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Taxi drivers: ‘you can keep your tips’
By Alice Murphy
25/11/2008
Taxi drivers who risk regular threats and attacks say they need support, not advice, to help them handle problem customers.
Wokingham Borough Council issued tips, based on Home Office guidance, two weeks after a taxi driver was threatened with a knife by a gang who refused to pay their fare and stole his car keys.
Cabbies in Wokingham say what they really need is help from police and the council.
Don Kelly, who has been driving taxis for 35 years, said he had not heard the new advice, which includes trusting their instincts if they do not want to pick up a fare, having mirrors so they can see in the back seat and having a list of troublespots.
Mr Kelly said: “What makes the Government think they know any better than us? We are the experts, because we are the ones dealing with it.”
He gave up working at night after tiring of abuse.
He said: “The advice says trust your instincts, but what happens when you refuse a
fare and the person complains to the council?
“When you are in a car, you are on your own. I fail to see that anything the council can advise on will help us, because we’re the ones who are in the cabs day after day and dealing with trouble.”
Mr Kelly added Wokingham is fairly safe, but across the country instances of violence have increased.
In the last 12 months in Wokingham, there have been 18 reported cases of assault against drivers.
One taxi driver told The Wokingham Times how a colleague had picked up a group of men in Wokingham on Tuesday, October 28, and taken them to Reading, where they refused to pay the fare and threatened him with a knife.
They then ran away after stealing the driver’s keys.
Imran Hussein works until 3am at weekends and has been a driver for nine years.
He has been subjected to frequent attacks and knew the driver who was threatened with the knife.
He said: “We are either foolish or brave to work at nights – probably both.
“We don’t feel backed by the council, yet they put our fares up. If anything does happen, it’s our word against the public.
“We are helping the police by taking people home after a night out, because otherwise trouble starts. People kick the cars, spit on us.
“We are proud men but we get disrespected, people treat us like we have come straight off the banana boat, but I am able to deal with it because I have been working nights for so long and it is mostly tongue-in-cheek.
“I never talk about work to my wife, but when I come home with cuts and bruises, or with sick in the car, she knows what has happened.
“We need support and we have had meetings with the council, but they don’t know our job.
“We were some of the first people to suffer the credit crunch because taxis are a bit of a luxury. We can’t afford to refuse fares.”
Councillor Rob Stanton, executive member for corporate services including community safety, said: “It is a shame this advice is necessary.
Many people rely on taxi and private hire vehicle drivers.
“But we know these assaults do happen and drivers often operate at night and have to deal with people who have been drinking, which can obviously increase problems.
“This advice is necessary to help drivers stay safe and I am very pleased we have produced it.”
Police crime reduction officer John McNicholas said: “There should not be any ‘no go’ areas for taxi drivers in Wokingham, but if at any time drivers are not happy with passengers then the discretion should lie fully with the driver as to whether or not to accept the fare.
“We are essentially asking taxi drivers to establish their destinations before starting out on a journey and to keep in touch with their control.”
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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin
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