Taxi Driver Online

Are cab drivers a charity and should council officials call self employed cabbies, "our" drivers?

I have a word of advice for the public at large, before you get into a cab make sure you have enough money to pay for it. Otherwise you are liable to end up walking regardless of whether you wear a skirt or a pair of pants?
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Evening Gazette

August 3, 2007, Friday

She could have been raped, attacked, or mugged, kidnapped

A FURIOUS mum claims a taxi driver dumped her distraught teenage daughter miles from home at 4am - because she couldn't pay the fare.

Today the Eston mum blasted the foul-mouthed cab driver, saying her daughter was left terrified and vulnerable to attack.

Mary Mulholland, 18, and a friend hailed a black and yellow taxi outside Middlesbrough Town Hall in the early hours of the morning after a night out.

The friend was dropped off in Green Lane before the taxi headed towards Mary's home in Eston in the early hours of July 21.

But when Mary, an art student, glanced at the meter she realised she did not have enough cash to pay the pounds 14 fare.

She offered to pay the driver if he returned first thing in the morning.

But despite being very close to the teenager's home, the driver is said to have started shouting and swearing before turning the cab down Normanby Road and later demanding she get out on a deserted trunk road three miles from home.

Mary's mum Ellen Mulholland, 51, a psychology lecturer at the University of Teesside, received a call for help from her distressed daughter at 4am.

Ellen said: "I'm really angry. It's despicable. I got the phone call with her crying down the phone.

"She could have been raped, attacked, mugged, kidnapped - anything could have happened to her.

"The road was deserted. There were no people around. It was raining. It was windy. It was horrible.

"She was in tears. She was in a really bad way. She was shaken by the whole thing."

Ellen has now reported the incident to the taxi licensing department at Middlesbrough Council.

Mary said the driver had first said he was taking her to a police station but ended up abandoning her.

She said: "It was awful. I was scared. He was driving me somewhere, I didn't know where.

"He said 'stop crying'. He said 'get out the car now'. I was like 'What, what, you are just leaving me here?'. I was really distraught."

A Middlesbrough Council spokesman said: "We would not accept this type of alleged behaviour from one of our drivers and we are investigating this complaint.

"However the complainant did not manage to record the driver's or vehicle's details so we may not be able to fully resolve this matter. We have written to Mrs Mullholland advising her of this.

"We would like to remind the public who want to make a complaint against a taxi driver to make a note of that taxi's plate licence number or registration number so that we are able to identify the driver."

Asif Afzal, chairman of Middlesbrough Hackney Carriage Association, said asking the driver to return in the morning was unreasonable as he would be forced to make the same trip twice with no guarantee of payment.

But he added the driver's actions were "silly". He said: "He should have really taken her home and got the address and pursued the situation after that."
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So they think the drivers should take people home regardless of whether they have money?

Take this to its logical conclusion and they'll all have to walk home, because drivers won't work for nothing.

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

Is it just me, or is there a slight contradiction here?

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

So in a nutshell, the girl drank her taxi money and now it is the drivers fault

We had a situation in Swansea some time back, the guy gets into a taxi going a considerable distance and then the driver finds out he has got no money. The driver outs him as he is not a charity and his first duty is to provide for his family, unfortunately the passenger got killed on the way home. You then get the wolfhounds out for the driver - all his fault of course.

What really pees me off is that they are big enough to go out until late, but if they become irresponsible then it is our fault. The police never want anything at all to do with it, and I am B*gg***d if I am taking them home for free.

Perhaps the authorities should take some responsibilty, like having an office for waifs strays and drunks who have p*ss*d their money away. They can then give them a lift home or give them the taxi fare, just like they give them money for the taxi in the sky when people are abroad and lose their money and passports.

Anyway that is not going to happen, but they should make people take more responsibility for their own actions.

Sorry about the rant, but it really ticks me off.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Clearly we have only heard one side of the story, but in my view the girl tried it on.

She would have had a rough idea how much it would have cost to get home. She knew she didn't have enough yet got into the cab.

Maybe the driver should have taken her phone or watch in lieu of payment, but then she might have accused him of nicking it.

That said, would I drop a young lady on her own in the middle of nowhere late at night? I doubt it. But then maybe it's me that's the mug.

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IDFIMH

Years ago in my area if you didn't have enough money for a bus fare the driver would issue you with an unpaid fare ticket. You gave your name and address and then went into the office at a later date and paid the fare then.
Can you see something like this working with a taxi late at night?

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Grandad,

if she didn't have enough for the fare, why didn't she phone her mum to pay at the other end?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

People without money to get them home will always try it on because they are desperate. This girl must have been considerably short of the fare if she was dropped three miles from her home.

She phoned her parents to let them know she was walking but could she not have phoned them before she got into the cab and asked them to pay the cab fare?

Normally when you buy something including a service most reasonable people will check that they have the means to pay for it? If they haven’t got the means to pay then they don't get the goods or service.

Taxi driving is no different and we shouldn't let stories such as these cloud our judgement. In this day and age when cab drivers sometimes wait around for very long periods of time for a job the last thing they want is someone who can't pay the fare.

The girl brought the incident on herself and her actions have ultimately impacted on a driver who went out to do a nights work for which he expected to get paid for and he did not seek a confrontation of this nature.

In respect of councillors and licensing officials who have a habit of referring to cab drivers as "our cabbies" I would just like to say that we are not your cabbies we are self employed individuals who run our own business, which you as councillors and licensing officials have no part in whatsoever, financially or otherwise. The function of a council is to issue licenses and by law they cannot refuse a license, therefore they are not granting you anything that you are not entitled to. The sooner they realise that the better.

Perhaps all passengers should be made to pay before the journey commenced, just like every other form of Transport but some would say that is impractical so under the circumstances perhaps every passenger should pay a deposit agreed upon by the driver? That would certainly stop these incidents from occurring and put an end to all forms of non payment and runners.

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

If they are the coucincils drivers bill the coucil for the fare

You - work - nights; and all in the same sentence?

I was once told it was illegal to enter a taxi knowing you had not got the money to pay for the fare is this not correct.

Maybe this could happen if all cabs were fitted with chip and pin credit card machines. You could swipe the card through the machine at the start of the fare and like at the tesco pay at pump it could give you a maxi amount that can be spent on the card. Then you could proceed with the fare knowing you wre going to get paid. Also the customers would not have to worry about having enough cash.

Sounds like a good plan to me.

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Grandad,

Wouldn't the revenue just love that

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

If you know you are pot-less, then indeed that's in breach of the Theft Act.

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IDFIMH