Taxi Driver Online

Looking at the situ in hindsight it might have been an idea to get another cab, either sent to where they were, or try and get another local firm to do the trip.

But clearly the non-licensed driver was only thinking about his family and not missing the plane.

But have we missed the point as to why the licensed driver was doing a long job at midnight when he had been working all day long?

_________________
IDFIMH

but thats whats happening now

we have numerous drivers doing a day job then jumping into a cab at night, even those who don't have another job are working till 0400 hrs in the morning then can be seen on the ranks at 0930 hrs

don't know how they do it

am led to believe a few who have day jobs aren't declaring working as a taxi driver [tax reasons], or only putting down, "i only work the taxi at weekends"
the only answer is tachographs to which i believe will come in through EU law eventually when they have worked it all out

But that wasn't the choice; once the car was stopped the choices were to make alternative arrangments or points on his license.

Obviously we don't know all the facts - the fella may well have thought that his policy covered any car.

If he knew he was not legit then it certainly seems very bizarre to report the incident and have it splattered all over the press.

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

Well that's the thing Pete - there's so much cheating the tax man in the trade that presumably there'd be a lot of cheating on the tachos as well?

Thus like the current tax position fitting tachos would just be another cheats' charter.

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

Once the car had stopped the prospect of danger was resolved but the passenger still had the dilemna of getting to his destination. Even if the passenger had insurance to drive any vehicle it still wouldn't have covered him for driving a licensed Taxi or private hire vehicle. Unless of course the insurance specified any licensed taxi vehicle in which case he would need a licensed badge from the area that issued the vehicle license.

The any vehicle insurance scenario is not as cut and dried as it would first appear, there are other elements you have to take into account when driving a licensed vehicle. I think the man should have kept his own counsel and put the incident down to experiance and perhaps said nothing about the incident except to the firm that supplied the driver and vehicle.

If he gets three points on his license because he wasn't insured then he only has himself to blame.

Regards

JD

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

Whatever the legal technicalites, perhaps the driver thought he was covered and he didn't need a badge to drive the car, which I suppose is reasonably plausible.

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

Plausible but when the passenger asked the driver if he could drive the vehicle wouldn't you have thought the driver might have warned the passenger that he wasn't insured to do so?

Reegards

JD

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

The car left Kings Lynn at 12 midnight, 2 hours to Gatwick that time of night. No flights leaves Gatwick before 4.30 am. He would have had more than enough time to call a local cab, with loads of time.They were on the M11 right nr Stanstead , loads of local firms.
Me thinks there will be a claim for loads of money any time now.

[quote="no tips"]The car left Kings Lynn at 12 midnight, 2 hours to Gatwick that time of night. No flights leaves Gatwick before 4.30 am. He would have had more than enough time to call a local cab, with loads of time. quote]

What about check in times?

_________________
Grandad,

Not if he'd fallen asleep again

I daresay the cabbie took the view that it would be better for all concerned if he let the passenger drive, even if he was aware that offences would be committed.

After all, those kinds of things happen all the time and it's rare for anything to happen, and the cabbie was probably assuming that the passenger wouldn't drop himself in it by going to the press

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

2 hours to get to the airport is about right with a wide awake alert driver these people may have never made it to the airport at all.

Does anyone really think faced with a sleeping driver, the family getting stressed and check in time approaching the punter thought for one moment "Hang on I musn't drive this car I may not be insured"?

Did he bo***cks!

He wanted to get his family to the airport safe and sound and get on with his holiday

_________________
Life? Don't talk to me about life!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjm2eslm6hI

I hate to tell you this but many of us have tachographs in our vehicles now.

Meters.

B. Lucky

_________________
"Here's a simple solution. If you don't want to pay more for a premium service then wait in the queue, problem solved".
Skull on TDO

TF pi$$ed on his chips.

There are no mitigating circumstances of any relevance because each individual party made a calculated decision to break the law.

Apologies to JD - I managed to press the wrong button and lost most of his reply

Dusty

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

As I said, he may have plausibly thought that he could drive a vehicle without a badge becaue he wasn't doing it for commercial gain and by the same token he may have thought that an insurance policy covered his driving.

As I said, if he made a "calculated" decision to break the law then it seems a bit bizarre that he made a song and dance about it with the police and media.

We clearly don't know all the facts, but I think it's plausible to at least consider the possibility of mitigating circumstances, ie ignorance of the legal position.

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

Mine dosen't tell anyone how long I've been on shift does yours then?

_________________
Life? Don't talk to me about life!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjm2eslm6hI