Torbay Council's cabinet met at 5.30pm on Tuesday 20 October 2026 to settle a new maximum table of hackney carriage fares. The report before members recommended that the table advertised in August be approved and come into force on 4 November 2026. Hackney carriage tariff report of 20 October 2026 The Torbay Weekly reported on 23 October 2026 that cabinet had approved it, and that the new figures are a ceiling rather than a fare every driver must charge. Torbay Weekly report
The new maximums
The tariff was last increased in October 2024. The Torbay Licensed Taxi Association asked for a review. Licensing officers met the association, the Torquay United Licensed Driver Association and other hackney carriage representatives, and cabinet on 21 July 2026 sent that proposal out to consultation under section 65 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976. Cabinet decision of 21 July 2026 The full table is in the July report. July hackney carriage tariff report
The Act lets the council set the most a hackney carriage may charge. It does not let the council set private hire fares. A driver may charge less than the maximum, and may agree a fare for a journey that leaves the district. The meter charges distance or time, never both. When the cab is still, or moving at less than 6mph, it charges by time.
Notice of the proposed table appeared in the Torbay Weekly on 13 August 2026. Written objections had to arrive by 4 September 2026. With no objection, or if every objection had been withdrawn, the table would have started on 1 October 2026. Two objections were received and neither was withdrawn. The October report calculates that the revised table must then come into force, with or without changes, no later than 4 November 2026, two months after the consultation closed. It also allows two weeks in which councillors can ask the overview and scrutiny board to review a cabinet decision, and at least two weeks to print a fare sticker for every vehicle. That is the date recommended to members.
On tariff 1, for a hiring that starts between 7am and 9pm, Monday to Saturday, the flag would rise from £3.90 to £4.50 for the first 470 yards, or 430 metres. Each further 145 yards, or 133 metres, stays at 20p. Waiting stays at 20p for each 30 seconds. The July report puts the average rise on this tariff at 4.6%. On the comparison it used, a two-mile journey would be £8.70 before waiting time or extras. As of 22 May 2026 the report ranked Torbay 67th of 341 licensing authorities for a two-mile fare. At £8.70 it would sit 38th, level with seven other authorities including East Devon. Among the Devon figures in the same report, Exeter was £9.50 and Torridge £8.79, Torbay and East Devon £8.70, Plymouth and North Devon £8.10, and the Devon average £8.19. Other Devon authorities were reviewing their own tables.
Tariff 2 covers 9pm to 7am, Monday to Saturday, Sundays and bank holidays all day, and also from 7pm on Christmas Eve until 7am on Boxing Day and from 7pm on New Year's Eve until 7am on 2 January. The flag would rise from £4.50 to £5.10. The distance unit stays at 25p, and waiting stays at 25p for each 30 seconds. The average rise on this tariff was put at 3.8%.
Two further tariffs apply only when five or more passengers are carried. A single passenger in a cab that can take eight still pays tariff 1 or 2. Tariff 3, in the same hours as tariff 1, starts at £5.50 and then charges 25p for each 145 yards, with waiting at 25p for each 30 seconds. Tariff 4, in the same hours as tariff 2, starts at £6.10 and then charges 30p for each 145 yards, with waiting at 30p for each 30 seconds. Set against the present tariffs, the report puts the average increase at 29.7% for tariff 3 and 24.4% for tariff 4, because those figures fold in the old extra of 20p for each passenger after the first. That extra would go. The running mile on tariff 1 stays at £2.40 before extras. On tariff 4 it would be £3.
The maximum soiling charge would rise from £75 to £100. Where a driver is sent to a pick-up and the passenger is told the charge when booking, the booking charge would rise from 50p to a maximum of £1. The extra for a hiring in the Christmas and New Year windows above would rise from £1 to £3. Luggage, prams, pushchairs and wheeled trolleys stay free. An uncaged animal, other than an assistance dog, stays at £1.50. Two children aged three to six count as one passenger. A child under three is not counted.
The July report put the cost of running a taxi in Torbay at £1.84 a mile on the miles with a passenger, before the empty miles to and from a job. It recorded pump prices on 21 May 2026 of 159.1p a litre for petrol and 185.6p for diesel, against 133.8p and 138.4p on 4 October 2024. Officers wrote that the cost of buying a vehicle, maintaining it and buying fuel was no longer covered by the existing table, and that drivers would be put off entering or staying in the trade if fares did not keep up with inflation.
The October report repeats the conclusion put to cabinet in July.
"It is considered that the proposed uplift will assist those taxi drivers licensed through the Council to face the rise in fuel costs and other cost of living rises and support Torbay's taxi trade to make a viable living, therefore reducing the number of drivers leaving the trade for better remunerated work and encouraging consideration of investment in newer environmentally friendly vehicles."
Torbay has 188 hackney carriage vehicle proprietors and 549 dual licensed drivers, who may drive a hackney carriage or a private hire vehicle. Each of them was emailed a link to the proposed table.
The two objections
Neither objector put forward a different fare table. Both opposed any increase. The replies are in the consultation appendix. Consultation responses
The first wrote that the rises were already too much, and that customers would be pushed towards Uber.
"I strongly object to the new tariff increases as I think we're almost to expensive all ready. This will push the customers to Uber even more."
The same writer asked why the proposal had not been put to a vote of all hackney drivers, and in a second email wrote that they and six other drivers they know did not want a rise at all, leaving larger vehicles aside, that the last increase had been a noticeable one, and that the fuel prices would soon fall back. Licensing replied that the draft had been discussed with the two associations and with other representatives at the quarterly trade meetings, and that the public notice was the chance for anyone to comment or to suggest a different increase before 4 September.
The second objection was shorter.
"I really don't think there is a need for an increase at time."
Competing with Uber
The Torbay Weekly reported that Uber began operating in Torbay earlier this year. At the cabinet meeting, Councillor Alan Tyerman (Conservative, Churston with Galmpton) answered a question about that arrival.
"We are not setting a rate that has to be charged, but a maximum rate. People are entitled to charge less if they want to."
Councillor Adam Billings (Conservative, Churston with Galmpton) told the meeting that operators who wanted the work could price for it.
"The market mechanism exists for those competing for business, to allow them to put their best foot forward to compete with Uber."