London’s private hire cars fear losing congestion charge exemption
TfL considers extending £11.50-a-day levy to companies such as Uber and Addison Lee
Private hire car companies, including Uber, are bracing for new rules that would force them to pay the congestion charge for driving in central London — a move that could make their journeys more expensive for customers.
Transport for London held a meeting with representatives of private hire car companies on February 14, where an executive from CEPA, the economic analysis agency, asked how their businesses would be affected by the charge, five people with knowledge of the talks said.
Participants believe London mayor Sadiq Khan is preparing to levy the £11.50-a-day charge on them for driving in the congestion zone.
“It felt like the Valentine’s Day congestion charge massacre,” said one person who attended the meeting. “This would be a tax on us to raise revenue for TfL.”
CEPA declined to comment on the meeting.
Paul Cowperthwaite, general manager of road user charging at TfL, said: “We are currently undertaking further analysis on the impact of removing the exemption from the congestion charge for private hire vehicles. Depending on the outcome of this work, a consultation could follow later this year.”
Pressure is building on Mr Khan to reduce the number of private hire vehicles in central London, and to find extra sources of revenue for Transport for London, whose operating deficit is on course to swell to almost £1bn in 2018-19.
Private hire vehicles have been exempt from the congestion charge since it was introduced by former London mayor Ken Livingstone in 2003.
Independent research has linked increased congestion in central London to a rise in the number of private hire vehicles in the capital since Uber entered the market in 2012.
A paper published last year by the London Assembly, an elected body that oversees the London mayor, found that the number of licensed private hire vehicles in London had risen 70 per cent to 84,886 between March 2013 and November 2016.
“We believe disincentivising private hire journeys in congested areas at peak times will reduce traffic congestion overall in London,” the paper said.
On Monday, minicab company Addison Lee wrote to Mr Khan objecting to any scrapping of the congestion charge exemption for hire cars, and to the continued exemption for the city’s traditional black cabs.
“The idea that any removal should only apply to private hire vehicles and not to black cabs is anti-competitive,” Addison Lee said. It added that paying the charge would cost “as much as £250 per driver per month”.
Eddie Townson, the managing director of Kent-based Carlton Cars, said if his drivers were forced to pay the congestion charge, the extra £11.50 per journey would be passed on to individual customers travelling into London.
“We’re based in the suburbs so our drivers are not going into central London very often,” he said. “It would be unfair to spread the cost of going into London among all our customers as most of them are using us for journeys in Kent.”
Mr Townson added that many of the journeys his drivers did into central London were “for mental health patients or people with special educational needs”, who were being transported into the capital for hospital or training appointments. “Their fares are paid by the public sector, so put the congestion charge on them and the public sector has to pay more.”