Taxi Driver Online

Passenger's rant at 's***' Scarborough taxis prompts operator to list all the reasons for town's cab chaos

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/loc ... s-21330124

The general manager of two taxi firms in the North Yorkshire town has said that the pandemic has had a hugely detrimental effect on the industry

Staff shortages, a huge increase in demand and issues with clients have been highlighted as reasons there have been taxi problems in Scarborough.

The general manager of two firms in the North Yorkshire town said that the coronavirus pandemic has had a massive impact on the industry UK-wide as staff numbers have plummeted while demand has increased since staycations became the norm.

David Ledden, who operates Atlas Taxis and Nippy Taxis, was responding after residents came out en masse to criticise the current levels of service online, with one person saying that the seaside town needs a "taxi revolution".

The social media debate was sparked by a woman who said that she was left waiting for a driver from Atlas Taxis for an hour and a half despite pre-booking one for 11.30pm.

She wrote: "It got to 11:45pm and the taxi hadn’t arrived yet. I gave them a call and the operator said it’s not her fault that the taxis aren’t on time and she has no idea when it would turn up. I calmly explained that I’d pre-booked for a reason…she slammed the phone down.

"Anyway, she had no way of tracking it and it turned up at 1am.

"I think Scarborough needs a taxi revolution. You’ve all put up with this s**t for too long. I don’t live in Scarborough anymore, so it only bothers me once a year when I’m back to see family, but why aren’t more people moaning about this?"

The post has received over 130 comments from equally frustrated people who have complained about the "unreliable, very expensive and poor service".

In response, Mr Ledden said that there is an "unprecedented" amount of demand at the moment in Scarborough due to the number of people visiting the Yorkshire seaside instead of going abroad.

He also said that he had lost "about 15 drivers" since the start of the pandemic and that the business was now "about 25 or 30 per cent" busier.

He said: "Scarborough must be the busiest place in the UK at the minute. Everywhere's full and everyone wants taxis.

"Everybody in town has the same problems. It's not just us, but unfortunately we tend to get more rough reviews. But we operate 24 hours so that might be a part of it. There's so much pressure on us."

He said that another issue is when customers call up for a taxi and say one thing but mean another.

Mr Ledden said: "We get people calling up saying they're going to one place and then four of them get in and they each go somewhere different. When you think you've got one job to Burniston and then you find out you're going to Filey as well it can really set you back."

He added: "Some customers will call taxis from four different places at the same time and get in the first one that comes. Then you're left with a driver 30 minutes out of the way."

He said that he had been advertising for new drivers for the past few months but there hasn't been many applications. For those that do get in touch it has been difficult to get them onboard due to the time it takes to get them certified.

"I don't think they realise that we pay for the license and supply the cars and pay for petrol", he said. "We've never been like this and unless we can recruit people I don't know the answer to it.

"The drivers need PBS checks but they take about eight or nine weeks to come back. In that period a lot of them find other jobs.

"I think it's a problem throughout the country. At the minute we could take 20 drivers and it still wouldn't be enough."

He said that drivers who had left over the last 18 months had done so to retire and because there wasn't enough work to occupy them during the pandemic so they had found new jobs.

On the complaints people made about waiting, he said: "We don't take work and think it doesn't matter how long people are waiting. We try and be straight and tell people if it's going to be an hour or however long upfront.

"There's been mistakes but it's not that we don't care. We are really trying as hard as we can."

There were also comments in the thread about operators being rude with customers, to which Mr Leddon said: "There's no excuses for that. We have had a couple of messages and I will be dealing with staff when I get back."

She's pointing to one problem for a start - Scarborough trade probably very seasonal, so drivers doing nothing in winter will be busier than the norm in summer, servicing the likes of this complainant. She's like the person who only uses taxis at Christmas, and like everyone else who uses taxis at peak times but don't normally use them, wonder why they can't get one...


According to Google that's a job booked at about four miles which ends up going 15 miles, so I'm sure we can all identify with that.


Punter calls 'from four different PLACES'?

He presumably means that the punter phones four different numbers/firms/offices, while it reads like he's claiming the punter is phoning from four different LOCATIONS. Which I suspect may confuse the average reader, ie a member of the public

This is the only comment left on the website, which could be, er, more clearly expressed.

But as is so often the case on these local news sites, looks like a rival firm bitching, but not entirely clear what their gripe is other than, er, being a smaller firm and the firm in the article being a bigger one

trade is better than it was BUT either we are the exception to the rule or all these firms are exaggerating

there is often a time of day/night which is popular and then there might be a bit of a wait but the trade in my opinion has shed some of the over capacity NOT running short of capacity

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Does beg the question as to why the operator answered the phone in the first place.

If you have no cars, and jobs are taking hours to clear, what's the point of taking more bookings.

_________________
IDFIMH