might well be thinking gosh, the owners must be raking it in but you have to then remember they are paying for all the fuel in the cars, paying all the upkeep of them to keep them legally on the road, paying to get them cleaned, along with public liability insurance, and insurance of a hackney liscence/private hire liscence which is not cheap, and has to be done yearly, it's similar to an MOT but more strict in what they check over. They have to have an operators liscence too, just to name a few. Even if the driver is an owner driver, he/she will still have to do all this. Fuel has gone up astronomically and is around £100/£120 to fill a tank up, and so you are on averaging around £300 a week on fuel alone! 10 vehicles fueling up at £300 a week is £3,000 before anything else for the boss to pay out for!! So at the end of the day, they are not left with much in the pot! Sometimes even a loss, it has been known! Remember the only time the drivers are earning are when the wheels are turning round! If they are just sitting around as no work coming in, then they aren't earning a penny. I'm not saying by any means that taxi fairs are cheap, as they are extortionate, I'm just explaining where your money goes!! It doesn't just go into the driver's "pocket" which some might think it does. Of course there is then all the control staff to pay, (the people who take the bookings on the phone, and issue the jobs out to the drivers) and also admin staff! There is no way I'd be a taxi driver, it's long hours for a pittance, and some drivers have to work 7 days a week to make what they need to pay their bills.

I try to avoid taxis - but use uber or cabs quite frequently. I'm happy to pay - as it's so much cheaper than owning a car - even here in London - and far more convenient.

And of course rent, rates, heating and lighting and employees’ NI in the case of a taxi office. Thanks WB, that may help those who complain about taxi fares to understand what’s involved (as I have said so many times in response to complaints about lawyers’ fees).

icanhandthemback you should look into that a bit more because some counties will subsidise the nursing home to get people to things like lunch clubs and hobby clubs.

As a driver who gives lifts to non driving friends I don,t think people always appreciate the costs of running a car insurance tax wear and tear etc on top of petrol . Sometimes I don,t even get the offer of help with the parking fee . So if anyone does give a lift please be generous if it has saved you a taxi fare.

Thank you for your explanation, WillowBreeze59. I drive my car for long distances (eg to DH's home in France, etc) and use buses for local trips as I have a pass. Luckily, I have a First Class Rail pass, thanks to DH's career, so happily pay for taxis to the station. We are lucky in Torbay to have more than one reliable company; their prices are fair and their drivers are always chatty and polite. From my home to the station (less than three miles) costs no more than £10, which I think is reasonable.

That fare seems reasonable..I paid £9.90 for a 4 mile trip for an appointment and the return trip cost £12!

I live fairly close to Heathrow and have always been happy to pick up friends and family from flights. The last time I left the country myself I ordered a taxi there as my DiL and young DGS were with me but on my return when I was alone I got the train for less than half the price and only a short walk from the station.
When the extension to the London ULEZ comes in I'll have to be less generous with lifts and suggest people get on the train. I can then pick them up from a station outside the ULEZ zone!

Isle of Thanet, Kent. From home to train station £4:50. Pretty much same to town.
If you're calling to book a cab, ask while you're on the phone how much the fare will be? If the driver asks for more refuse to pay it, you've had the price given to you by the office and it's the office that set the fares!!