Following above-inflation fare increases, passengers using London’s famous black taxis will soon be officially permitted to haggle over the price of their fare — if they feel brave enough.
The taxis, which are already among the most expensive of any city in the world, are to increase their uniform meter tariffs by 5,6% in April, well above the rate of inflation, The Guardian newspaper reported on Friday.
Under a deal with London Mayor Ken Livingstone, the increase has been allowed on the condition that the city’s taxi regulatory body re-designates the meter fare as a ”maximum” price.
Thus, travellers with sufficient courage to risk the probable outpouring of scorn from one of the city’s infamously opinionated taxi drivers can risk asking for a discount, the report said.
”I don’t know if ‘haggling’ is quite the right word,” a spokesperson for the Public Carriage Office, which licenses London taxis, was quoted as saying.
”We certainly wouldn’t encourage negotiating with a taxi driver in the middle of a busy street — it might hold up traffic.”
Black cab drivers say high fares are justified both because of the price they pay for a taxi license, and due to the years of unpaid training they put in to acquire ”The Knowledge”, their encyclopedic grasp of the city’s streets. – Sapa-AFP