Taxi Driver Online

TAXI drivers are being warned not to put profit from longer journeys before less lucrative local trips.

MP Kerry Pollard issued the warning after hearing claims of how some drivers were refusing late-night local fares in favour of more profitable journeys.

It follows problems at the taxi rank at Batchwood Hall Night Club where drivers have refused fares within St Albans so they can take a more costly fare to areas such as Hemel Hempstead, Dunstable or Luton.

In a recent case, a 22-year-old woman coming out of the nightclub in the early hours of a Sunday morning and travelling home alone was refused a ride in a taxi. The driver told her she was being turned down because she lived in St Albans and he could be sure of a more profitable fare than she represented. The district council will prosecute any taxi driver refusing a fare without reasonable cause and the drivers' trade organisations have been warned of that likelihood by the licensing department.

Mr Pollard said: "I am horrified that a young woman should be put in such a position and determined that such a thing will not happen again.

"St Albans is well served by CCTV cameras, particularly at its taxi ranks, and there is a good chance that such an event would be captured on film and used as evidence."

To make a prosecution, the council needs to know certain information such as the vehicle registration number and/or the driver identification number.

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IDFIMH

There is a problem with 'cherry picking' every night in every city. There will, of course, always be greedy drivers who will not do any local jobs. It is totally unacceptable though to leave girls on the streets at 2 in the morning.

I have even taken girls home when they've told me they're a couple of quid short of the fare.

In Liverpool, one of our main problems was cherry picking at the airport. However, in recent months, there has been a huge effort to reduce incidences of drivers refusing passengers in favour of bigger fares.

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Visit TAXIPIX at www.taxipix.fotopic.net

It happens all over, it happens down here in the daytime with some of the Asian lads, they will get a job then ask them where they are going, the next minute the passenger is getting out of the car into the next one.

The Key term,

reasonable is not because the fare is poor.

Im afraid it doesnt happen here, because the cab behind will reprt the cab in front and quite right too.

Captain cab

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Quite right, but I wonder how much of the cherry picking is done by part-timers who don't have to rely on local work, as much as full-timers.

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IDFIMH

ahh you mean those part timers when delimitation arrives then?

hehe

Captain cab

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin