FT reports that Heathrow to increase black taxi fees

[DisneyCupcake]

The FT today reports that Heathrow Airport may try to claw back some of the losses that it has made with regard to black cabs. First came the extra passenger charge of £8.90 per person. Now according to the FT, they are preparing to nearly triple the charges for London’s Black Cab from £3.60 to £10 from July onwards.

What the effect will be on taxi numbers at Heathrow remains to be seen, perhaps creating a lot of issues ahead, none of which will be good for passengers. Many of the drivers already hate short journeys, now with a £10 fee they may try to refuse to take people short distances. In the past complaints have been made due to the cost of a black cab to the Hilton T5 - so much so that the hotel itself pointed this out on their website when booking a room. This will obviously affect passengers wanting to use cabs to get to and from hotels in the Bath Road/T4 area too.

It will also be interesting to see what affect it has on Uber fares too.

Moderators - not really sure which heading to put this under please feel free to move if necessary - thanks DC.

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Originally Posted by DisneyCupcake

The FT today reports that Heathrow Airport may try to claw back some of the losses that it has made with regard to black cabs. First came the extra passenger charge of £8.90 per person. Now according to the FT, they are preparing to nearly triple the charges for London’s Black Cab from £3.60 to £10 from July onwards.

What the effect will be on taxi numbers at Heathrow remains to be seen, perhaps creating a lot of issues ahead, none of which will be good for passengers. Many of the drivers already hate short journeys, now with a £10 fee they may try to refuse to take people short distances. In the past complaints have been made due to the cost of a black cab to the Hilton T5 - so much so that the hotel itself pointed this out on their website when booking a room. This will obviously affect passengers wanting to use cabs to get to and from hotels in the Bath Road/T4 area too.

It will also be interesting to see what affect it has on Uber fares too.

Moderators - not really sure which heading to put this under please feel free to move if necessary - thanks DC.

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I feel for the taxi drivers, these fees are prohibitive and unfair.

That said as a passenger I have an expectation to be able to hail a taxi and be taken to my destination for the published rate. Whether that is 2 miles or 200 miles.

In joining the rank at LHR all cabbies abide by the rule that they "get what they get"; they can't refuse to take to someone a short journey even though it might make no commercial sense.

If someone does this to you at LHR, write down the cab number, report it to the taxi team at LHR and they will revoke that driver's access to the rank at LHR (firstly for a short period and then if a repeat offender - for good)

[shack69]

I believe the cabbie should be allowed to pass these fixed charges on directly to the customer. So any rate would start at £10 + first 1/4mile charge then normal mileage after that.