Yes Charlie, you are partly right. The law concerning what can be charged in a hackney carriage is stated in Section 55 of the TPC Act of 1847. It reads as follows;
55 Agreement to pay more than the legal fare No agreement whatever made with the driver, or with any person having or pretending to have the care of any such hackney carriage, for the payment of more than the fare allowed by any byelaw made under this or the special Act, shall be binding on the person making the same; and any such person may, notwithstanding such agreement, refuse, on discharging such hackney carriage, to pay any sum beyond the fare allowed as aforesaid; and if any person actually pay to the driver of any such hackney carriage, whether in pursuance of any such agreement or otherwise, any sum exceeding the fare to which such driver was entitled, the person paying the same shall be entitled, on complaint made against such driver before any justice of the peace, to recover back the sum paid beyond the proper fare, and moreover such driver shall be liable to a penalty for such exaction not exceeding [level 3 on the standard scale]; and in default of the repayment by such driver of such excess of fare, or of payment of the said penalty, such justice shall forthwith commit such driver to prison, there to remain for any time not exceeding one month, unless the said excess of fare and the said penalty be sooner paid.
The following section from the LGMPAct of 1976 also states that;
67 Hackney carriages used for private hire (1) No hackney carriage shall be used in the district under contract or purported contract for private hire except at a rate of fares or charges not greater than that fixed by the byelaws or table mentioned in section 66 of this Act, and, when any such hackney carriage is so used, the fare or charge shall be calculated from the point in the district at which the hirer commences his journey.
(2) Any person who knowingly contravenes this section shall be guilty of an offence
The two acts show that unless your fare ends outside your licensing area, it is unlawful to charge more than the fare shown on the meter. The public are protected by the mandatory display of a FIXED fare chart in the Vehicle. You cannot therefore charge for anything that is not listed on the fare chart and shown on the meter. Charges for barriers, fuel additional passenger etc are SHOWN clearly to the passenger. This would indicate that unless a credit card charge is displayed on the fare charge it is illegal. Many credit card companies offer facilities at 6.4 percent, they further advise the driver to charge what he wants and make a profit on the transaction, this in my opinion is enticement to commit a crime, here is one of many who do this.
www.adelante.co.uk/taxipay.htmlRight you say, Manchester has a credit card payment displayed on the fare chart. Until 2009 Manchester had no such notice on the fare card. Therefore any surcharge added to a fare before 2009 was therefore illegal. When Manchester council told the trade that they were intending to add this notice to the 2009 chart, UNITE the (D.E the useless) union, objected and said they did not want it. However the rest of the trade and the Licensing officers stood their ground and had the notice displayed. Had that not happened the surcharge would still have been totally illegal. Unite’s objection can be found here at Para 6.3 on page 7 of this PDF............
www.mediafire.com/?epmz33inofx6tnrSo now you ask why do I say Dash, Taxipay Adelante phone apps and others are illegal. The answer simply is that unless affixed charge is added to the fare chart and advertised according to byelaw, a driver is guilty of charging more than the fare charged. Please note the opening sentence of s55, “No agreement can be made with the driver, or with any person having, or pretending to have ,care of any such hackney carriage”.
This would rule out radio companies asking for a credit card surcharge for Hackney carriages booked on their radio system (purporting to be private hire or not) see S67 LGMPA.
The same would also apply to administration charges levied on any credit accounts operated by any Hackney carriage radio circuits. Imagine if Manchester’s oldest radio circuit had to repay all the illegal administration charges it had levied, along with any commissions they had charged for the supply of hackney carriages at more than the meter fare (fare + levy).
Any such company would be bankrupt, in times such as these I am surprised Manchester council has not tried to recover some of the millions it has paid out over the years.
It should be noted that MR Blackcab do not, or never will, charge their customers administration fees on their monthly bill, this has proved very popular with their blue chip clients.
The only case listed on this issue (all though there must have been plenty) is the following
House V Reynolds QB 1977.
In this instance a company called Streamline Taxis had added a 10 pence booking fee to all bookings taken by phone. For the sake of the 10 pence (or more likely, the principal) some body took them to court. In the High Court, Streamline employed the services of Donald Farquhousen QC. The leading licensing expert at the time.
The 3 judges including Lord Chief Justice Wigery. Dismissed the appeal stating the words “ NO Agreement whatsoever” stated in s55 were more than plain in their intention and allowed no mistake. Anything more than the amount stated on the fare chart CANNOT be charged. That in my opinion means credit charges of any description unless a fixed amount is stated on the fare sheet.
This article is not meant to be a charge forward to accuse or abuse the licensing officers of any wrong doing. Nothing they have done the best they could with antiquated legislation, even though one Union tried to hinder them.
I highlight the problem with our current laws and hope the forthcoming Cab Act address problems such as this. However I warn any of our members to avoid schemes, such as described, for overcharging passengers. It is a fact that it is the DRIVER committing the offence not the agent who draws the surcharge.
