Taxi Driver Online

Without delving into the 1976 act it would appear to me that in certain cases some private hire operator's only have partial control over their own fare structure and that some private hire drivers when the opportunity arises will charge what they think they can get away with, over and above the official fare chart. In some parts of the country overcharging is rife from both private hire and hackney carriage drivers as we have seen in places like Bradford but it is obvious that the hackney carriage side are at least accountable in law.

A private hire driver would also be accountable in law under certain circumstances especially where the official fare structure of the operator was being breached.

There is also an element of contractual law whereby in this instance it might be said that the terms of the contract were altered halfway through the journey by the driver who it could be said had no right to alter the contract because the contract of hire was between the passenger and private hire operator.

Did the contract allow for the passenger to alter the contract back again to its original status or even allow the passenger to amend the contract in his favour? The answer to that is no. However, off the top of my head there is no legal obligation under the 1976 act for a passenger to even pay a private hire driver at the end of the journey. The illegality of non payment comes under subsidiary legislation of obtaining services by deception or other related acts appertaining to crime prevention etc.

Basically there is nothing in the 1976 act that states it is an offence not to pay a private hire driver. There are references in section 72 and 76 which amount to penalties but these do not specifically relate to non payment and are basically concerned with breaches of the act committed by licensed persons.

The passenger in this case had only to inform the police that he disputed the fare and had no intention of paying it until he had contacted the licensing authority to determine its authenticity? The passenger had only needed to give his name and address to the police officers and the driver of the vehicle as it was not a case of making off or refusing to pay the legal amount.

For clarity on taximeters the following applies with section 56 thrown in for free.
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71 Taximeters

(1) Nothing in this Act shall require any private hire vehicle to be equipped with any form of taximeter but no private hire vehicle so equipped shall be used for hire in a controlled district unless such taximeter has been tested and approved by or on behalf of the district council for the district or any other district council by which a vehicle licence in force for the vehicle was issued.

(2) Any person who—

(a) tampers with any seal on any taximeter without lawful excuse; or

(b) alters any taximeter with intent to mislead; or

(c) knowingly causes or permits a vehicle of which he is the proprietor to be used in contravention of subsection (1) of this section.

shall be guilty of an offence.

56 Operators of private hire vehicles

(1) For the purposes of this Part of this Act every contract for the hire of a private hire vehicle licensed under this Part of this Act shall be deemed to be made with the operator who accepted the booking for that vehicle whether or not he himself provided the vehicle.

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.

I think the whole point of that section on Taximeters is the fact that it is to stop drivers overcharging. If you look at the reference to the word "MISLEAD" then the natural generality of the word would suggest that regardless of there being in place a Taxi meter any attempt to mislead whether or not you have a taxi meter could be an offence.

I don't think the absence of a meter negates the offence to "mislead". Therefore any private hire driver who attempted to mislead resulting in overcharging regardless of whether they have a meter might also be committing an offence.

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.

As far as I know County Cars don't have data units fitted in their vehicles to dispatch the fares to. So I'm assuming all bookings are sent verbally over the radio.
I have no idea how the fares are priced and who decides them, driver or controller.
It sounds like a very basic system, certainly a system I wouldn't be comfortable with using.

The majority of Lincoln based PH company's have data units in the vehicles.
Most Prices are calculated by zones and based from sending a car from the booking office.
No matter where the vehicle is when dispatching the job, it's still calculated from sending the vehicle from the office to the destination zone via the shortest possible route.
Think of the zones in a radius around the office.

Weekends are priced at fare and a half of the normal weekday fare. Christmas and New Years are Double, as you'd expect. All other bank holidays are priced as the normal weekday fare.
The time in which the weekend fares come into effect varies by company, starting between 6pm and midnight on a Friday and Saturday. Some are in effect on Sunday night, some are not.

As far as I know the pricing structure has to be submitted to the council.

At weekends I always advise my passengers of the fare clearly shown on my data unit before setting off to avoid situations like this.
It's also good practice that the telephonist tells the customer what the fare will be.

Additional costs can be added to the displayed fare. For example, extra stops on the way to the pre-booked destination and waiting time. The controller has to be informed about these and the adjusted fare is then sent to update the data unit.

Average prices for an additional stop if on route are usually around £0.40 or £0.20p per min for waiting time. Again, this varies by company.

TDO hasn't scrutinised this particular section to any degree in the past but the law states the contract is made with the "operator" not the "driver". Therefore the driver cannot set his own fares halfway through the journey, they have to come from the operator.

If for instance there was an additional charge for the journey in question it would be up to the operator to inform the passenger what that charge is when he books the vehicle.

If drivers are running around charging what they want then the local Licensing Office aren't doing their job right.

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.

SIX pounds for half a mile, is criminal, would you think?

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Former taxi driver

He thought the passenger was about to make an allegation of overcharging, and therefore made a counter allegation of assault.

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Former taxi driver