Taxi Driver Online

‘Rival sabotaged Accrington taxi firm on New Year’s Day’


A TAXI firm’s state-of-the-art radio equipment was sabotaged on one of the busiest nights of the year, bosses have claimed.

And the owner of Accrington-based Betty’s Private Hire claimed someone, possibly a rival, had jammed the airwaves, leaving many customers without a taxi home after New Year celebrations.

Montgomery Fenton Hunt, who has run the 25-year-old firm for nine years, said the lines to all 18 taxi drivers were jammed from 12.10am to 3am on New Year’s Day.

This meant the firm was only able to get to 40 of its 100 callers wanting taxis as bosses could not get hold of all its drivers.

Mr Hunt said he apologised to all customers affected.

But he said he was to ask Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, to investigate the incident as it is not a police matter.

The £60,000 Autocab Data System was installed at Betty’s Private Hire two years ago.

But Mr Hunt said their high-tech system’s signal was jammed. He believes someone, possibly a rival, had discovered their frequency and blocked it.

Mr Hunt said: “Everyone was getting frustrated and it was utter chaos.

“The system was jammed and I was ringing the drivers from my mobile to their’s to send them to their destinations.

“The drivers could not contact me through the radio. I sent them to the destination through mobile phone calls, but some customers had gone and other times drivers were circling the area trying to find them.

“The drivers weren’t making any money and the customers weren’t being attended to.

“It is very difficult to find out the frequency of the airwaves on the Autocab system.

“I think it is jealousy. It is very difficult to do. You have to know the airwaves we use.

“It is very expensive to install and very few taxi firms have the Autocab Data System.”

He added: “I want to apologise to all of our customers who were left disappointed.”

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

probably a CB'er 2 doors down

breaker breaker....

I would say New Year's Eve is the most pointless time to jam a rival's system, as there's bundles of work for all.

Best time to do it when it's quiet and then you would gain extra work you could cover.

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IDFIMH

No it is the one nioght of the year that people feel most aggrieved if their taxi doesn't show it would cause the maximum ill will. that said i would be surprised if it is a rival doing it it would take someone with considerable expertise and some expensive equipment to do it. Unless the said ph firm have been pulling a few stunts of their own and upset a rival such as poaching fares.

At least 2 of our local rivals use scanners to listen into our radio and try to pinch our fares we've caught them out before by calling false bookings out over the system ! Nothing the radiofrequencies agency or the police can do about it apparently !!!

so why dont the twonks come out and get in the bloody vehicle once it arrives?....

What's a 'twonk'

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

It is a term of endearment. Similar to idiot, asshole, w*anker..........You get the drift.

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Grandad,