East Herts Council executive wants all licensed taxis in the district to be able to take card payments by next April
East Herts Council’s executive wants all taxis it licenses to be equipped to take card payments by April next year.
Currently, almost 95% of hackney carriage vehicles meet the benchmark, although a survey shows not all drivers are happy about the proposed change. They will still be able to accept cash.
The draft policy must be approved by the full council, but at a cabinet meeting last Tuesday (November 28) the authority’s leader, Ben Crystall (Green, Hertford Bengeo), said: “[This policy] does seem to make sense. How can it not be better to ensure people have a wider variety of ways to pay?”
East Herts Council surveyed drivers in March and received 97 responses. Most (94.9%) said they could take card payments and 54.6% felt it should be mandatory for all licensed vehicles to contain electronic payment facilities.
“I believe it’s down to the individual to decide whether they want to take card payments,” one survey respondent said. “There is still a great need for cash, for the times when card readers aren’t working either [due] to having no signal in the area you are dropping off or if the system is down.”
Another wrote: “This is not a health and safety issue. There are many taxis in the town [sic] that have that facility if you are worried about choice. Should we mandate every taxi should have a fridge in the boot for convenience?”
Council officers responded in a report: “The policy does not mean that drivers will no longer be able to take cash. The intention is to increase the available payment options, not to move to only allowing card payments.”
Some nearby taxi licensing authorities already stipulate drivers must be able to take card payments, including Transport for London and North Herts Council.