The change will come into effect on September 1st
New legislation coming into effect next week will see a mandatory card payment for all taxis across the country. From Thursday September 1st, taxi drivers must accept all forms of payment for their service, including debit, credit and cash payments.
However, in accordance with this new legislation, the price of taxi fares is also set to increase form the same date. From September 1st, taxi fares are set to increase by a whopping 12% across the country. The price increases are set to be weighted throughout the day, in particular at nighttime, and will also take into account the distance of the total journey.
The price increase is being introduced as means of incentivising taxi drivers to take trips late at night (when taxis are most scarce), as well as to subsidise the increased operating cost on taxi drivers, in particular related to fuel increases, energy prices and the cost of vehicles.
Speaking about the new legislation, Wendy Thompson, the National Transport Authority Director of Public Transport Regulation mentions: “Our role as taxi regulator is to ensure that the consumer gets a high quality modern affordable and accessible service but while striking a fair balance with the self-employed taxi drivers nationwide.”
“This time, because of what was going on in the post-pandemic era and the socialising that had been taken up again, we also considered very strongly the passenger demand and how that’s changed since pre-Covid times, particularly for the nighttime trips and the socialising trips.”