Taxi drivers face record complaints after change requiring cashless payments

A record number of complaints about taxi drivers last year has been linked to the introduction of a new regulation requiring licence holders to accept cashless payments for fares.

New figures published by the National Transport Authority (NTA), which acts as the regulator for the taxi industry, show it received a total of 1,625 complaints in 2022.

It represented almost a threefold increase on the number of complaints received in 2021, while it was also a 17 per cent increase over the previous record annual total of 1,383 in 2019.

The NTA said the growth in the number of complaints was “mainly due to the introduction of a new requirement in September 2022 for taxi drivers to provide cashless payment terminals for fares”.

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It claimed the regulation had resulted in the complaint category of “overcharging and other matters relating to fares” accounting for almost half of all complaints made last year – a total of 793 cases.

The second most common category of complaint related to the conduct and identification of drivers which accounted for 481 complaints or 30 per cent of the total.

The number of complaints about the condition and roadworthiness of taxis was down almost 50 per cent on pre-pandemic levels to 42.

The NTA said 40 per cent of complaints resulted in the driver being issued with a fine, warning, advice or a summons for prosecution.

It also reported that more than 204,000 checks were carried out on taxis and other small public service vehicles as well as drivers last year which involved about 90 per cent of all vehicles.

They resulted in 655 drivers being issued with on-the-spot fines.

The most common offence was the failure to notify details of the vehicle being operated to the NTA which accounted for 21 per cent of the total.

Other common breaches of taxi regulations related to vehicle standards, the unreasonable refusal to carry a passenger and the failure to print or offer a taxi receipt.

The NTA said it initiated 146 prosecutions against taxi drivers last year with a majority of cases relating to the operation of an unlicensed vehicle.

Meanwhile, the number of taxi drivers in Ireland has decreased by almost 7 per cent to just under 25,400 since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.