CABS AND TAXIMETERS.
ADEFINITE step forward in the regulation of the cab induslry and cabdriving in London has been taken by the Home Office. The London Gazette of January 22nd contains the draft of an Order proposed to be made by the Home Secretary under the Metro- politan Police Carriage Act of 1869, dealing with the licensing of cabdrivers, with regulations as to fares, and with the introduction of taximeters. The Order is pre- sumably the outcome of the Report issued by the Norman Committee on London Cabs and Omnibuses in August last, and, in contrast with the timid and dilatory methods which have hitherto been adopted in dealing with ques- tions affecting cabdrivers, Mr. Gladstone's action is welcome, apd will, we believe, have valuable results. It was without doubt time for action to be taken. Many of the questions referred to the Norman Committee had been referred to previous Committees, and though certain recommendations were made, they were not carried into effect; generally the Home Office authorities were unable to make up their minds that a change was desirable. The arguments for change in the regulation of cabdriving in London have now, however, taken the practical and solid form of severe competition in rival methods of locomotion, and, as a consequence, cab proprietors and drivers have found their business suffer. If business is to be improved, it will not be improved by continuing on the old lines of resisting all change. Au effort must be made by the cabmen to discover what are the requirements of the public rather than what are their own preferences ; and if the cabmen make that effort, they have at least a very good chance of regaining the custom they have lost, though possibly regaining it through fresh channels.
The main fact which the cab proprietors and drivers have to take into account is that a minimum fare of a shilling for a ride of any distance under two miles has come to be considered by the travelling public of London as too much. That is an established fact which no amount of argument can alter ; the cabmen may not think it too much, but the public does. A few years ago the only method of travelling fast across Loudon was to take a hansom,—the gondola of London, as Lord Beaconsfield called it. To-day there are many other ways of travelling as quickly. Last year saw the general recognition of the motor-omnibus, which will probably in time chase the horse-omnibus off the strebts altogether, except possibly where the route taken involves the ascent of long or steep hills. Next to the severe competition of the motor-omnibus has been added an ingenious system of underground tubular railways, by which it is becoming easier every day to get from any one main point of London to any other. Many thousands of passengers every week travel by motor-omnibus or by tube who a short time ago hired cabs, simply because they are just as fast and much cheaper, and as a consequence the hansoms and four- wheelers have remained idle on the ranks. Their owners also have remained idle elsewhere,—or, at least, if they have made any concerted effort to cope with the increasing competition round them, they have been unfortunate in achieving their object only at so late an hour. Obviously, their best course from the beginning was to use every effort to get the cab tariff reduced as soon as it was seen, or could be guessed, that other and cheaper forms of locomotion would offer increasing attractions to the public. Instead, the cabmen have been allowed throughout to
stand out against every proposed innovation or alteration, and this although the proprietors of cabs had at their command a vehicle which possessed a peculiar attraction denied to all other forms of travelling in London,—that is, of being absolutely at the disposal of the hirer, instead of including him among the general public. London hansoms and four-wheelers have not yet lost that attrac- tion, and it may be that the alterations set out in Mr. Gladstone's new Order will be found to emphasise it, and so to restore prosperity to a failing business.
The Norman Committee, it may be remembered, recom- mended "the legalisation of a tariff commencing with a sixpenny fare for a short distance, combined with the use of the taximeter working on the hour-mile system." This is the system which has been established in Germany and in Paris, and consists, roughly speaking, of a method- by which the fare is calculated automatically by time or distance, whichever first earns its pennyworth. The institution of taximeter cabs on this system has greatly increased cab-taking in Berlin, Hamburg, and Paris ; we read, for instance, in the Committee's Report that "quite a new life" has been thrown into the use of cabs in Ham- burg, that "the public are delighted," and so on. A similar system is now to be established in London, though, apparently, in deference to the persistent objection of cab- drivers, it is only to he made compulsory in the case of motor-cabs and remains optional for horse-cabs. To come to details, the main regulations of Mr. Gladstone's new Order are as follow :—First, the sixpenny fare is legalised. It will be possible to hire an ordinary cab, and also a cab fitted with a taximeter, for a minimum fare of sixpence. The cab which is fitted with a taximeter must take a fare at the rate of sixpence for the first mile and threepence for every succeeding half-mile, or every succeeding period on the Journey of six minutes. The horse-cab, however, is to be under slightly different regulations. The driver of a horse-cab may, if he pleases, continue on the old system, and refuse to accept less than a shilling for a drive not exceeding two miles ; bat, if he chooses, he may signify "in an approved manner" that he is willing to accept a fare of sixpence for v journey not exceeding half-a-mile. What is meant by "an approved manner," it may be suggested, is a little obscure. It might be interesting to speculate as to what would be a manner of intimating willingness to accept a reduced fare which would be "approved" alike by the public and by a less enter- prising rival jarvey. As regards motor-cabs, which, to obtain a license after July 1st next, must be fitted with a taximeter, and may be fitted with a taximeter at once if the proprietor so decides, the tariff is a little higher. For a Journey not exceeding one mile, or for a period of time not exceeding ten minutes, the fare will be eiglitpence, and for each succeeding quarter- mile or period of two and a half minutes the additional fare will be twopence. These are the main regulations of the new Order, but there are other minor regulations which are important. Drivers of four-wheelers or hansouas hired by the hour will charge three shillings in future instead of half-a-crown, and instead of the tiresome fare of eightpence for a quarter-of-an-hour wait, the amount chargeable in future will be sixpence for every ten minutes completed, whether in one or several stoppages. For bicycles and perambulators, again, the charge is very properly increased from twopence to sixpence. The Order Las, in short, satisfactorily disposed of several long- standing difficulties in the way of extra payments, and by its main provisions instituted, none too soon, a much- needed reform.
The question remains whether the cab proprietors and drivers will rise to their opportunities. No doubt the majority of drivers have always been hardworking, civil, and respectable men, but, unfortunately, there have been numerous exceptions. The accepted notion that a cab- driver looks askance at his legal fare, although hardly answering to the facts to-day, has been justified in the past by incivility which has been more than infrequent, and can still be justified. The "extra sixpence" has come to be re- garded by the public, rightly or wrongly, as being invariably demanded rather than occasionally hoped for, and the consequence is that not only the "extra sixpence," but a shilling besides, has been saved to go into the pockets of the shareholders in tubes and motor-omnibuses. The horse- cab drivers have lately come to realise this, and by increased civility have succeeded in impressing on the more timid and the less extravagant section of the public that there need be no hesitation in tendering a legal fare. Curiously enough, however, the drivers of motor-cabs are beginning now where the horse-cab drivers are leaving off, and have already allowed it to be imagined—perhaps the fear is only imaginary—that they expect a higher rate of pay than horse-cabs, that they are not on the streets for ordinary cab-work, and that they intend to accept only long and remunerative jobs. The motor-cab proprietors will be greatly mistaken if they allow such a conception of their duties to become permanent. The future of the cab industry depends almost entirely upon two considerations, cheapness of fares and civility on the part of drivers, and that is a truth which applies equally to motors as to horse. cabs. If the whole question can be summed up in a sentence, the public would like to take a cab for sixpence, but wants to be certain that a legal fare will be as civilly accepted by cabdrivers as it is by ticket clerks and omnibus conductors.
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