captain cab wrote:
Protest by Tonbridge taxi firm owner at 'rip-off' by drivers A TONBRIDGE taxi firm owner is calling for action to combat unscrupulous cab drivers he says are plaguing the town.
Terry Hill, proprietor of Castle Cars for 17 years, was incensed with the "obscene" overcharging by a handful of independent drivers over the holiday period.
Mr Hill, 51, of Gorham Drive, said: "A few independents are blatantly ripping people off.
"It has been going on for a long time, but it got a lot worse over Christmas," he added.
Mr Hill said he had heard reports of £40 fares being charged from Tonbridge railway station to Hildenborough, a journey that should cost no more than £10.
Another alleged incident saw an abusive driver take a couple back to the cab rank from their destination in Brook Street when they refused to pay an inflated fare.
Mr Hill added: "As a company we are getting a lot of complaints from the public about it, probably because they couldn't get hold of the council over Christmas to report it. People have told our drivers that they have got taxis off the ranks and been overcharged. There have been some pretty obscene amounts of money that people have been charged."
Mr Hill was so angered by recent developments he even put up posters displaying Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council's official fare tariff in a bid to stop overcharging.
He is now calling on passengers who believe they have been overcharged to report incidents to the council's licensing department.
"There is a small number of people on the Tonbridge taxi rank that are refusing to take people without payment up front, refusing to take minimum fares, seriously overcharging or refusing to give change," he said.
"Legitimate companies want something done about it as it is giving the trade as a whole a diabolical name.
"I have been driving for 28 years and it saddens me to see what could be a reasonable business for everybody destroyed by a few individuals. There's a lot of honest guys on that rank losing their sole income to people who are messing on their own doorstep."
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council's chief solicitor Adrian Stanfield said: "The council takes the enforcement of taxi matters seriously and thoroughly investigates any complaints.
"We have not received any complaints over the holiday period in relation to overcharging. All taxi meters are subject to external testing and calibration to ensure that all charges are in accordance with those set by the borough council.
"We do undertake enforcement at all of our ranks on a random basis and follow up any concerns we have with the drivers concerned. We have recently introduced a penalty point system to assist us in managing taxi operations in the borough to ensure the highest quality."
http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Protest-Ton ... story.html I have just found this site and joined up so first of all hello from me
I am Terry, the person that gave this story to the local paper.
Since this story appeared we have received a lot of support from our customers and many local businesses. Unfortunately I have not had the same support from much of the local taxi trade and I suspect the problem is worse than I thought. All they want to do is to moan about the lack of business, blaming the council for licensing too many cars, rather than looking closer to home and blaming those drivers that have driven the rank passengers away. I have been in the trade for almost 30 years now and the number of people getting cars from the main rank outside the station has fallen in that time. This helps my company as many of them call us from the train to meet them at the front instead. However I have to wonder just how many people are not using taxis at all because of the few that are blatantly disregarding the fare tariff?
On Xmas Eve at 4pm a couple of my own drivers had been for a drink after work and got a taxi from the rank. This driver obviously did not recognise them and put the meter to double fare (The tariff for this borough on Xmas Eve is Normal fare until 6pm then Fare + Half until Midnight. Xmas day is then Double Fare). One of them then phoned me in the office to confirm what the tariff should be. After I explained I heard him tell the tell the driver this.
This driver still tried to charge them double rate, then dropped it to fare and a half and finally rudely told them to F off and not bother paying anything. They paid the £5 they would normally pay for a £3.80 fare + tip! I personally would have paid the proper fare and asked for a receipt.
This drivers next job was an elderly couple )minimum fare job) and after they refused to pay double at the destination he took them back to the rank and again told them to F off. They phoned my company in a state of distress at this behaviour and we took them home free of charge.
I immediately printed off a couple large copies of the official tariff and pot them up at the rank. While doing this I was getting dirty looks from a number of the drivers.
As soon as the licensing dept opened again after Xmas I made an official complaint on behalf of my drivers, telling them that they were prepared to make statements for it to be pursued. I was told at the time that they had also had another complaint already about the same driver. This complaint had come from a councillor and ex mayor of the borough who had been charged £18 for a £9 fare! Yet the councils Chief Solicitor tells the paper that they have not had any complaints, how can this be?
Unfortunately for this driver she has now been given the role of Chair of the Licensing Committee. I can not wait to see his face if he turns up at a meeting the council are having with the trade next week, when this will be announced
The solicitors comment that "All taxi meters are subject to external testing and calibration to ensure that all charges are in accordance with those set by the borough council." makes me laugh. It just goes to show that he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about. So the meters are calibrated correctly, but how does this stop the drivers putting them to double fare?
I very much doubt that much, if anything, will be done by the council to get rid of the drivers that are destroying the trade. I have been suggesting for years that the enforcement team actually do some enforcing. I have also suggested that they use covert surveillance and 'mystery shoppers' but as yet they have not done so.
For the past two years I have been official chauffeur to the Mayor of Tonbridge and Malling, and at least this gives me access on a regular basis to the influential councillors. My continual lobbying of them to get this situation sorted while we still have some kind of taxi trade in the area will hopefully eventually pay off, but so far I feel like I am banging my head on a brick wall.
If any other members of this site have any further advice on what else I can do I would be grateful.
I should add that thanks to the actions of a minority of drivers my company is seeing a year on year increase in new customers that do not want to get ripped off by the rank drivers, but just how many others have been driven away from trusting anyone in the trade? It may have a silver lining for me personally but after so long in the business it also makes me want to pack it all in.
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