Taxi Driver Online

Complaints made about Worcester cabbies rising, figures reveal

COMPLAINTS made against Worcester cabbies are rising in number, released figures show.

Last year, three times the amount of complaints to the city council were made about taxi drivers than were made in 2012, with the figure standing at 34.

Between 2012 and 2015, 73 complaints in total were lodged.

10 were lodged in 2012/13, 29 the year after and 34 between July 2014 and July 2015.

The highest number of complaints were made against driver conduct, which saw 21 made over the three years. It also sees the sharpest rise- only three complaints of this nature were made in 2012/13, while 11 were made last year.

It was also last year that your Worcester News exclusively revealed that a taxi driver had been watching DVDs, while carrying out fares.

The second highest number of complaints over the years were made regarding cabbies' quality of driving, with 15 lodged, while their parking saw 11 complaints made to the council.

The other areas of complaints include price, and noise and air pollution.

There have been no complaints made over the last two years regarding the cleanliness of the taxis, of which around 260 are currently operating in the city which are licensed with the city council- the number is capped at 264.

There are, however, a large number of private taxis operating in the city, bringing the total to around 400.

Worcester City councillor, and chairman of licensing and environmental health committee, Allah Ditta, says it is always disappointing to hear of complaints being made about any trade, but it makes it easier for improvements to be made.

He said: "We have tried to make it easier for people to make complaints over the last few years, and these figures tell me that people are now doing so more and more, thanks to the work we did on that.

"I will be meeting with officers to try and improve the service, as we want to ensure as many residents as possible are happy in their travels with taxis.

"The more we are told what need to improve on with the service, the more we can make those improvements happen."

The figures were obtained by way of a Freedom of Information request.

Lesley Borthwick, of Worcester Taxi Drivers Association, said: "There is good and bad in every trade, and people have different ideas of how high standards should be.

“But we welcome any complaints, as that shows us where we need to improve in order to provide a better service in the future.

“Having said that, the drivers are out there working long shifts, everyday, and provide the service for a lot of customers.

“So to have less than 25 complaints a year is pretty good going.”

source: http://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/news/13 ... es_reveal/

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

I think the taxi trade in this should have a pat on the back.

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

With all complaints I would prefer to see the truth! Day/Night time complaints will generally be of a different nature.

Having said that day time drinking is also the norm. My bet is that most are from inebriated/partly inebriated customers - unfortunately never having been there on the sharp end of the stick........they just see it as a complaint, in many cases not justified and should not be in the stats.

The stats should be broken down into what time of the day/night - if they really want to improve, and to see the truth!

_________________
Common sense........is just not that Common.