Taxi Driver Online

Glasgow private hire driver claims he was trying to help three women

https://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/172 ... ree-women/

A PRIVATE hire driver has been suspended after driving three young women after a kerbside pick up.

Alan Meechan claims he was trying to be a Good Samaritan because the women were stuck and he would hope someone would 'do the same for his daughter'.

But licensing bosses were unimpressed at Mr Meechan's failure to follow policy.

Mr Meechan, who has been driving for 20 years, was parked outside Queen Street station in July this year when a young woman approached him asking how much it would be to take she and two friends home.

She had already approached a taxi driver who said the price would be between £40 and £60.

Mr Meechan agreed to take the group to Hamilton for £18.

He appeared before the licensing board yesterday morning.

Mr Meechan said: “My priority was to get the girls home safely and away from the city centre.

“If one of the girls was my daughter I would like to think someone else in my position would do the same thing.

“When I got them home safe and sound I knew I had done my job, even though I know I shouldn’t have done it.

“It was quiet that night.

"One of the girls came running up to me and said the taxi driver was going to cost between £40 and £60.

“I said I would not charge that much and they got in.”

Councillor Martha Wardrop said: “You have been a driver for 20 years and know that you can only take a passenger if they pre-book.

“Had you followed the rules you could have got the job anyway.”

Members agreed to suspend Mr Meechan’s licence for two weeks.

Looks like the trip is around 14 miles - wonder where he lives?

How did they find out ? Unless he was reported by another driver (hackney) and admitted it. We have P/H drivers doing it all the time at the station, the council don’t want to know, lack of evidence they say. We give them the time, the place, the destination sometimes and all the relevant plate No’s but the driver just says it was a friend/relative or they ask the customer to call it in and ask the operator to allocate them the job.

Deffo been grassed up by the Hack lads by the sounds of it.

be interesting to know what her interpretation of the rules is ?

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

Not a lot of detail in the article, but got the impression that the HC driver who quoted £40-60 was nearby, so might have been him who made the complaint, as I think Nidge is saying.

Of course, an important point is that this is a licensing committee hearing, so the evidence doesn't have to be as compelling as for a criminal prosecution.

Maybe it was an Uber car, so the good councillor surmised that if they'd used the app the driver would have been the nearest car and thus would have got the booking

given recent coverage of Uber in the Mersey area do you think the fare would have only been £18.00 ?

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

Dunno, but if they'd got an eight-seater in the early hours in Wiltshire they'd have been charged £90 on the council tariff for that sort of distance

But the driver said it was a quiet night, so presumably Uber not on surge.

Give her a card to ring the office.

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IDFIMH