Taxi drivers tend to travel an awful lot of miles in their vehicles every year picking up and dropping off fare-paying passengers. In view of this, one of their major business expenditures is the amount spent on fuel. In fact, for many, it may be their largest financial outlay every month.

There had been concern amongst a number of taxi drivers that Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, could have sought to increase Government revenue by changing the amount of fuel duty in this year’s Autumn Budget.

Well, taxi drivers will be pleased to read that the Chancellor of the Exchequer decided to freeze any change to the duty on fuel until 2026. So, this means that there will be no alteration made next year. In 2022, the then Conservative Government decided to reduce fuel duty by 5p per litre to 52.95p per litre. That temporary reduction is to remain in force.

This decision, plus not allowing fuel duty to increase in line with inflation, is rumored to have reduced the Government’s income by in the region of £3 billion. We are sure that you will agree that is a significant amount of money.

This news will no doubt come as a huge relief to a large number of taxi drivers who run their own business and are responsible for meeting the cost of putting fuel in their taxis. Anything that contains a taxi driver’s business expenditure has got to be well received.

Taxi drivers will also find it of great interest to read that a task force has recently been set up by the Government to look at ways of reducing/containing car insurance premiums that have risen by an average of 21% in the last couple of years. The task force includes the likes of Which? and regulators. Let us hope that the task force makes some meaningful recommendations in the not too distant future. Of course, we will endeavor to keep our readers updated in this respect.