Free rickshaw ride for shoppers to celebrate successful summer

SHOPPERS were given a helping hand to carry their bags when they were offered a free rickshaw ride in Middlesbrough.

Hillstreet Shopping Centre offered shoppers a free ride to the door of their car, to the bus or train station, or even to their front door if they live within a mile of the centre, as a way of saying thank you after a successful summer.

Centre manager Peter Drabble said: “We have had a really great summer this year, but we couldn’t have done this without our customers’ continued support. We pride ourselves as operating at the heart of our community and so we wanted to give something back to our local customers."

Hillstreet customers can enjoy a free rickshaw ride tomorrow (Friday, August 29) from the main entrance of the shopping centre to anywhere within a one-mile radius of the centre.

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No.

Those bikes need to be licensed as hackney carriages, as do the drivers.

Why? The drivers are simply being paid a wage by the company to give some people free lifts for a day. The people travelling in these vehicles aren't paying for the journey.

Why? The drivers are simply being paid a wage by the company to give some people free lifts for a day. The people travelling in these vehicles aren't paying for the journey.

Extend that to the taxi/PH trade.

In your flawed thinking all employed drivers can pick up customers unlicensed.

Does it say that they are being paid a wage? I pay my staff a wage to do the school run. The students in the car are not paying for the journey. Does that mean that the drivers don't need to be licensed?

Let's say Joe Bloggs wants to offer someone a lift in his private car. What is to stop him doing that, as long as he is not charging that person for that journey?It doesn't say they are being paid a wage but I'd assume that they are unless they've brought in volunteers from somewhere. Your school runs are not actually provided free though are they? Just because it isn't the students who pay, someone pays you for that journey. That is hire and reward. This, in my opinion, is not.

In the example it is the shopping centre who is paying for the transport so it isn't free either is it?

Nobody is paying the shopping centre to provide this service. They are doing it off their own back, as a one-off. I don't see why the drivers should need hack licences.

If a local restaurant wants to send a customer home in a car and the restaurant pays the car owner and doesn't charge the customer for this and the customer doesn't pay either. Does the car need to be licensed? You know the answer to this one really.

If it's just a one-off, let's say the customer gets ill and needs to get home, and someone offers them a lift, does it really matter whether that person is another customer, or the restaurant manager? If that's something the restaurant offers as part of their normal service though, then I'd say the car should need to be licensed. Having said that, aren't there services operating already with unlicensed drivers and vehicles as "voluntary" even though the customers are paying for the journey?