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Fare exchange over cab prices

MANCHESTER council has had to change its planned cab fare hikes - because their formula was too complicated for the drivers' meters.

Town hall chiefs wanted black cabs to charge a daytime rate of £2.30 for the first 495 yards followed by 30p for every extra 350 yards, and 20p for each 47.8 seconds of waiting time.

But they were forced to recalculate when George Simms, secretary of the Taxi Operators and Drivers Association, pointed out the meters couldn't handle the two different increments.

The council has come back with a new formula that works in jumps of 10p.

The agreed daytime rate is £2.30 for the first 495 yards followed by 10p for each extra 116.7 yards, and 10p for each 23.9 seconds of waiting time.

The night-time rate works out as £2.80 for the first 300 yards, plus 10p for each 87.5 yards and 10p for each 17.9 seconds of waiting time. Both rates became effective on Monday.

Mr Simms had asked the council not to use 10p jumps because it would cost drivers an average of 10p a journey compared to meters with 20p jumps.

"The passengers would not perceive any benefit, they would just see the meter going up a lot faster than it used to," he wrote in a letter to the council's licensing unit. "No one would thank you for it."

The council rejected the call and agreed the new increases using jumps of 10p.

The percentage increase remains the same, and means Manchester's daytime rates remain lower than Nottingham, Bristol, Sheffield, Newcastle, Birmingham and Leeds but its night-time rates are higher.

A council spokesman said: "When the original hackney carriage fare increase was agreed in June there was a mistake on the fare card which meant that taxi meters could not be set to the rates shown on it. Officers have now changed the fare card."

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk:80/news/s/1015/1015817_fare_exchange_over_cab_prices.html