Source: The Leader

A KIND-hearted taxi driver gave a stranded pensioner a place to stay after she was left snowbound in Wrexham. Taxi drivers tried desperately to drive Florence Williams home to Llandegla on Tuesday evening but the roads were impassable.

Bob Hibbert, manager of Wrexham and Prestige Taxis on Brook Street, said Mrs Williams, who is in her 60s, was brought back to the taxi office in tears because she did not know what to do.

“She was really upset and didn’t know how to get home,” he said. “She didn’t have enough money for a hotel and she said she didn’t have any friends or family to help. “She was laden down with enough shopping for a month – with bags of horse feed and dog food.”

Taxi driver Abdul Ahed offered Mrs Williams a bed for the night at his home in Hightown. Mr Hibbert continued: “We rallied around and I said ‘look guys, this lady can’t get home to Llandegla, what are we going to do?’ “Abdul said ‘I’ll ring my wife’ because they have a spare room.

“They had her round and fed her and put her to bed. “She was in tears that somebody had enough kindness and human compassion to do this.”

On Wednesday morning taxi driver Paul Geddes drove Mrs Williams back to her home at Ty Isoe in Llandegla – and insisted she did not pay any taxi fare.

Mr Hibbert added: “Certain people have human kindness and Paul insisted she did not have to pay. “I’m over the moon that my staff have helped her. “It’s been pretty hazardous but we have been doing our best to get people from point A to point B.

“Ten out of 10 to all the guys that have been working.”

Source: Yorkshire Post

A TAXI driver will have to pay more than £350 after refusing to take a pregnant customer to her door.

The cabbie was prosecuted after asking the woman – who was 35 weeks pregnant at the time and with her two-year-old niece – to get out at the top of the street in Hull.

The driver said he thought it would be difficult to turn round at the bottom of the road where she lived despite there being a turning area marked “Keep clear”.

Hull Council senior licensing officer Keith Fenner said: “It is against the law for Hackney carriage drivers to refuse a fare unless they have a reasonable excuse and, once they have accepted the fare, to refuse to take their customers to their destination.”

The defendant was found guilty in his absence by Hull Magistrates and fined £175. He was also ordered to pay the council’s £175 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Source: North Devon Journal

A taxi driver has been prosecuted after refusing to accept a fare.

Trevor Manning would not take a couple and their shopping from Barnstaple railway station to the town’s bus station.

Manning, 61, pleaded guilty to the charge of refusing, without reasonable excuse, to drive a taxi to where he was asked.

North Devon magistrates heard that Manning, of Barn Park, Braunton, told Judith Slater and her brother Michael Watson to get a bus when they requested the journey. Trevor Blatchford, prosecuting for North Devon Council, said: “They had been shopping at Brian Ford’s and had many heavy carrier bags.

“They needed to get to the station quickly in order to get a connection bus and the woman was unable to walk very far.

“Although first accepting the customers, Mr Manning slammed the boot shut and shouted when he heard where the pair wanted to go. He was also heard referring to the lady as a ‘cripple’ to another person.”

In a letter to the court Manning said: “The person was claiming to be disabled but she ran up to me carrying her shopping. It seems incomprehensible that someone ‘disabled’ could do that.”

Manning believed he was allowed to refuse a fare, he said, adding: “I did not speak to her rudely, or unnecessarily — that would be completely out of character.”

North Devon Council said the conviction would not affect Manning’s licence.

Mr Blatchford said: “This is a common problem in the railway station to this location.

“Taxi drivers have been told they are allowed to ask the passenger if they are sure they want to get a taxi — a bus is cheaper and it is not far away.

“However, there is a distinction between this, and refusing to take a passenger outright. There was no valid reason why it should have been refused.”

The council sends out monthly newsletters to taxi drivers and said this rule was reiterated in the latest edition.

Manning was fined £250 and ordered to pay £40 costs and £15 victim surcharge.

The case comes just 11 months after taxi driver Brian Hawksworth was found guilty of refusing to take an asthmatic from Barnstaple railway station to her house half a mile away. Similarly, Hawksworth had suggested the passenger take a bus instead.

Source: Lancashire Evening Post

Three women on a birthday night out have told how a taxi driver drove them back into Preston city centre in a row over a fare. Natalie Jaques, 20, of Ainslie Road, Fulwood, her housemate, Kayleigh Fisher, 21, and friend Sophie Wignall, 20, took a taxi home in the early hours of Sunday after celebrating a friend’s birthday.

The girls took a Hackney cab from Church Street at about 3.20am, but an argument broke out with the driver when they complained he had taken a longer route. Natalie, an office worker, claims she paid the driver the £5.50 she usually pays, £1.30 less than the fare he wanted.

But the driver took the money and locked the doors before driving them back into the city. She said: “I told him to go down Friargate past Wilkinsons and up Plungington Road to Ainslie Road, but he drove us all the way down past the market and down Garstang Road. There is also a short cut to Ainslie Road which he ignored – it came to £6.80.”

After the women refused to pay the extra fare, the cabbie locked the doors and began driving back to the city centre. Natalie said: “He went really fast and my friends were starting to get upset. I said I would pay the rest of the money if he stopped. “I was not sure where we were then we ended up in the middle of town – I rang the police while we were in the taxi.”

The women arrived back on Church Street shortly after 3.40am and Natalie asked for her money back so they could get another taxi. She added: “I said I am not getting out until he gives me my money back. He said he would drive off somewhere. “I just wanted the money back to get another taxi home – one of my friends opened the door and he started revving the taxi.”

Natalie says the women ended up calling Kayleigh’s mother to ask her to pick them up. They took the taxi number and have since complained to Preston Council.

Source: Telegraph & Argus

Entrepreneur Nisar Akram is aiming to revamp the image of the taxi trade through his new venture, Smart Cars Private Hire.

He says he has launched the Bradford-based business to bring back high levels of customer service and reliability to a trade that had suffered a bad press.

Mr Akram, who has more than 30 years’ experience in private hire, decided to launch his own operation because he was fed up with the image of the industry.

He said: “I decided to launch Smart Cars to restore people’s faith in the taxi business and offer old-fashioned service.

“Our drivers are fully licensed and insured and are all assessed to official standards and either have or are working towards NVQ qualifications in customer service “They are smartly dressed in matching uniforms and we offer a text and call back service to customers so they know when a car has arrived and who the driver is.”

Mr Akram, who is a qualified NVQ assessor, said the plan was for Smart Cars, based in Lawson Street, West Bowling, to be operating about 70 cars within 12 months serving Bradford and Leeds.

He said: “Our aim is to be professional and punctual. Our drivers are trained to the highest levels of customer service, such as helping customers with their luggage. It’s touches such as that, which used to be the norm, that many taxi firms no longer bother with but which is appreciated by clients.

“I’m hoping that people will recognise and appreciate our commitment to quality and service and that this will be the basis of our success.”

Source: BBC News

Testing kits for sexually transmitted infections are being placed in the cabs of a Nottingham taxi company for passengers to use.

The kits are being made available to customers aged 18 and over in an effort to make people aware of the hidden dangers of chlamydia.

Health officials in the city said most people who contracted the infection were not aware of the problem.

The “user-friendly” kits can be posted off for the results to be checked.

Ian Brough, business manager of A2B Cars in Nottingham, said the scheme aimed to make sexual health an important subject.

He said: “The idea came about as extension to the condoms in taxis scheme, which we started in May.

“Because that’s become so successful, drivers and the company are taking the improvement of sexual health across the city seriously.”

Mr Brough said drivers were given a supply of the product, which included kits for both males and females.

These were placed in the taxis for customers to access discreetly.

He said the kits were not accessible to children.