Taxi Driver Online

Can anyone tell me the law about taxi drivers giving change. I read an article that a taxi driver is not legaly bound to change large notes, they can take the customers address and mail the change to them. Our hackney inspecters told me that is not true, a judge said a taxi driver should carry change but did not say how much. In some cities the buses do not give change so i was under the impression we came under the same law. With more and more taxi drivers being attacked how much money do they expect us to carry

_________________
Stay Safe Stay Lucky

Tell your Hackney Inspector that he is obviously a learned man & that you would have never known that a judge said that taxi drivers should carry change. Just like any Hackney Inspector, he will feel well chuffed with the complement.

Then ask your Hackney Inspector who that judge might be & when that judge made such a comment.

And if he starts waffling you know he is talking B*LLSH*T.

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

A judge will only state that a driver should carry a reasonable amount of change, in the same way as a customer should offer a reasonable sum in payment.

If a driver gets four £3 jobs to start with, and is giving four £20 notes, then IMO it wouldn't be viewed as unreasonable if the driver couldn't change up the last note.

But providing the customer gives a time and place for the driver to pick up the fare at a later date, then IMO it's got f*** all to do with the licensing authority.

_________________
IDFIMH

You do NOT have to give change FULL STOP. The onus is on the passenger to tender the correct fare.

You normally give change as a courtesy. There are even laws relating exactly how much copper, silver etc can be tendered.

Here is the extract from the Royal Mint:

Legal Tender Guidelines

Legal tender has a very narrow and technical meaning in the settlement of debts. It means that a debtor cannot successfully be sued for non-payment if he pays into court in legal tender. It does not mean that any ordinary transaction has to take place in legal tender or only within the amount denominated by the legislation. Both parties are free to agree to accept any form of payment whether legal tender or otherwise according to their wishes. In order to comply with the very strict rules governing an actual legal tender it is necessary, for example, actually to offer the exact amount due because no change can be demanded.

The amounts for legal tender are stated below.

BANK OF ENGLAND NOTES:

In England and Wales the £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes are legal tender for payment of any amount. However, they are not legal tender in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

COINS:

Coins are legal tender throughout the United Kingdom for the following amount:

£5 (Crown) - for any amount

£2 - for any amount

£1 - for any amount

50p - for any amount not exceeding £10

25p (Crown) - for any amount not exceeding £10

20p - for any amount not exceeding £10

10p - for any amount not exceeding £5

5p - for any amount not exceeding £5

2p - for any amount not exceeding 20p

1p - for any amount not exceeding 20p

That maybe the criminal legal position, but what happens when your council takes your license away in civil proceedings for not being 'fit and proper' for not giving or carrying change?

_________________
IDFIMH

English banknotes are not legal tender in Scotland and NI. What about Scotish and NI banknotes in England?

_________________
Grandad,

I accept GBP, Scotnotes and Euros

_________________
Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

All Scottish banks have the right to print their own notes.

Three choose to do so:
The Bank of Scotland (founded 1695)
The Royal Bank of Scotland (founded 1727)
Clydesdale Bank (owned by National Australia Bank).

Only the Royal Bank prints pound notes. All the banks print 5,10,20 and 100 notes. Only the Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale Bank print 50 pound notes.

Scottish bank notes are not legal tender in Scotland.

English bank notes of denomination less than 5UKP were legal tender in Scotland under Currency and Bank Notes Act 1954.

Now, with the removal of BoE 1UKP notes, only coins constitute legal tender in Scotland.

English bank notes are only legal tender in England, Wales, The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

In Scotland, 1 pound coins are legal tender to any amount, 20ps and 50ps are legal tender up to 10 pounds; 10p and 5ps to 5 pounds and 2p and 1p coins are legal tender to 20p (separately or in combination). 2 pounds coins and (if you can get hold of one) 5 pound coins are also legal tender to unlimited amounts, as are gold coins of the realm at face value (in Scotland at least).

Northern Irish notes are not legal tender anywhere, a situation similar to Scottish notes.

Whether Scottish notes are legal tender or not does not change or alter their inherent value but it dictates their legal function. Credit cards, cheques and debit cards are not legal tender either but it doesn't stop them being used as payment.

Only a minuscule percentage of Scottish and British trading is carried out using legal tender. Just because something is not legal tender certainly doesn't imply it's illegal to use.

The lack of a true legal tender in Scotland does not cause a problem for Scots Law which is flexible enough to get round this apparent legal nonsense, as was demonstrated some time ago when one local authority tried to refuse a cash payment (in Scottish notes) on the grounds it wasn't "legal tender", but lost their case when the sheriff effectively said that they were obliged to accept anything which was commonly accepted as "money", and that should their insistence on "legal tender" have been supported, it would have resulted in the bill being paid entirely in coins, which would have been a nonsense; stopping short of saying that the council would have been "cutting off their nose to spite their face", but seeming to hint at it.

source http://www.siliconglen.com/Scotland/1_7.html

_________________
Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Sussex, you answered your later question earlier - and I know you know better. Cheeky Monkey:

QUOTE: A judge will only state that a driver should carry a reasonable amount of change

If a driver gets four £3 jobs to start with, and is giving four £20 notes, then IMO it wouldn't be viewed as unreasonable if the driver couldn't change up the last note.
then IMO it's got f*** all to do with the licensing authority. (edited a bit) But you know it is all about being "reasonable"

If the LA suspended your license I think it would be rather silly of them providing you had been "reasonable" and what would the judge say on appeal?

_________________
IDFIMH

Thanks to all of you for your input, I think i have put the cat amongst the pigeons, the reason i asked in the first place was because i read an article where a lady wrote into a legal page complaining about a taxi driver not having change for a 20 pound note, the reply from the legal eagle was that taxi drivers do not have to carry change and as mentioned by littlejack3 it was only tendered as a courtesy. When i mentioned this to our licensing officer i was politely informed that if a customer complained the driver would be taken in front of licensing, hence my question.

_________________
Stay Safe Stay Lucky

I had the same isssues with our LO a few years ago, I told him to look through Brian Denby's book and see the article on change, the driver can hold onto the note until he's got some change then, the passenger must come to the driver and get their change.