Taxi Driver Online

tough on rogue cabbies Oct 4 2005




By Mike Hornby, Liverpool Echo


LIVERPOOL'S decent cabbies want the council to get tough with rogue hackney drivers.

Their appeal follows the ECHO revelation on Saturday that a foreign tourist was quoted £300 from the city centre to Eastham, Wirral, even though the real cost is around £18.

Scores of cab drivers and their customers called the ECHO to report examples of bad practice.



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Most involved trips from Liverpool airport and to Wirral after last orders at weekends; others included:


* One taxi driver boasting he made £100 from a lost tourist simply by taking him on a mile-long journey from Castle Street to the Crowne Plaza hotel at Princes Dock.


* Taxi drivers at Aintree racecourse charging a flat rate of £100 to take punters to the city centre on Grand National Day.


* Cab drivers sticking tape over the tariff number on the taximeter and taking unnecessary trips through the Birkenhead and Wallasey tunnels.


Many cabbies are furious at the shameless actions of some colleagues.


Alan Corless, from Garston, a hackney driver for 18-years, said: "There's no quality control from Liverpool council. Some drivers are giving us a bad name and nothing is being done about it.





Roger Freeman got in a cab at Liverpool airport and asked to be taken to his mother's home in Bootle.


Mr Freeman, 37, who has lived in London for 12 years, said: "The driver obviously misplaced my accent and thought he could get away with taking me through Woolton and West Derby.


"He knew what he was doing. I made him stop the clock until we got on the right track."


Hackney driver, David Yearwood, 47, from Allerton, added: "Most drivers are just trying to earn a decent wage. None of us like the 'cherry pickers' who inflate charges on jobs they don't want to do.


"It has become too easy to get a badge and it is seen as an easy way to make money, so the wrong type of


person is coming into the trade. "Liverpool council needs to get its act together because the decent drivers are taking the flak."


A council spokesman said: "If we receive a complaint, the taxi driver will be brought in for interview under caution. Serious charges are dealt with by magistrates and could result in loss of licence."


Well when you are paying silly rents, you have make money some how . Wonderfull restricting Taxi numbers . streetcar.

I'm not sure what the actions of half a dozen t***s has to do with whether an area is restricted or not?

Nor does the article seem to confirm whether they were Taxi drivers or Private Hire drivers?

You will remember the press cannot differentiate between the two, and as you are aware the PH are not restricted in Liverpool.

Bit like the scallys, pity they're not restricted to Liverpool.

My money's on them being those double shifted, high rental, iffy standard, rust bucket vehicles with the LTI badge on.

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IDFIMH

what does overcharging have to do with a restricted market? please show me how it links.....

There's an argument used by the pro-restriction lobby that goes something like, if numbers are de-restricted then because some will suffer a drop of income then to that extent they will be more likely to overcharge.

Thus, by the same token, if plateless drivers in Liverpool are paying inflated rentals then to that extent then there may be an impetus towards overcharging. Of course, you won't hear that argument from the pro-restriction lobby, but if the principle has any merit then they are hoist by their own petard.

Personally, I'm not wholly convinced by either argument, but as the article alludes and streetcar often tells us, if regulation is lax and it's become easier to get a badge, then drivers' wages will have fallen irrespective of what's happening with owners, so it could be argued that that might contribute to overcharging.

But we all know that LCC seem more concerned with maintaining the plate cartel rather than other aspects of regulation.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Quite right Sussex . Would you like to know. Mr I think limiting Taxi numbers is fatastic for the Taxi trade .Tommy McIntyre T & G national convenor for taxis, take on this is . QUOTE . We do not want these drivers in the trade . if a customer feels they have no choice but to take a taxi home they should get a receipt .The company will bring that driver in to ask him what is going on .end of QUOTE . So Tommy knows they are working for fleet owners . Pity Tommy didnt get so excited, about drivers getting ripped off by fleet owners . He even thinks hes a socialist . Get a recipt Tommy come on . streetcar

Yes, there's that possibility, but the article does say in the opening line that it's about hackney drivers, so since there's no specific evidence to suggest otherwise, I think it's safe to assume it's not PH they're talking about.

Personally, the iffy reference that I picked out was the mention of tourists. In Liverpool?

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Yes, and of course part of the Dublin shake up involved compulsory receipts to deter overcharging.

I think that's compulsory in London now, but I don't think the rationale was deterring overcharging?

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

I think in London it was a case of printed receipts to deter the City folk from ripping their firms and the taxi man off.

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IDFIMH

Pont (1) Well when you have a market, where most of the drivers dont own there own cabs . The possibility of owning one does not exist then . Then drivers of those Taxis dont give a toss . point (2) The cartel ralise that they, can get away with carging, almost what ever they like . So the poor cabbie has to find the rent some how . point (3) Standards drop because of all of these factors, to recruit enough drivers . The street knowledge gets dumbed down etc , There is no pride or thourght for the future . Just make a fast buck . What will happen if i get caught , nothing most likely . What do i care i got my badge, in a kucky bag , no effort . Just go back to the bins or the doors . Streetcar.

Well GBC the thing is you worked . very very hard to get your badge . You are very proud ,to be a taxi driver and rightly so . You would never put your badge at risk . These cow boys dont care, they got theres with very little effort . They are ruthless they go passed the dissabled . they are lifes scum buckets . I am sorry to say they are hackney drivers . P H have repeat customers, own there own cars . and are ussually . very polite and curtious . streetcar

Even so Mr Streetcar, all the times I've been up in Liverpool, I've used taxi's to and from New Brighton (not as a tourist!) and found no problems at all.

So your article probably apply's to a few drivers out of a few thousand.

There will be exactly the same situation within the ranks of Liverpools Private Hire trade.

The guys and girls down here who rent offer no less of a service than people like myself who run our own cabs.

Overcharging by Hackney Carriage drivers is rife in Manchester GBC, how do you account for that. I might add it is also rife in the private hire sector. So draw your own conclusions.

Regards

JD

As a demonstration of the red tape we face:

You must have a receipt printer installed.

You are not obliged to issue a printed reciept, but can still hand write them

Result: Good income for the printer rental people, as no one uses them.

Thats TFL

What a good idea . Our Licensing authority, lets you put a 14 inch dvd player in the back off a cab . Give out a proper receipt , mileage , time , and cost . genious . Damien are you looking at this site . Ah no the fleet owners wont like this, they will have to spend a few bob . Never mined Damien its only the public getting ripped off, you know the people who pay your wages . streetcar.