Cambridge taxi driver fears under pressure cabbies could go bankrupt under new low emission ruling
A Cambridge taxi driver insists many under-pressure cabbies could go bankrupt under new low emission rules to be introduced next year.
The driver, who did not wish to be named, told the Cambridge Independent the new rules, set to come into force next April, will massively effect the livelihoods of drivers, many of whom are already working for less than the minimum wage in the city.
Despite objections by taxi drivers, Cambridge City Council’s licensing committee voted unanimously in September to uphold the change which requires all new saloon taxis to be at least ultra-low emissions – effectively electric or plug-in hybrid.
The council’s own officers had recommended the committee delay implementing the policy until April 2021, with representatives of the city’s taxi trade arguing
the market for low emission vehicles was “still in its infancy” and the change to greener vehicles was not feasible.
The driver, who has been a cabbie for almost two decades, added: “New cars from next year have to be plug-in, electric or hybrid plug in. I can’t find £10,000 and pay £15,000 over four years for one of these. It is becoming untenable. Some drivers will go bankrupt.
“There will be hundreds of drivers looking for non-existent cars. It is madness. The situation is just getting worse and worse. People think that if you do a job for £20 in Cambridge, you go straight on to another job for another £20, they don’t realise that you might have to wait two hours for a £4 job.
“If you actually work it out now, the vast majority of ordinary private hire drivers are earning less than the national minimum wage. A lot of drivers are now working 10-12 hours a day, six and seven days a week, which if you were a lorry driver you would not be allowed to do.
“A lot of the drivers now come from Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Peterborough because, unless you live in a council house in the city, you cannot afford to drive a taxi on the open market in Cambridge. It is absolutely impossible.”
Cambridge city councillor Mike Davey, responded to the driver’s concerns: “The issue of taxi licensing and encouraging the switch to electric or hybrid is one all councillors are wrestling with. We need to find ways of encouraging drivers to move to cars that are better for the environment.”
