Taxi Driver Online

Tay Taxis director says some city cabbies are 'too lazy' to help people into cars

Published online : 09.06.11 @ 12.55pm

A Dundee taxi firm director says the trade in Dundee is in need of a radical "shake-up" — as he accused some drivers of being "too lazy to get off their backside to help people into cars."

George Harris, director of Tay Taxis, went on to compare the appearance of some drivers to that of Worzel Gummidge before warning that the service was now so poor that the city had fallen five years behind other regions.

The former chairman of Dundee Taxi Association — has been with independent taxi operator Tay Taxis for over a decade — made his comments in response to a row over proposals tabled by the city council licensing committee in March to make all cabs wheelchair-accessible vehicles (WAVs).

Mr Harris opposes the move and believes there are more pressing issues before the matter of WAVs should be considered.

"Every car has got its own reason and there is no one vehicle that suits everyone," he told The Courier. "For those who are not in wheelchairs but still infirm it's very difficult for them to get their way into these larger wheelchair cars, so what about their needs?

"There is a lot of personal politics at play here, and at the moment this is what the taxi drivers — sitting with their flasks — are all talking about on the taxi ranks."

Dundee has no cap in place to limit the number of taxis. It has been said that by allowing only WAVs to operate in the city this, in effect, will reduce the number of cabs on roads.

Mr Harris, who has 48 vehicles with Tay Taxis, believes there is already a suitable amount of disabled access taxis. But he argues that a major problem lies with "lazy" drivers who would rather take on quick fares than spend time helping disabled passengers in and out of cars.

"Some drivers — not all — don't want to pick up wheelchair fares because it takes 45-60 minutes out of their day," he said.

"At our firm we have 18 taxis set aside with guys who we know can be called upon for disabled fares. But that is the last thing a lot of other drivers want to do."

He continued, "The majority of our customers prefer not to have the wheelchair-type cars. We have a load of requests from people when they call up not to send this sort of vehicle."

Meanwhile the current chairman of the Dundee Taxi Association (DTA) Graeme Stephen believes the council has "lost control" of the local trade because of the amount of cabs in the city.

Dress code

He also hit out at the standard of service on offer before calling on taxi regulators to take more action when policing drivers to ensure their code of conduct is adhered to.

"There is a dress code which many drivers just don't bother about," he said. "Cab officers are never out checking this and they really should be."

John Alexander, who has driven a London-style cab over many years, believes there is a problem with the service on offer to passengers, but not because of what drivers wear.

"You have good and bad taxi drivers, like everywhere else," he said. "But what is really hurting cabbies is the number of new taxis flooding into Dundee every month.

"I have to work 14, 15-hour days just to try and make a living because there are too many."

Fellow cabbie Billy Cassidy wants to see wheelchair-access vehicles become a compulsory measure and says the style of vehicle offers protection to the driver from aggressive or drunk customers.

"Look at buses and trains — the driver is shielded from their passengers," he said. "If you look at saloon cars that is not the case.

"What is stopping someone grabbing the steering wheel and driving you on to the pavement? Whereas in a cab you do have protection, so there is an important safety issue here," he said.

Source; http://www.thecourier.co.uk/News/Dundee ... -cars.html

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Before we know it all the PH drivers will be asking for the same CCTV is a good deterrent without the need to purchase a purpose built taxi so why is that not considered as part of driver safety? IMO I think councils would do well to a have decent mixed fleet to ensure all customers are happy with the services provided. All they need to do then is get rid of the scruffy and the lazy drivers and how the hell they do that is anybodies guess

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aye absaloute joke the guy from taytaxis must be calling all his own drivers lazy scruffy b*st*rds cause when u see them omg it only costs summin like 30p for a bar of soap go take a good look at your own drivers before u come up we this kind of p*sh u trumpet thats what i say