The cost of running and adapting a wheelchair accessible taxi is too much to cater for a very small portion of the market, President of the Irish Taxi Drivers Federation Joe Heron has said.
He was speaking after figures released by the National Transport Authority (NTA)showed that just 5 per cent of licensed taxis are wheelchair accessible. Despite efforts to increase the amount of accessible vehicles on the road, their number has decreased by almost 40 per cent since 2008.
Modifying a vehicle can add between €7,000 and €8,000 to the cost, according to Pat Fitzsimons of Parfit Limited, a Dublin company specialising in vehicle conversions
The NTA says it has renewed its focus on increasing the proportion of wheelchair accessible vehicles “by restricting new licences to wheelchair-accessible vehicles [AND]by easing the size specifications required for a licence to bring the entry costs down”.
The authority said grants of €871,000 added 134 wheelchair accessible vehicles to the taxi fleet in 2015.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast Mr Heron said: “It’s much more expensive to run a wheelchair accessible taxi than it is a saloon taxi.”
“I think the problem was exacerbated in 2008 when there was the highest number of wheelchair accessible taxis - that was at the start of the slump. Since then, when things started to pick up in the economy, people got out of taxi work,”Mr Heron said.
Dublin taxi driver Denis Doyle has a Toyota Hi Ace mini bus which he bought already adapted for wheelchair use.
“It is a 2000 reg so I have to bring it for an NCT every six months. I then have to bring it for a suitability test. Those costs all add up.”
He has a son who is a wheelchair user and much of his work revolves around contacts who need to be brought to and from hospital, school and day care.
“I don’t take off street work any more. People are reluctant to hail a mini bus or modified taxi as they think it is bigger and going to cost more, so you get less business that way.”
“Insurance is extra for wheelchair modified vehicles, some insurance companies will not even quote,” he added.
The taxi driver admits that driving a modified taxi is not of interest to many in the industry. He recently came across an elderly lady with her husband in a wheelchair, a taxi that had come for them could not put the chair in as it did not have ramps and there was no way she could lift her husband, fold the chair .
“I have this vehicle for personal as well as work reasons. There is an extra cost involved and not everyone wants to do that. There is also the extra VAT, so it can be quite expensive to go down that route.”
According to the Central Statistics Office, 13per cent of the Irish population is currently living with a disability.