Issue - decisions

The Committee received a report from the Licensing & Enforcement Manager.

The report advised the City Council is responsible for setting the maximum level of charges for journeys within the city taken in a Hackney Carriage.

A request had been received from Cambridge City Licensed Taxis (CCLT), one of the organisations which represent drivers of Hackney Carriages, for the Council to consider an amendment to the charges which would permit a surcharge to be added to fares where payment is made by means of a credit or debit card.

The Committee received a representation from Mr Wratten.

The representation covered the following issues:

       i.          Asked Councillors to allow CCLT to charge a surcharge when processing credit cards, customer demand was growing for credit card facilities. Suggested 5% as the fee to be charged, this was lower than other operators.

     ii.          CCLT were not able to charge a surcharge at present as they had a fare sheet.

   iii.          Other operators such as Panther already applied a surcharge for card processing.

The Committee then debated the Officer’s report.

The Committee made the following comments in response to the report:

       i.          Organisations generally imposed a percentage surcharge of the total transaction for credit cards.

     ii.          Debit cards generally imposed a set fee per transaction, businesses did not pass this onto customers.

   iii.          The taxi trade had identifiable costs for processing credit cards; as well as offsetting factors not considered such as reduced risk of crime (theft of cash). Also there were staff time/resource implications for processing cash and debit card transactions as well as credit cards. The trade should be able to recover some but not all administration costs.

   iv.          It would be reasonable for CCLT to charge a credit card surcharge to bring them into line with other taxi operators.

The Committee:

Resolved (unanimously):

       i.          To allow a charge to be made for card payments for hackney carriage journeys.

     ii.          The charge should be 5% per credit card transaction.

   iii.          To undertake the required consultations, as set out in Section 4, before the charge may come into force.