Taxi Driver Online

Call for action over rogue taxi drivers

PASSENGER watchdogs are demanding a clampdown on violent, drunken and abusive taxi drivers who are responsible for hundreds of complaints each year.

Local authority and police reports — obtained by The Sunday Times under the Freedom of Information Act — reveal a catalogue of more than 650 alleged offences involving cab drivers in the past year, including assaults, carrying offensive weapons and possessing drugs.

Almost 170 complaints were received from passengers who claimed they had been insulted by drivers and a similar number alleged they were put at risk by dangerous driving. Taxi drivers were also accused of racism, sexual assault, causing criminal damage and overcharging their customers.

While all the complaints were investigated, council officials admit many were not upheld because of a lack of corroboration.

Graeme Millar, chairman of the Scottish Consumer Council, said he was alarmed by the number of complaints and demanded tougher action against rogue taxi drivers.

“Taxis provide an important public transport service and it is worrying that so many consumers are getting a poor level of service,” he said.

“We are concerned that standards are not enforced uniformly across Scotland. Better enforcement will ensure that standards are improved and the public are protected.”

Taxi and mini-cab drivers in Aberdeen attracted the largest number of complaints — almost 190. Most involved rudeness, bad driving and illegal plying for hire. There were two allegations of assault.

In North Lanarkshire, council officials have investigated about 120 complaints, including eight by Strathclyde police.

They include a taxi driver who allegedly assaulted a man and woman in a supermarket car park in Cumbernauld and another who was found in possession of a controlled drug.

Last December, police were called to a car crash involving a taxi driver who was found to be more than twice over the legal limit. An empty bottle of vodka was found in the vehicle.

Another driver has been reported twice over the past year for “smelling” of alcohol. However, his licence will be renewed in May if he attends alcohol counselling.

Glasgow council has investigated almost 60 complaints since 2004, including one from a passenger who claims she was bundled out of a taxi by the driver after complaining that he was driving too fast.

An elderly woman complained about a “truculent, churlish and ungracious” female cab driver who refused to help load her shopping. When she remonstrated with the driver, she is alleged to have slammed on the breaks, dumped the passenger’s shopping on the street and forced her out of her cab.

An internal report produced by Edinburgh council last February detailed 286 complaints since 2001 but warned the number may be the “tip of the iceberg”.

Last night the Scottish Taxi Federation (STF), which represents black cabs, claimed the vast majority of disputes involved the drivers of private hire cars, who it accused of tarnishing the profession’s reputation. It raised concerns that anybody with a valid drivers’ licence, regardless of a criminal record, can apply for a private hire licence.

“There are very few serious complaints against taxi drivers. It’s more in the private hire sector,” said Jim Muldoon, chairman of the STF. “I’m not saying it doesn’t happen in the taxi trade but cases are few and far between. We would like to see more controls of the private hire industry as their behaviour besmirches our members. The police are failing in their duty by not clamping down on unlicensed vehicles.”

Councillor Raymond Hutcheon, convener of Aberdeen council’s licensing committee, said: “We think the standard of taxi driving is very high but there’s a rogue minority in any profession and I feel we have that in Aberdeen. One of the problems in taxi complaints is a lack of corroboration but we take the issue very seriously.”

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IDFIMH

So even the Sunday Times can't spell 'brakes'

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Have they got it wrong [top paragraph] do they mean violent, drunken and abusive PASSENGERS,

Must carry this on, me thinks that we are wide open to complaints, there no getting away from it

The other week I was working during the night, I wasn't feeling to good with a head cold etc etc. and some other odds and bobs. I carried 4 girls back to their hotel after a night on the town, because I wouldn't join in with the banter [why should I, I'm from a different generation [and sober] ] when I got to the end of the journey, they paid me up, this girl said to me, I had spoiled their end of the night out and she said that they was going to report me to the council for being a miserable bas**rd what do they want a fun show after every job, give me hen racing anytime,

we are wide open for any Tom Dick or Harry to make a complaint at their whim, if they do the council have to investigate, we can't win

Oh yes, and unless you have pukka LOs, then drivers are well open to these false claims.

Great job eh?

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IDFIMH

On the other hand, the silly bitch that you encountered probably didn't have any intention of complaining to the LA, she was just continuing her wind-up role.

After all, the figures quoted in the article indicate that only a fraction of drivers will be subject to any official complaint, and no doubt with a lot of them, if not the vast majority, the complaint will be justified.

That's not to say that we don't run the risk of maliciously motivated complaints, but the risk is probably pretty small for the decent driver.

But I wonder if the paper will be demanding a clampdown on violent, drunken and abusive passengers?

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

What an absolute load of tosh. Yet another so called representative that spouts out rubbish, without having any facts to back it up.

There are good and bad in all sides of the trade. Does every cab driver act in the same way as ....?

http://www.thisisbath.com/displayNode.j ... K=12240438

Of course not, so please Mr Scots Fed man, don't tar us all the same.

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IDFIMH

No comment?I am in a bad mood,just like that bu--er Highwayman.
DIRK TURBAN rools ok.

Last night the Scottish Taxi Federation (STF), which represents black cabs, claimed the vast majority of disputes involved the drivers of private hire cars, who it accused of tarnishing the profession’s reputation. It raised concerns that anybody with a valid drivers’ licence, regardless of a criminal record, can apply for a private hire licence.

“There are very few serious complaints against taxi drivers. It’s more in the private hire sector,” said Jim Muldoon, chairman of the STF. “I’m not saying it doesn’t happen in the taxi trade but cases are few and far between. We would like to see more controls of the private hire industry as their behaviour besmirches our members. The police are failing in their duty by not clamping down on unlicensed vehicles.”

Yet more nonsense from the STF

Private hire driver applications go through the same rigorous checks as Taxi driver applications ie. criminal & driver licence checks through the police

The only unlicensed vehicles on the road in Scotland (except Edinburgh & Dundee) are the numerous stretched limousines, fire engines & chauffeur drive services that carry more than eight passengers; if the taxi trade are that concerned about the unlicensed trade why aren't they reporting them to their local licensing authorities

All the best

The article does at least acknowledge the difference between the two sides of the trade, but doesn't apply it properly to the story.

For example, it said that Aberdeen had the most complaints, but Aberdeen is 90% taxi, so presumably most came regarding taxi drivers, so to let Muldoon say what he said let him off the hook a bit. I think Muldoon is from the central belt, and since there are three times as many PH drivers as taxi in Glasgow then even if they get equal complaints then the PH side are bound to have more.

The article also says that anyone can apply for a PH badge irrespective of criminal record, but this is the same with PH surely, and thats not to say that the badge will be awarded, and as RD says above, the standards are generally the same.

And the article also says that the STF represents black cabs, well it does, but also the saloons in the likes of Dundee, so perhaps the writer wasn't fully aware of the difference.

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Dundee rocks. Almost.