Taxis decide not to strike today

Wednesday 31 May 2017

Rank taxi drivers have pulled back from further strikes as part of their dispute with the Department for Infrastructure which is trying to bring in a series of reforms to the taxi-cab industry.

It follows a long meeting yesterday afternoon between the two sides. The Jersey Taxi Drivers Association (JTDA) says the Infrastructure Minister has told them to prove the reforms are unfair, otherwise they will go ahead.

JTDA President Mick Tostevin described the prospect of a resolution to the ongoing dispute as “bleak” and that an indefinite strike could be on the cards following unproductive talks.

States-regulated rank taxi drivers took official industrial action last Thursday after Minister Deputy Eddie Noel announced changes that would see rank and private cabs forced to charge the same maximum price and only allowed to charge 20p for any ‘extras’ including passengers and luggage.

But rank taxi drivers argue that the move will lose the self-employed fleet significant amounts of revenue, and that they will also be crippled by the cost of updating their vehicles for disabled users – another new regulation which would see all existing ‘yellow plate’ taxis transformed into ‘purple plates’ affiliated to a dispatch company by 2021.

Pictured: A sign left at the Weighbridge rank during last Thursday's rank taxi strike.

According to the JTDA, Deputy Noel suggested that he would be willing to increase the 20p extras rate, but only if the organisation could provide proof that the rate – apparently calculated by the Statistics Unit on the basis of previous meter readings – was unfair.

They also shared their view that, “yellow plated drivers should stay yellow until they retire.”

Despite having opened dialogue with the Minister, JDTA President Mick Tostevin told Express that, “…the situation is looking bleak” and that Deputy Noel’s meeting was simply him, “…throwing us a couple of crumbs.”

“He’s made his decision and he’s not prepared to move on,” he added.

At this stage, no further meetings have been scheduled with the Minister.

Following the negotiations, Mr Tostevin consulted with JTDA members – of which there are around 150 – last night to decide on how to move forward and whether services will be officially withdrawn for a second time. They will meet this morning. 

Deputy Noel commented:

"We are willing to look again at the "buy out" figure of 20p per journey which was independently calculated by the statistics unit based on industry data. The JTDA president claimed yesterday that the data was flawed, so we agreed to get the statistic unit to recalculate the "buy out" amount based on new data to be provided by the industry.

"So as we stand the new tariffs will still be coming into effect on the 1 July. With regards to the grand fathering rights they have been agreed to run to 1 January 2021.

"We are always willing to talk to the industry, but let's be clear the JTDA made no direct contact with myself or my department since our last meeting last Monday until we asked them in to a meeting yesterday, some 8 days, preferring to communicate via social media which is how we found out about last week's wildcat strike and the proposed strike today."