MR T wrote:
My view of this is that when the driver places things in the boot belonging to the passenger, at that point it becomes his responsibility to make sure the passenger gets them back at the end of the journey. He, in effect, is in control of their property, and there should be no charge made to the customer for it to be returned.
I think you're right, and if driver is aware that the customer has luggage then it's the driver's responsibility to make sure the luggage leaves the car at the end of the journey.
Of course, a clear cut case would be if the passenger alights and is waiting for the driver to open the boot, but the driver forgets, is in a hurry and drives off.
Less clear cut maybe if the passenger alights, forgets about the luggage and wanders off, and the driver has forgotten as well, and drives off. But here I suspect a licensing committee would say that whatever the passenger did the driver still has a duty of care with regard to the luggage.
So unlike Grandad I would say that it's always the responsibility of the driver to return the luggage FOC. Or, if that's not possible, to treat it as lost property.
Recall a couple of years ago a suitcase was left behind in a local cab. Don't know precisely what happened, but obvious that the driver couldn't return it. So he phoned police, and they said to take it to police HQ in Glenrothes, 20 miles away (I think local station would have been closed at that time). Luckily for the driver a police van arrived by chance, and the driver persuaded them to take the suitcase there and then.
Don't know precisely what happened, and these things are rarely subject to any formal action, but would the driver have been liable for any cost of recovery or any other losses arising? Can't recall exactly what happened, but it was possibly a tourist passenger taking a train to Edinburgh, possibly for a flight abroad, so could cost a fair amount to recover the suitcase, and they might had have to miss their flight, for example, incurring huge costs and inconvenience.
On the other hand, I doubt if a train company has any liability with regard to luggage left on a train, because the staff have no involvement and each passenger's luggage is more obviously their own responsibility. (I mention that because it's often something that impacts on taxis, for example returning to the station to look for lost luggage, maybe left on the platform.)
Of course, it all depends on the individual circumstances. A few years ago I took this head-the-ball from Fife to Aberdeen after he'd been thrown off a train. He told me his life story on the way up - basically, he'd gotten into trouble in Aberdeen with drugs, and moved down to London to get away from it all, start a new life etc. Anyway, he'd now decided to return to Aberdeen, after more bother down south - he was showing me this bandage on his leg from some sort of stabbing injury.
Anyway, when we got to Aberdeen, you've guessed it, he wanted to go to two different addresses before going to his original stated destination. Felt a bit sorry for him, and was a bit worried he'd kick off too, so agreed to do the trips (and according to him he'd no more money apart from the cash he'd given me up front). First stop was in and out fairly quickly, but second stop he disappeared into this tower block, and I'm sure he'd went to do some kind of deal - he said he'd been clean in London, but was threatening to go back on drugs once back in Aberdeen.
So I waited and waited, and waited for more than half an hour in the end. I'd have been offski long before that (as I'd gotten all the money I was going to get), but problem was he'd left behind this big, heavy suitcase, which seemed to contain his whole life.
So in the end I just drove off, and took the case to the nearest police station, and handed it in as lost property. I told them roughly what had happened and about the guy, and who knows what was in the case - don't know if they maybe opened it after I left.
Anyway, I never heard anything more about it, so I assume the case was returned and there was no criminality involved.
But from the point of view of the discussion about left luggage, I think I did all I reasonably could here - I wasn't leaving the car and trudging around a tower block looking for the guy, who was probably off his face by then anyway.
(For anyone who happens to know Aberdeen, the block of flats was in Torry, and I took the case to Nigg police station. Can't recall the address, but looking on the maps and on Streetview it was probably something called Balnagask Circle. Not huge tower blocks, exactly - probably twelve flats per block - but preferred taking the suitcase to the police station rather than chapping on all those doors
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