Taxi Driver Online

Some unscrupulous operators overcharge regardless of the time of year...if you believe everything the customer says.

Personally, I feel customers should remember who's giving up their Christmas and New Year to hack about picking up drunks and dealing with the resultant hassle before they criticise the price of a safe journey home.

Do these same people haggle at the bar over the price of a Vodka & Coke, do they slam the bar door on their departure because the barman has taken £40 off them over the course of an evening, or swear at a club's owner because they get charged £5 just to enter? Don't think so...

The council allows a certain maximum charge to be levied, calculated by the professionally fitted taxi meter which must be used by law - if all Taxi operator's charged the same there would be an educated understanding of how Taxis as a service work. There would be no "such and such did it for this much last Saturday" and "So and so usually knocks 'x' amount off for me".

If competition were as simple as "I must charge less than other operators in order to get their business", after a finite period of time the industry would grind to a halt.

The woman in the article must have at some point discussed the price of the journey with the driver. If this price had been quoted before the journey took place, then she had the opportunity to turn it down and go elsewhere. If no discussion took place, and he was driving legally, he should have had the meter switched on, clearly displaying the charge for the journey. Whatever was on that meter, he is legally entitled to charge. I am in no way condoning a charge of £55 for 11 miles, however as with most of these cases I rather suspect there is a little more to the story.

No chance of such horror stories in your Taxi though, eh Skip?

No skippy knocks 20% off the council rate of fare........arguably people in his area will then perhaps jump in a cab charging the correct rate and say they've been overcharged.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Ashkirk is still in our zone 2, so the meter should have been on all the way.
In fact the council cause the problem by having zones, as the tariff is for the whole of the borders, and not just the zone your plated for.
You will be very please to know as we will all be, that you will soon be no longer allowed to work in Zone 2 yellow, as the council are scrapping duel plates, and as you licenced in Peebles first that's your zone
Its on the councils web page that I posted but for some reason the page is down at the moment
New plates are in the process of being made at the moment, there will be one for the rear and a double sided one for inside the vehicle, to be placed on the windscreen

Its 25% CC BTW

Ah of course...I forget sometimes that you are privy to the inner workings of my businesses.

My plates were issued for Peebles and Galashiels at the same time, hence we are neither "Peebles" nor "Galashiels", but an Operator of Taxis in both zones under the multi-zone scheme which the Scottish Borders Council currently operates.




You'll find that speaks volumes about the validity of the information.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Well yellow answer this, if a punter was by chance to call you from tossers and wanted to go to Croft ST would you come 18 miles just to do a 500 yard run, what if they are disabled and you made some excuse for not being available.
Ring council HQ and ask them for the conclusion of the taxi consultation and read it for yourself they are not going to double plate any more

Could someone let me know if the link still works as it does not for me
http://councilpapers.scotborders.gov.uk ... ntid=14625

This may work click on the PDF file on the right
http://councilpapers.scotborders.gov.uk ... onid=12282

Oh well then Skippy, I'll just call it a day, shall I?


Given that my vehicles were all licensed within the last six months - if the plans were to come into force, they would still be able to operate in both zones for at least a further two and a half years.



In a word...yes.

A similar situation arose last night. I had just arrived in Galashiels when I received a call from a lad in Peebles who wanted go from Kingsland Square to Forest View - a fare of approximately £5. I told him I would be there in 20 minutes and set off back to Peebles.

The inference of what you're saying is that I would turn down a short job in Galashiels because it would be uneconomical to do so? The above example proves otherwise.

Some of us have a reputation worth protecting, regardless of the cost in fuel and time.

A similar situation arose last night. I had just arrived in Galashiels when I received a call from a lad in Peebles who wanted go from Kingsland Square to Forest View - a fare of approximately £5. I told him I would be there in 20 minutes and set off back to Peebles.

Can that old Derby PH go that fast 18 miles in 20 mins,

Are you saying that you would do regular jobs that cost you money because you have a reputation to protect.
The punters must love you........................let us hope the bankruptcy court judge is kind to you as well.

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Grandad,

18 miles at a speed of 60mph would get me to Peebles in 18 minutes.

Amazing what people keep in their photobucket accounts, eh Skip?

I presume this is a picture of you and the boys getting ready for a night on the tiles...

It's irregular business.

On the occasions where we get called either down to Galashiels from Peebles for a short run, or vica versa, I will happily take the hit and do the job to maintain our reliability, leaving the other cars and drivers elsewhere to carry out more lucrative work.

Will you still do it if it becomes a regular thing?

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Grandad,