It is with great pleasure that I can announce that the Cornwall Council Solicitor has agreed that we can have a booking fee added to the Restormel Table of Fares for pre-booked journeys, to solve the issue of Hackney carriages performing Private Hire work unlawfully with regard to charging!
The Council have provided the wording, and we have requested a maximum fee of £100 (this is across all tariffs). So if this gets approved, you can lawfully continue your private hire work at the same rates with this booking fee.
The booking fee must be explained and agreed with the hirer at the point of booking, but it means that up to the approved maximum (hopefully £100), this will ensure that when operating within your district (zone), you have the ability to charge a viable price for the service that covers the dead mileage. So you don’t need to turn rural customers away anymore as you will be able to charge a fair price.
This has been a long hard battle over the last 18 months to convince the solicitor that it can be done within the legislation of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 (sections 65 & 67) – have you ever read it, you need to – so fingers crossed that it all goes through the process. Here is the proposed table of fares:
This as always has to go through the consultation with public process etc., but all being well we’ll have this in time for the season.