.jpg)
Rising fuel bills could threaten the economics of school and patient taxi work, MLA warns
Rising fuel prices could make contracted taxi work unaffordable for some operators and put school and patient journeys under pressure, the Northern Ireland Assembly has heard.
DUP MLA Diane Forsythe raised the concern during a statement on fuel prices on 21 September. She said transport businesses can be committed to rates calculated before the latest increase in their running costs.
“Transportation services, including taxis, are contracted on rates that are based on the fuel cost at that time, which may be lower,” Forsythe said.
“With those costs escalating, it might be unaffordable to run those businesses.”
She warned of possible consequences for services that depend on those journeys. “We could have children who might not get to school and patients who might not get to their appointments,” she told the Assembly.
For a taxi driver, the pressure arises when the price paid for each contracted journey stays fixed while the cost of completing it rises. Forsythe’s comments focused on that mismatch between agreed rates and current fuel costs, rather than on a change in passenger demand.
She did not identify a particular taxi contract, operator or public body facing disruption. Nor did she say that school or patient journeys had already been cancelled. Her warning concerned the potential effect if higher fuel costs make existing contracts too expensive to fulfil.
Forsythe said diesel had reached £2 a litre and described the effect of rising fuel prices on businesses that rely on vehicles. She also pointed to the difficulty faced by firms that quote for work before their fuel costs increase.
The taxi warning formed part of a broader call for government action. Forsythe sought intervention on fuel costs, including extended relief for hauliers and cuts to fuel duty and taxes on red diesel. She did not set out a taxi-specific support proposal.
Her remarks put the pricing of public service taxi journeys into the fuel cost debate. The issue for contracting bodies and operators is whether rates agreed at an earlier fuel price still cover the cost of providing regular journeys, particularly where those journeys serve people travelling to school or medical appointments.
