Taxi drivers in Swansea are up in arms at extortionate taxi licensing fees. They claim it is the most expensive place to run a taxi business in Wales, due to the number of charges they are required to pay.
The local authority, however, insists the fees imposed on drivers are fair. Official council documents show the price for a hackney carriage license – allowing taxi drivers to pick customers up on the street – is £320 per year. A private hire license costs £310.
These are not, however, the only expenses cabbies have to contend with. Before a driver can get on the road they are required to pay for a badge for each license – a minimum of £106 for a hackney and £100 for a private hire vehicle.
Double Hit
Cabbies – faced with too many cabs and falling taxi sales in terms of the number of hires they get each day – feel they have little choice but to pay all four fees and are disgruntled that there is no dual badge option in the Welsh city. Drivers feel they are essentially paying for the same thing twice.
Research has uncovered licensing fees for a number of other Welsh councils – all of which are less expensive than in Swansea: Cardiff charges £230 each for its hackney and private licenses, with a £59 badge fee and Carmarthenshire charges a renewal fee of £121.45, with a £33 ‘top up’ option to obtain both licences.
Swansea taxi operators want to know where their money is going and question how the local council came to the amount they are charging.