Falling tips and the rising cost of driving are behind a taxi tariff review in and around Rickmansworth.

Mealings Taxis, based in Northwood, has asked Three Rivers District Council to consider raising fares.

If councillors agree with the proposals, the cost of a one-kilometre taxi ride at 10pm will have increased by 60.7 per cent over the past decade.

An email from Mealings to the Rickmansworth-based council points to Confused.com data, published in April 2023, which shows drivers paid roughly 20 per cent more for their car insurance than they did the year before.

Watford Observer: Three Rivers District Council.

“The Consumer Prices Index, including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) rose by 8.9 per cent in the 12 months to March 2023,” it reads.

“Forty per cent of the Hackney carriage fleet in Three Rivers is electric and electricity prices in the UK rose by 66.7 per cent and gas prices by 129.4 per cent in the 12 months to [January] 2023, while other fuel prices have remained static.

“We estimate vehicle repair costs to have increased by 10 per cent in the past nine months based on feedback from drivers in our fleet.”

The email adds that, in the past, fewer than 10 per cent of transactions were made by card.

This has now risen to 50 per cent, the firm claims, “which has increased the costs drivers pay for processing fees”.

The email continues: “This increase in card payments has also reduced the amount of tips drivers receive.”

There will be a £4 starting fare if changes are agreed.

Three Rivers District Council and the local taxi sector effectively froze their tariffs between 2013 and July 2022.

In that period, a trip cost £2.80 – up to the first 1,015 metres.

Watford Observer: Moor Park Metropolitan line station in Hertfordshire. Credit: Will Durrant/LDRS

Every extra 95m up to 2,155m cost 10p, and with an extra 10p for every 55m after that.

The start fare between 11pm and 6am was set at £3.20.

In 2022, councillors raised the 1,015m start fare rose to £3 in the daytime and £3.50 in the night-time.

Ten pence was charged for every 90m up to 2,030m, then 50m afterwards – with the meter ticking over at shorter intervals than before.

Night-time was extended to cover 9.30pm until 6am.

On Thursday, October 12, Three Rivers District Council’s regulatory services committee will consider raising the start fare again – to £4 during the day and £4.50 at night.

A report for elected councillors, written by authority staff, reads: “Officers note that the cost of living has increased both for taxi drivers and taxi consumers, and consideration is required to make sure the fares are sufficient for drivers to make a living, but not too high to deter customers, recognising the important role the taxi trade plays in society, especially for transporting vulnerable passengers.”

Any decision which the council makes must be put out to consultation before the tariffs rise.

The new fares would cover cabs licensed in the Three Rivers authority area – which includes Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Abbots Langley, Croxley and Moor Park.