Taxi firms across Radnorshire claim their business has been slashed and they may have to close and lay workers off, because of the community car scheme.
The Journal has spoken to taxi drivers in Llandrindod Wells, Knighton, Presteigne and Builth Wells, all of whom say the community car schemes are affecting their businesses to differing extents.
One taxi firm owner, who did not wish to be named, said he may have to close at the end of the month and make four drivers redundant, after his income plummeted.
He claimed volunteer drivers in the Knighton and Presteigne area did around 2,000 journeys to hospitals last year, while one local firm only did 12.
And he said his income had gone from around £250 on a good day to £13.50 on Monday, with a lot of night work also disappearing because recession-hit residents are not going out as much.
The taxi firm owner said the community car scheme was a brilliant idea “but it is going over the top”.
He said he had met with community car organisers and asked them to contact the cab firms first if they had a job and they would try and do it at the same price, but he said the community support group had not taken up his offer.
Another East Radnor firm said they used to do four or five trips to hospital a week. Now they are lucky to do one a month.
The owner said the community support organisations were asking for more voluntary drivers and had moved on from doing trips to doctors’ surgeries and hospitals to social and shopping trips around town.
He said he had been forced to diversify his business. “If I could sell the business now I would but I am financially tied for the next 14 months. But I am not replacing my fleet.”
Neil Holder from Adey’s Taxi’s in Llandrindod Wells said he had lost about 40 per cent of his work in the last 12 months and, whereas his drivers used to work eight hour days, they now spent a couple of hours at home because there was no work for them.
“At the end of the day we are a taxi company. The average insurance for a taxi is about £1,500 to £1,800 per car per year. These voluntary drivers that they are using do not have any of that. They use their own car insurance but what happens if they have an accident? They say the insurance will cover them but I don’t believe it would.
“Their car insurance is for social and domestic car use, but some of them are doing journeys almost every day;that is a full-time job and ‘hire and reward’. They say there is a loophole because it is only on one or two occasions, but some of them are doing it every day.
“It’s starting to affect my business. A lot of my drivers are on short time because we have not got the work we used to have and it’s just not fair. It’s going to put people out of work.”
Mr Holder said he had 16 vehicles, ten of which are cars. They must be no more than seven years old, are checked twice a year, carry fire extinguishers and first aid kits and the drivers have uniforms and wear badges. He said they also carried escorts who were trained for some jobs, while the voluntary drivers had no such regulations to abide by.
But Roger Cross, project co-ordinator at Knighton and District Community Support, said they only took people who fit their criteria, mainly elderly and disabled people.
He said they also give and create business for local taxi firms via the taxi voucher system which allows members to pay for half of their taxi journeys using vouchers which is then reimbursed by community support.
Mr Cross said he had discussed the situation with taxi drivers for the last seven years.
“Our community car drivers get paid 40p a mile and that is all they get and they can be waiting at a hospital for five, six or seven hours and that time is given for free.
“The taxi firms have said we should offer the work to them first before going to voluntary drivers and if I know that the job is just a take, drop off and return job, I will ring them, but it does not happen very often.
“Voluntary drivers do notify their insurance companies of what they are doing and most insurance companies put an endorsement onto their policy and we keep a note of what cars drivers are using, when their MOT, insurance and licences are up for renewal and most of their cars are under eight years old.
“We ask clients if they have an escort or would need one and we have volunteers we can call on and the drivers escort the clients into the clinics and will stay in the nearest waiting area for them to return.
“By using the community car scheme our clients always attend their appointments on time.
“Taxi drivers are running a business and some of their business has obviously gone but I feel there is room for the community car scheme and taxis to operate together.
“We do not take children under 14 because of the car seat regulations and we do not do a town service any more.
“At community support, it is not just transport that we deal with, we offer a myriad of services.”
A spokeswoman for Powys County Council said: “Powys County Council receives an annual Local Transport Services grant from the Welsh Assembly Government. The Assembly specify that at least 10 per cent of this should be allocated to community transport schemes.
“Twenty-seven community transport organisations across the county are supported by this grant. These include community car, taxi-card and dial-a-ride schemes. The funding, which is administered by PAVO, is intended to provide a safety net, allowing each of the schemes to continue functioning irrespective of fluctuations in operating costs or self-generating income.”