Complaints over charging of new taxi rates

The Competition Authority is investigating complaints that some taxi companies have formed cartels and are telling their drivers not to charge the full cost of fares introduced by taxi regulator Ger Deering in September.

Drivers for some companies in Navan, Co Meath, and Waterford have been told that they will no longer be allowed to work if they impose the full fares.

The new fare structure introduced by Mr Deering aimed to create one rate for the entire State and included a €2 charge on fares when drivers were called out to collect passengers.

However, some taxi companies have decided not to charge the "call-out" fee and have told their drivers not to impose it.

Tommy Gorman, president of the National Taxi Drivers' Union, said the decision by some taxi companies in particular areas not to charge the call-out fee amounted to a cartel and was anti-competitive.

"It is unfair to penalise drivers, this is being forced upon them by people who are making big money," he said. "In Waterford, drivers are being charged €160 a week by taxi companies to operate their radios and some have been told their radios will be removed if they charge the €2.

"Ger Deering brought in a national fare, what good is it if it is not charged nationally? The only one losing out is the driver."

However Oliver O'Brien, owner of Rapid Cabs in Waterford, said the removal of the call- out charge was forced on them after the introduction of the new fare structure.

"We noticed that the numbers of people calling taxis dropped by 15 per cent in the first three weeks after the introduction of the new fares," he said.

"Some fares jumped from €8 to €12 or €14. It was affecting mostly workers and shoppers. We rang our drivers and 90 per cent of them agreed to drop the call-out charge. Very few resisted it and we haven't withdrawn any radios."

He added that taxi companies in Waterford had not banded together and decided to drop the call-out charge, but had come to the same decision separately.

A spokesman for the Competition Authority said it could not comment on matters under investigation.

A spokesman for the taxi regulator said commercial arrangements between dispatch companies and drivers were private matters.

Meanwhile, the National Council for the Blind of Ireland has said that stickers containing Braille introduced by the regulator and placed on the passenger window of taxis to tell visually impaired people the driver's number, do not in fact contain the correct information.

A spokeswoman said they were missing a vital prefix which tells the reader they are dealing with numbers and not letters.

The signs are also in a bad position for Braille readers, who find it more difficult to read side on.

"In our submission to the regulator we requested that the signs be placed in front of the passenger instead of to the side," the spokeswoman said.