Taxi Driver Online

Taxi abuse

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

From the letters page of the Plymouth Herald

REF recent reports relating to Plymouth Hackney carriage taxi drivers' illegal parking and smoking in their cabs.

I booked a taxi for 6am to travel the following day from my home in Eggbuckland to Bretonside bus station, to catch the 7.05am National Express coach to London Heathrow.

I was charged what I felt was an excessive fare of £9.20 instead of the normal charge of approximately £7. I handed the driver a £10 note, and when I refused to give him the 80p change as a tip I was subjected to personal abuse which at my time in life as a pensioner I can well do without.

More insults followed when I demanded a receipt, which I eventually obtained from him unsigned and also failing to state his ID details etc.

I will certainly not be booking this firm's taxis again in the future.

P REDDING

Plymouth

Source; http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/Taxi-ab ... story.html

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

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How to lose customers permanently!!

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
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As the journey would have started before 7.00 in the morning, the metered rate here would have been £7.90.

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Grandad,

How would you know what the metered rate would be if you didnt do the job ?

I have a very good computer programme. It is very accurate apart from waiting time. I was sugesting that the price was not that far off what was charged depending on the rates in the area and I doubt that they are lower than our rates.

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Grandad,

So in other words you dont know,cause you dont know what the journey entailed i.e holdups , waiting time

Correct, but I don't think grandad is disputing the price.

IMO the driver's attitude is the point. If this story is accurate, of course.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

I agree abkut the attitude if true ,but i was going of the above quote . I dont think anyone can be sure of what the fare was as we dont know the cicumstances.

Is there anywhere where the traffic is held up at 6.00am in the morning?

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IDFIMH

In a word yes

Don't the traffic light work at 6.00am in Brighton?

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

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Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
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I find that complainers tend to leave out important details when they feel aggrieved, I also find that people who book taxis for a certain time are rarely ready at that time.

Looking at it from a different point of view they booked the taxi for 6am, but perhaps didn't actually come out of the house until 15 minutes later (add on waiting time). Then they asked to go to a shop/cashpoint which may involve a slight detour from the normal route (extra cost + more waiting time). Even if none of that happened it might be that the £7 is a tariff 1 rate and the journey was at a T2 one for which £9.20 seems about the right difference. Or simply that they normally use company A which has cheaper rates than company B.

But as usual the customer thinks that they should always pay the same fare regardless of which company, time of day, waiting time or detours. And when it costs more they aren't interested in hearing the drivers reasons because they, as a customer, always know better. That then leads to arguments which of course translates as 'the driver was rude to me' rather than 'the driver was rude to me after I called him a robbing barsteward and kicked the side of his cab'.

I had one just last night, a regular customer. Not long after getting in he was complaining that the cab the other night had tried to charge him £7.40, I said that sounded about right and he replied that he only had £6.80 so if it came to more that's all I'd get. On arrival it was indeed £7.40 and thats when the ranting that it usually costs 'no more than £6 started', no amount of me trying to explain that if he'd gone at his usual time of before 11pm it would be T1 and £6 but after 11pm its £7.40 made any difference. As far as he was concerned me and the other cab had ripped him off and in future he wouldn't be using us again, despite me saying that all the other firms charge the same and all he has to do is phone the office to check the price. I even offered a receipt and my details so he could check with licensing but he still wasn't satisfied.

I don't even get into those conversations!

My stock answer is, "That's the price on the meter, I don't set the fares, the council do. When they set the fares my taximeter is tested for accuracy by trading standards and when they are satisfied it's correct, they seal the meter and there's my seal [pointing to the seal] on this taximeter."

That's all I say. If they continue to complain, I just repeat the monologue again and don't even discuss their fare.

_________________
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.

Usually by that point im hekping them exit the taxi

Most of this is created by morons who discount on the meter fare one of whom even boasts of it on here!

Remember having a row with a licensing officer re fares in Essex he said " why put the fares up on the meter they always charge less than whats on there anyway!"

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All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

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