Teesside taxis 'will not take disabled people' in fares row

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Boro Taxis 'will not take disabled people' in fares row

The boss of Teesside's biggest taxi company has revealed the firm will no longer transport disabled passengers following a row over pricing.

Mohammed Bashir, of Boro Taxis, said the decision had been taken on economic grounds.

Teesside taxi operators were recently warned they could lose their licences for overcharging disabled passengers.

Middlesbrough Council believes the conduct breaches discrimination laws.

Mr Bashir said his company cannot afford to send an eight-seater minibus to pick up customers if it can only charge them the same price as it would an able-bodied person using a four-seater car. "The simple fact is if you order a car and four people jump in you are charged for a taxi. If you order an eight-seater minibus and eight people jump in you are charged for a minibus. If you order a minibus and there's only one person you will still be charged for a minibus because that's what you ordered. But because we are charging for a minibus we are breaking the law."

Mr Bashir told BBC Tees the decision was "morally totally wrong" but added it was "uneconomic" to continue carrying disabled passengers in minibuses.

Middlesbrough Council said it was looking into the matter and had written to taxi operators reminding them of their obligations under the Equality Act 2010.

Deputy mayor Dave Budd said companies "have a moral obligation to treat everybody the same".

Last month a report by the authority found wheelchair users were sometimes being charged up to double the standard fare.

[JayMac]

I do hope that a prosecution can be mounted under The Equality Act 2010. Blatant disability discrimination. Maybe also the local authority are able to suspend/remove the private hire licences. Not being ably to legally trade would certainly focus Mr Bashir's mind.

[John R]

His charges for taxis need to cover the instances where he needs to carry disabled passengers in a minibus. Most  businesses would do this implicitly within their rates although Michael O'Leary decided to add a wheelchair supplement to his tickets to demonstrate the cost (and probably make a little bit more on the side as well).

Though if eight people including the disabled passenger got in then he would be within his right to charge the minibus rate.

[Lee]

At least it's not all doom and gloom on the accessibility front elsewhere on Teeside's transport network, though. The local airport station has a ramped access to the Darlington bound platform.

Oh wait, hang on a minute...

[LiskeardRich]

Whilst I don't condone the situation where disabled need to pay extra, I have some questions regarding this scenario.

A Citroen Berlingo Multispace costs considerably more than a like for like model.
A normal model is ^12995 new, whereas an identical specification with wheelchair space is ^19995 (GM Coachworks). Is a taxi firm subsidised the extra ^7000 to run a wheelchair vehicle? If not what is there to promote a taxi firm carry disabled passengers? How do they recuperate the extra ^7k, without charging additional for those who need use of the additional expenditure? If it isn't a highly successful taxi firm, I doubt they would have the extra ^7000 freely available.

I also know from personal experiences that the extra weight on a wheel chair adapted vehicle causes a reduction in MPG.