Guidelines
for the Establishment of
Taxicard Schemes
Introduction
Since the mid 1980's a number of Taxicard Schemes has been established
in the UK. In most areas where they exist, they are constituted as stand
alone schemes but a few of them are part of a more general concessionary
fares scheme. The role of transport in improving the quality of life for
disabled people has been well recognised over recent years. There is little
point in improved accessibility to shops, offices, hospitals and other
buildings if a disabled person is unable to reach them. With more and
more licensing authorities requiring licensed taxis to be accessible over
the coming years, this form of transport can play a major role in enabling
disabled people to lead a fuller life in the community and in the context
of Community Care. These guidelines are intended to assist authorities
in setting up Taxicard Schemes. They do not attempt to provide a blueprint
for any or every scheme but to draw attention to major points which need
to be taken into account. The Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee
(DPTAC) can, however, provide more detailed help where this is required.
What is a Taxicard Scheme?
Broadly speaking, a Taxicard Scheme provides for disabled people, who
cannot generally use buses or trains, to travel in licensed taxis at substantially
reduced fares. This takes account of both the opportunities for mobility
of disabled people and the fact that there is a close correlation between
disability and low incomes. Taxicard schemes can effectively complement
or provide an alternative to Dial-a-Ride (Ring-and-Ride) schemes which,
while providing a valuable service, are inappropriate for certain trips
which cannot be scheduled and are less flexible and subject to limited
resources. Such a scheme draws on the availability of taxis as a pre-existing,
flexible, on demand service but also takes account of the fact that taxi
fares are generally beyond the scope of disabled people's means other
than for very occasional trips.
What are the Advantages of Taxis?
- They are an already existing resource.
- More and more taxis are wheelchair accessible particularly with the
increase in mandatory orders.
- Unlike some door to door transport services, Taxicard Schemes do not
involve funding authorities in capital or running costs of vehicles,
offices, fuel, maintenance, garaging, salaries, computer systems, etc
- nearly all funding goes directly into the actual trip costs thus maximising
the service to disabled people.
- Taxis provide a flexible, on-demand service 365 days a year, day and
night. They avoid the need for extensive pre-planning and arrangements
of transport requirements by disabled people. They enable disabled people
to enjoy the same spontaneity in transportation as able-bodied people
rather than being reliant on what many see as segregated welfare services.
- Authorities already have a significant control over the quality of
taxi services through the licensing system.
Setting Up a Taxicard Scheme - Principal Points to Consider
Eligibility and Quantification of Client Group
Consider the eligibility criteria you wish to apply. As an example, for
the London Taxicard Scheme:
- (i) to be eligible you must be unable to use buses or trains
because of either blindness or any permanent or long term
disability/injury which seriously impairs your ability to walk. The
scheme is not available to people who suffer temporary disabilities
(e.g broken leg).
- (ii) to join the scheme you must:
- be able to use London's ordinary black cabs
- have access to a telephone (for booking taxis)
- normally reside in one of the participating London Boroughs
You may also wish to consider the use of personal assessment and appeal
procedures particularly if applicants are relying on a doctor's certificate.
Take into account any other transport benefits your authority is conferring
but bear in mind that these benefits and Taxicard may not need to be mutually
exclusive. For example, a person's disability may enable them to use buses
or trains on one day but not another or a person may be able to use those
public transport facilities when they go out empty handed but not when
they return e.g carrying shopping. It may even be cheaper for them to
have a travel concession and a taxicard as public transport journeys,
when they can be made, will generally be cheaper than taxi journeys. Having
two types of concession does not mean the person will make twice as many
journeys. Once you have identified your eligibility criteria, consider
the quantification of clients to which this will give rise from available
statistics.
Area of the schemes operation
Clients will be drawn from the administrative area of your authority
but consider whether you will limit their journeys to being within that
area or permit them to go beyond your boundary so long as the journey
starts or finishes within your boundary. Bear in mind that local authority
boundaries have little relevance to a person's everyday life and that
control on expenditure is available by means of subsidy and other limits.
Availability of taxi operators and wheelchair accessible cabs
Consider the availability of radio taxi circuits in your area, the size
of their fleets and the numbers of wheelchair accessible cabs. For budgetary
purpose, cabs will need to be on a common metered tariff and the companie's
systems will need to be able to accept and record bookings and effectively
implement the instructions you give. Are there enough companies for you
to be able to make an appointment by competitive tender or, if not, will
you be able to negotiate a deal, perhaps with a consortium of small companies
if a single company cannot supply your needs? If it is to be a consortium,
then consider the need for a prime contractor with the other companies
as sub-contractors, so that the prime contractor has a responsibility
for ensuring your instructions are carried out by all and that communications
between the companies are adequate for this purpose. Will the licensing
area of your authority need to consider a requirement for accessibility
of cabs?
Needs for disability awareness training
A Taxicard Scheme may lead to local drivers having their first contact
with disabled passengers and recognising their practical needs when travelling.
When letting a Taxicard contract you should therefore consider the need
for all drivers involved to receive disability awareness training. DPTAC
already publishes n advice leaflet for taxi drivers (copies from the DPTAC
Secretariat on 0171 271 5258), but it is also preparing more detailed
training material which will also be available shortly. It may be easiest
to enforce attendance at courses if they are run before companies are
admitted to the scheme.
Fares structure to apply
- You will need to consider:
- (a) a standard flat fare payable by the passenger per trip
- (b) the maximum subsidy per trip which you will allow
- Three examples currently in use are:
- (i) London - flat fare of £1.50 and subsidy up to £9.30. Above
the combined maximum of £10.80, the passenger pays the rest.
- (ii) Lothian - again flat fare is £1.50 and subsidy up to £3.50.
Above the combined maximum of £5, the passenger pays the rest.
- (iii) Dumfries and Galloway - up to a maximum of £12 on the
meter, one half of the fare is subsidised; over £12 on the meter, a
£6 subsidy applies.
Also you may wish to stipulate that 'extras' e.g. charges for luggage,
additional passengers, public holidays and weekend and night-time rates
and gratuities are payable by the passenger and not by the scheme. You
will need to review your fares structure regularly, i.e. annualy or biennially
to take account of tariff increases, so as to maintain the original yardage.
You will also need to consider any fees you may have to pay per booking
to the operating companies as they will have labour and systems costs
arising from the scheme. In London such management fees are payable but
this may well not be the case in other parts of the UK. Where fees are
not charged to a scheme's funding authority, it is likely that the operating
company will take this either as a proportion of the metered fare or from
driver subscription.
Budgetary control
It is assumed that no authority will wish to be at risk of unlimited
expenditure. Experience shows that open-ended schemes are at most risk
from very limited numbers of high users.
- Methods of control can include:
- (i) Trip limits
- (ii) Membership limits
- (iii) Limit on 'run-in' amounts (where these apply)
- (iv) Limit on journey purposes
- (v) Controls on high users
- (vi) A fixed average price
Trip limits take the form of an annual or monthly limit on all users
or identified individuals. A typical annual allocation is 104 trips i.e.
equivalent to one trip per week. It is essential that operating companies
and users are informed of any trip limits in force. Persons joining the
scheme during a financial year can be given pro rata allocations. You
may need to consider appeal mechanisms for persons' seeking additional
trips on grounds of urgency or particular hardship, or purpose e.g. attendance
at educational courses.
Membership limits, sometimes referred to a waiting list, are a limit
on the number of persons in the scheme at any one time. They are open
to the criticism of being crude and unfair and are considered less acceptable
by disabled people than trip limits.
A limit on run-in amounts is a stipulation that a taxi shall not be permitted
to have more than a certain amount on its meter by the time it reaches
a job. This can avoid higher than necessary subsidy levels being paid.
Operating companies can be required to show the individual run-in amounts
on their invoices. Run-ins need to be determined realistically to avoid
being so restrictive as to unacceptably impair service levels. Run-ins,
however, do not apply in many parts of the UK so need only be considered
where appropriate.
A limit on journey purposes can be used if local authorities consider
that help should be available from other sources. Notably, many authorities
believe that trips for hospital appointments and for employment purposes
are not the responsibility of local councils.
A control on high users may need to be achieved by assessing their needs
and potential impact on overall budget.
A fixed average price may be available, not generally at the outset of
a scheme, but after say, a year, when the average actual price has become
known. A budget can then be estimated based on the number of users, the
number of trips per person allowed or taken (if there is no trip limit
restriction) and the average price.
Booking system and performance criteria
You should consider whether Taxicard trips should always be booked by
telephone or whether you will also permit hirings from taxi ranks and
by hailing in the street. Rank and street hirings give greater flexibility
and eliminate run-in costs. In any event, you must ensure that unique
membership cards and photocards (or combined in one) are issued to users
and that all trips can be verified as having been taken by the authorised
user.
Although taxis are not a guaranteed service to any member of the public,
you may wish to consider setting contractual performance criteria for
monthly application and monitoring and with penalties being applied where
they are not met. For example you may require 80% of as soon as possible
(ASAP) bookings to be serviced within 20 or 30 minutes of the booking
being taken and 90% of advanced bookings (ABs) being serviced within 10
minutes of the time required.
Also, you should consider the position on charges for scrubs i.e. where
a booking is made but the passenger does not travel. For example, where
a cab is dispatched within the performance criteria but the passenger
does not travel, you may consider that the scheme should pay the cost
but the passenger be penalised one trip. For persistent causing of scrubs,
you may wish to consider cancelling the client's scheme membership. Where
the cab is dispatched outside of the performance criteria and the passenger
does not travel, you may consider that the operating company should meet
the cost.
Security control and information from operating companies
You will need to consider procedures for verification of trips having
genuinely been made and by the eligible person. The company should be
asked to provide you with detailed invoices showing who the taxicard member
was, who the driver was, the pick-up and destination points, any run-in
charge, the metered fare and the amount received from the passenger. They
should also provide you with monthly print outs of trips taken by each
scheme member in that month and the cumulative for the year. You should
seek to monitor the information you are given. One way of doing this is
to require the passenger to sign a receipt at journey's end and have this
sent to you but other methods should be considered as there can be collusion
between drivers and passengers. DPTAC does not recommend the use of vouchers
which can be sold or passed to ineligible people including drivers and
are labour intensive to administer. Your internal audit's advice should
be sought and various spot checks considered. Also, if possible consider
the use of swipecards or smartcards. Swipecard technology, in particular,
either in-cab or hand-held is now readily available.
Administrator or agent for the scheme
If the scheme is purely operating in your area, you will no doubt arrange
for a defined section of your own staff to administer it. If two or more
authorities are jointly operating a scheme, then it will cost effective
to employ one administering section and for the authorities to meet the
costs e.g. in proportion to their membership numbers at an agreed date.
The Administration could be done in-house by one of the authorities or
it could be contracted out to a reputable consultancy or voluntary organisation.
The Administrator works for you and should be independent of operating
companies. The Administrator should be responsible for issuing membership
cards, maintaining a database of membership and trip limits, and should
periodically e.g. biennially carry out complete re-issues to ensure membership
information is kept up to date and to provide you with financial and trips
taken information. The Administrator should not be required to make the
actual bookings of taxis for clients and should ensure that your instructions
e.g. on trip limits are conveyed to the operating companies.
Companies' procedures and assessment of user satisfaction
Your information booklets for users should clearly show how complaints
(by letter, telephone, or in person) about service, charging, driver conduct,
trip limits, etc. can be made and to whom. Complaints should receive suitable
replies and be monitored.
You should consider carrying out periodic sample surveys of your scheme
members to ascertain their level of satisfaction and the opportunity can
be taken to obtain additional information to help you verify the trips
you are being charged for.
Publicity and provision of application forms and information booklets
DPTAC can provide copies of application forms and information booklets
already in use in existing schemes. Once you know you are setting up a
scheme,you will need to consider how you inform the potential client group
of this and how they go about applying. You should inform relevant voluntary
organisations and consider the use of local radio, newspapers and posters.
Consultations and set up
Make sure you consult with relevant local organisations (statutory and
non-statutory) and taxi trade representatives, and consider setting up
a working party to bring the scheme into existence. Make sure that funding
bodies ( your own authority and others if it is a joint scheme) will get
all the information they need on costs and on the general effectiveness
of the scheme. Consult internally in your authority with relevant persons
e.g. in finance, audit, public relations etc to satisfy all internal requirements.
Finally, if you are daunted by all these points to consider, remember
that quite a number of schemes already exist and for a good many years
in some cases. If you need additional advice, DPTAC is there to help you.
DPTAC contact point
Department of Transport
Zone 1/14
Great Minster House
76 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DR
Tel: 020 7944 8011 & 020 7944 8013
Fax: 020 7944 6998
E-mail: dptac@detr.gov.uk
Updated: 9 November 2000
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