Taxi Driver Online

Taxi distress for blind woman.

A blind woman from Broughty Ferry has spoken of her anger after the driver of a Dundee Private Hire cab refused to transport her guide dog.
Mhairi Thurston (49) told the Courier she felt "humiliated" and was "in tears" following the incident which left her stranded in the rain on Dundee University Campus.
The Counsellor for student services had expected the vehicle to take her home at 5pm on Wednesday but was told by the driver her guide dog was not allowed in the vehicle.
"He said he had just had his car valeted at a cost of £50" said Mhairi.
"My guide dog was clearly indentifiable as such,wearing it's very distinctive bright yellow assistance harness and lead.
"The driver said he would not order me another car and that i would have to go inside and phone for one" The car had been booked specifically to trransport Mhairi and her guide dog Wanda as part of her Access to work assistance from the Department for Work and Pensions.
"I assumed because the firm had a disabled taxi-card licence that they would be expecting disabled persons to use their firm," she continued.
"They are supposed to be a flagship company for disabled people. To be fair, i've used them before and had wonderful,helpful drivers and i understand that it must be difficult for onwers to keep track of everyone who is working for them."
"Initially i was devasted and distraught. But the more i thought about it the madder i got. This was a real rejection and what blind people have to deal with every day." It is illegal and wrong and goes against part of the strategy which aims to enhance the inclusion, participation and independance of blind and partially-sighted people."
"Taxi drivers need to realise they have a responsibility to the vunerable people in society-we depend on them to enable us to get about"
" Mhairi has since wrotten to Dundee City Council's licensing committee on the advice of the Disability Discrimination Act legal team, and to her local MSP's office to make a complaint against Dundee Private Hire.
She explained that the incident was a "blatant case of discrimination" and "in direct contravention of the Disability Act 2005"
Chief executive of Dundee Private Hire, David Young said he was very concerned about the complaint." I spoke to Mhairi and apologised" he said.
"The policy at Private Hire is if you press the button to do the job,you do it and then come to me afterwards if you have any questions or queries.
The driver has been suspended until further notice"


Zero points to the driver and, zero points to the journalists who still use the term "Taxi" when writing such bad press !!

Tx this shows that the extensive training they receive is not working

This is just one of many stories about this company and the quicker the council do something about it the better

its a pity they didn,t name the driver,suspened untill further notice probably means he now drives for teles,i have never thought of the disability discrimination act legal team,they sound like people who might kick ass,i wonder if they know that the disabled taxi card scheme has been handed to a company with virtually no wavs?and that taxi card owners are having to phone other offices at their own expense because 203020 cant provide proper cover ,the next time i pick up a customer who says (i have a taxicard but 203020 quoted me half an hours wait on a weekday night im going to write to these people)especially when teles can quote 5-10 mins on a saturday night,these people could be just what we need to put pressure on ddc to get that very lucrative taxi card scheme away from 203020,if they lost that contract and the fat sams compound (still there tonight) it would put a limit on how many cars and drivers that could make a living from this so called office

Now thats my way of thinking

Should make tonight's meeting all the more interesting

2030s only have about 8 wavs at the moment and there independent owned. wonder why a company with very little wavs can apply for the smart card and all that nhs work when 40% of the work will be for a wav . have to laugh at there page in the tele other night what a load of bull sh!t