Complaints after taxi allegedly refused to pick up female DJ at 4am The DJ said she couldn't believe it when the taxi turned her away – especially after alleged sex attacks in Cardiff
A female DJ has claimed she was refused a taxi to take her home from work at 4am.
Jasmine Freeman had finished work at the Bump & Grind night at Cardiff’s Buffalo Bar when her boss said he would call her a taxi.
But when they phoned Capital Taxis she said they refused to collect to take her home to Cathays.
'To be refused is a joke'The DJ and her bosses vented their anger on Twitter and highlighted the recent alleged sex attacks on three women in the city last month.
Bump & Grind tweeted: “After all the goings on in Cardiff we do our best to make sure our staff and customers get home OK. To be refused is a joke.”
Jasmine explained: “I was a bit later than usual and the boss said he would call me a taxi and they always make sure their staff get home safely, especially because what has happened recently in the city.
Taxi firms 'should have duty of care'“We couldn’t believe it when Capital said they didn’t do pick ups from the bar. The nearest taxi rank is a five to 10-minute walk away and there are never many taxis there. Luckily, he got another firm who agreed to come and get me.
“A taxi firm should have a duty of care to get people home safely and they certainly didn’t in this case.”
Cardiff council said private hire cars, like the one that would have been booked, operate under different licensing conditions.
Chief Inspector Belinda Davies and Detective Chief Inspector Richard Jones during a press conference about three alleged sex attacks in Cardiff
A spokesman added: “Private hire is basically a contract between the driver and the person getting the taxi. At that point in time, when the phone call was made, it would be that all the cars were booked, no drivers were available or any other similar scenario.
Different rules for private hire cabs“Private Hire do not have the same licensing conditions as Hackney Carriages, they can’t pick up from the kerbside, use the ranks and this has to be pre-booked with an address.”
A request for a response from Capital Taxis has been made.
Meanwhile, another taxi passenger has been in touch with Wales Online to complain about how she has been refused up to five times a week trying to get home from work in the city centre in the early hours of the morning.
Taxi drivers sometimes 'drive longest way home'Minna Cliffe said: “It just to be a big problem when I lived in Roath, but in June I moved back in with my parents in Llanishen. Still I get refused by at least five taxis a night, when I am sober and have just finished a bar shift at 5am.
“They try to charge me £20 up front for a fare that costs £10. The majority of the time I can get it down to £15, sometimes £12, but that’s very rare. I am left hopping from taxi window to taxi window for at least an hour before getting a taxi home.
“On quite a lot of occasions, if the driver keeps it on the meter, the taxi driver will expect me to be blind drunk, be really cheeky and drive the longest way back to my house thinking I won’t notice, to try and get the fare up.
“This year I have found the only tactic in getting a taxi, is if there are any police officers around, I will ask them to get me a taxi, especially if I am on my own. Sometimes there are rude taxi drivers who will just speed off, but in the end the officer will get me a taxi. Yet the taxi driver will have a go at me the whole way for getting the police involved.”
The Cardiff council spokesman highlighted the importance of reporting any incidents with taxis to the city to the council.
He said: “If you are getting a taxi from a taxi rank, the light is on, and the fare starts and ends within Cardiff, the driver has to take you home and must use the meter. It is as simple as that.”
source:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales ... d-10207246
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