Passengers negotiate fares with parked taxis at unofficial taxi ranks in Sauchiehall Street
Illegal taxis can also be found near Central Station. Pictures: Jamie Simpson
BackNext12EXCLUSIVE by DAVID LEASK Investigations Reporter
Share 4 Nov 2011
IT is just after four on a Saturday morning and Leanne Speirs is desperate for a cab.
“I am soaking,” the 27-year-old power company executive says, her mascara running in the rain. “I just want to get home. I’ll pay anything.”
Leanne and her pals are standing outside the King’s Theatre in Bath Street.
There are plenty of cars. But she can’t just hail them – because this is one of Glasgow’s most notorious “pirate” taxi ranks: here there are no meters, no queues and no rules; here you haggle for your journey home. And, tonight, in the rain, prices have shot up.
Outside the King’s Theatre is one of at least seven illegal ranks identified by the Evening Times.
Others are at the ABC venue in Sauchiehall Street, the Gallery of Modern Art in Queen Street, outside the SECC, at Watt Brothers in Hope Street, at Union Street outside Central Station and in Holland Street.
Here fares are routinely twice what they would be at one of the city’s officially marshalled pick-up spots for “real” taxis, hackneys.
Most of the cars who “pirate” at the illegal ranks are licensed hire vehicles from the city and surrounding areas. None has the right to tout for business in city limits. Few appear to be picking up passengers on their meters. That means they aren’t paying tax and aren’t insured.
Worse, some of the pirates aren’t any kind of taxi. They are simply hard-up members of the public using their cars to earn a few extra pounds.
Last month alone in Glasgow eight drivers – seven private hires and a hackney – lost their licences for pirating or similar offences.
Last Friday – at the height of the Halloween parties – the Evening Times toured Glasgow’s unofficial ranks.
Again, they cleared at the sight of police. In Union Street we heard drivers and their associates share information about the whereabouts of police and taxi enforcement units from Glasgow City Council.
Here a traffic unit pulled over private hires waiting for 10-minute spot checks of their documents and cars.
But the attention didn’t put drivers off for long.
At 1am, for example, there were seven cars waiting in Union Street, 100 yards from the official Nightzone pick-up point in Gordon Street. Most negotiated for fares.
At 1.30am there was a queue of private hire cars at GoMA picking up party- goers, though the cars evaporated when the council’s enforcement team arrived. Until then drivers had been openly negotiating fares.
Pretending to be passengers, Evening Times reporters asked for sample fares. We were quoted £40 to both Renfrew and Cambuslang, twice the usual fare.
By 3.30am revellers started leaving Sauchiehall Street’s clubs and outside the ABC punters were being ripped off.
Here we were offered £35 fares to Cambuslang. The same fare, half an hour later, was being quoted by three drivers outside the King’s Theatre.
Stephen Flynn, of Glasgow Taxis, was furious. HE said: “If you took a hackney off a street they could charge you a boundary which would bring it up to £17-£18. So the pirates are charging double the price.”
We challenged seven pirate drivers about their charges. Each, using almost identical phrasing, said they were “waiting for a passenger who had phoned for a car” and were “only giving quotes to help us know how much a journey would cost”.
Police, council and taxi authorities are increasingly worried.
Mr Flynn said: “Some of the fares being quoted would frighten you. We have heard horror stories of people being charged £40-£50 to cross the town.
“At least with a meter you don’t have to guess the fare at the end of the journey.”
Glasgow Taxis is worried about rip-off competition from pirates, licensed or unlicensed. But trade insiders acknowledge that there can be peak times at weekends, such as midnight when pubs shut and 4am when the clubs empty, when official NightZone ranks are mobbed.
This – and when, say, concert-goers spill out of the SECC and Hampden Park – are when the pirates launch their raids.
Mr Flynn added: “Glasgow is easy meat not just for our own private hires, but guys from Ayrshire, from Lanarkshire. They may well have a legitimate reason to be in the city, say if they are called by a customer.
“But you get suspicious if they are in two or three times in one night, or if you see a car from East Renfrewshire taking a passenger to North Lanarkshire.
“There is one issue of private hire cars pirating and overcharging people. But the biggest safety concern is for those who are not licensed at all.”
Mr Flynn is referring to reports of drunk women getting in cars that are not taxis at all – and being sexually assaulted. He said: “There have been three or four such incidents this year.”
Police aren’t blind to this issue but proving somebody is pirating is difficult.
Law enforcement sources say their priority is to clear the streets after the clubs close – and sometimes they turn a blind eye to licensed pirates as they prioritise violence. But they are concerned about private motorists picking up paying passengers.
Frequently, extra officers are drafted in to do spot checks at unofficial ranks. Inspector Elaine Gardner of Strathclyde Police and her team last month checked every car that stopped at GoMA. It worked: the pirates disappeared. “Word gets around fast,” she said.
Glasgow Taxis believes the GoMA area is the worst place for rip-offs and has asked for a marshalled rank here. The council is considering the proposal.
Jim Coleman, the member of the city council cabinet responsible for taxi enforcement, said: “Our job is to look after the public.
It is also to make sure that, when they jump in a taxi or a private hire, the vehicle is safe and the person driving knows what they are doing.
“However, we also have to protect the legitimate traders. We can do that by catching the pirates in the act, but there are other ways we can have an impact.
“If it comes to chasing them around all night, making a nuisance of ourselves and disrupting their operation, that’s fine too.”
Back outside the King’s, Leanne was too sober to be completely conned. She was offered a £20 fare to Millerston. “That is half a night out,” says friend Louis Bell, 21. “And I have heard about these cars, it’s not safe.”
TAXIS - THE RULES
Only licensed hackneys can be flagged down or picked up at a rank inside city limits.
Hackney taxis, all of which are black cabs, can impose a boundary charge if they are flagged down or picked up at a rank. This can be waived if they are booked by phone.
Private hire cars – as opposed to hackneys – can only pick up passengers who have phoned to book them. This applies to both those licensed in Glasgow and those from outside the city.
Private hire cars are not allowed to operate at ranks, whether they are licensed or not.
A private hire driver who picks up a passenger who has not booked by telephone is not insured to carry passengers.
Glasgow hackneys can only pick up passengers outside the city, eg at the airport, if they have a phoned booking.
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/pira ... 133062?793
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FAQ
A significant unmet demand perhaps? 