Taxi Driver Online

It's déjà vu all over again.

People 'left stranded' by Cardiff taxis which refuse short fares

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wale ... s-14615382

The head of a trade body representing Cardiff's pubs and clubs has called on the council to finally sort out the decades-old problem of taxis refusing short fares and leaving people stranded.

Nick Newman, chairman of Cardiff Licensees Forum, is among those calling for action to be taken amid concerns vulnerable young people unable to find a taxi are having to walk home in the early hours.

Some people say they have to pay double their usual fare during Friday and Saturday nights to be taken home if they live in Cardiff or surrounding areas.

A Cardiff taxi drivers group has said only a minority of drivers pick and choose their fares, while Cardiff council says it carries out frequent spot checks and enforcement activities.

Mr Newman said the issue also affects the hundreds of people who work in the city late at night.

"This has gone on for a long time - it's every weekend," he said. "You will get potentially vulnerable members of staff walking home.

"If you are a visitor to the city it's a negative perception you will get. It's a problem and it needs sorting out."

Events manager Megan Dobbs said she has frequently struggled to find taxis to take her home to Penarth as the fare is too small.

She said: "There has always been problems getting taxis back to Penarth. It's always been too small a fare so it's always something I've had to negotiate and pay over the odds."

Cardiff council removed its taxi marshalling service in March - and Megan belives the issue has got worse as a result. For Cardiff now run a marshalling service every Friday and Saturday from 10.30pm until 4.30am.

She said: "When the stewards were there I thought things had moved on but the second the stewards are not there the same thing starts again.
"Going to Penarth is usually between £9 and £12, but they usually ask for double that.

"They want the valleys or Bridgend trips."

Graham Turner, 38, who lives in Cardiff, said fare-picking taxi drivers has been an issue for at least 20 years.

He called on the council to carry out under-cover investigations and issue fines and licence reviews to the drivers caught in the act.

"People might be coming to Cardiff for the first time and they can't get a taxi," he said.

"You have to get the basics right. If you can't have taxi firms working correctly there's a knock-on effect. People would think why bother coming back to Cardiff?"

Taxi Drivers Cardiff - which represents licenced Hackney Carriage and private hire drivers in the city - says the majority of drivers in the city do not pick and choose fares.

But the trade organisation is lobbying for the tests which drivers across Wales face for their licence to be made more diffuclt to restore "pride" in the profession.

Paul O'Hara, commitee member for Taxi Drivers Cardiff, said: "This has been going on for years. The minority of drivers have always tried to cherry pick their fares.

"It's a minority of drivers. The majority do their jobs correctly and efficiently.

"If you had to work for the badge, it would be like a badge of honour which you could wear with pride.

"Many drivers are coming into taxi-ing thinking it's an easy way to make money. We're trying to raise the standards and reputation of taxi driving in the city."

Drivers with Dragon Taxis are allegedly among those who have refused short fares.

Dragon Taxis says it is unable to monitor journeys made by those drivers when working independently from their company using their hackney carriage licences.

Ryan Owen, managing director of Dragon Taxis, said: "We would always advise passengers to book a taxi directly with Dragon Taxis to ensure the best possible service. As a private hire firm, all journeys taken through Dragon Taxis must be pre-booked either by phone or through our mobile app.

"Journeys are then distributed to the first available driver to accept. Drivers do not know the destination of the fare prior to accepting the job and so it is not possible to refuse short journeys when booked with Dragon Taxis.

"Taxis operating from a rank may also have a hackney licence to pick up fares that are not pre-booked. Passengers who choose to use a Cardiff taxi rank are not booking with Dragon Taxis and so drivers may choose to refuse fares. Unfortunately, we are unable to monitor these journeys."

Cardiff council carried out 20 planned enforcements around the issue in 2017, including mystery shopping exercises, to try to catch out rogue drivers.

A spokesman for Cardiff council said: Licensing enforcement officers carry out frequent spot checks and enforcement activities on taxi and private hire vehicles which includes evening work, weekend work and on event days.

"However we still need the eyes and ears of the public to work with us to help catch the small number of taxi drivers that are picking and choosing fares.

"Since the taxi marshal service ended on March 31st, the number of complaints to our licensing department has not been affected.

"We ask everyone who wants to make a complaint against a driver and is willing to give their evidence to committee, to contact us so we can take action.

"We do need some details, such as the driver number (on the badge on the windscreen and worn by the driver), or the license plate on the rear of the vehicle, or the registration plate - try and get a photo of the licence plate or registration plate if you have a smart phone- the date, time and where the incident happened and report it to licensing@cardiff.gov.uk "

What are the laws on taxi drivers refusing fares?

Hackney carriage drivers can refuse a fare if a customer is travelling outside the Cardiff boundary.

For these fares, the taxi driver doesn't have to use a meter and the customer may have to negotiate the fare before starting the journey.

It is in an offence for a private hire vehicle to pick up a fare without prior booking through a licensed operator, and bookings can be refused.

A hackney carriage driver cannot refuse a fare within the Cardiff boundary without reasonable excuse which could include being excessively drunk, abusive or eating/drinking.

If a fare within the Cardiff boundary is refused by a hackney carriage driver because the fare is too short, or the driver refuses to use the meter, customers can complain and the incident will be investigated.

Hackney carriage drivers often ask for a 'deposit' up front, especially on weekends.

If the fare is within Cardiff the meter should be on and the difference settled at the end of the journey.

The customer does not have to agree to paying a deposit upfront, and the driver should take fare if within Cardiff.

I thought they'd sorted this out? More work for the local PH companies and Uber.

the never ending saga of cherry picking the only way to sort it and no council would ever adopt this is to bump up the price for the first mile to around a fiver so that a short journey is worth not too much less than a longer one

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

The article should never have been written.

As soon as it got to Megan Dobbs who lives in Penarth, it is the first warning bell........of a moan!

Cardiff council admit that fares outside of Cardiff are eligible for negotiation! Penarth is outside of the Cardiff boundary. The problem arises because some drivers will put it on the meter! It used to run between £10 - £12 from the City centre on the meter. Others see it as an outside job and are quite entitled to negotiate for more, (the council says so), the customer having had a metered fare, understandably does not want to pay more.

Then the rest jump on the band wagon to have a go at the drivers, who by and large, are not a bad lot. Do we have some shiesters? Yes we do, there again.......everybody does.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Interesting - as someone who doesn't know the area, the article gives impression that Penarth is inside the Cardiff boundary. To be fair, the article doesn't actually say it is, but that's certainly the impression I got from reading it.

So going to Penarth is usually two completely different things.

I think the fares in London late at night are more than a fiver for the first mile, and most certainly are in B&H.

Biggest problem we have down here is multi seaters refusing to do normal fares, and some of them doing normal fares at multi seater prices.

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IDFIMH

In principle, yes, but fares would have to go up a humungous amount for it to work. One mile in Fife is £5.50 on Rate 2, but the drivers are still desperate for the longer runs. (Although there's not much cherry picking as such.)

I mean, even if it was £10 for a one mile run, would the driver prefer that to £40 for 14 miles?? In fact that probably would work if it was one fare after another, but if it's an hour's wait on the rank...

The problem has been caused by (as mentioned many times) doubling the Cardiff Hackney from 450 to 967. Then we have the tariff suppressed by the powers that be, who seem to think that taxis are the answer to the Cities transport, in many cases with 4 passengers in a cab it can indeed be cheaper than getting a bus. On top of that they have altered the road layouts massively with traffic lights in the centre every 60 to 100 metres plus speed humps and passing places by the score all around the City, these measures have slowed the ability of the drivers to get around the City - thus cutting their earnings. All in all the drivers have been financially battered.

It is all very well people blaming the drivers by saying they should be more professional, unfortunately the people having a chip are the same people who stand to gain, in a nutshell they have an agenda. Tbh and I am sure that it is the same for many of you - my family come first. On that basis and having the rug constantly being pulled from beneath the feet of the drivers - who can really blame them for cutting corners.

The Council/licencing have created this situation - they should sort it out by completely revamping the tariff. The tariff is not any longer compatible with the traffic layout of the City.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Surely your not saying that cherry picking and drivers abusing rates was any different when the city had the lower number of cabs?

From my experience the fewer the number of cabs, I.e. really busy times, the more chance there is of bad things happening.

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IDFIMH

No I'm not saying any of the above save "lower number of cabs"! At that time the tariff was in the mid 50s of the national tables (not bad), up until the last increase it had fallen into 200+. The Cities roads were also quicker to get around ie (no) speed bumps/passing points in the suburbs, on top of that we had less traffic lights - today we have more traffic lights than Blackpool have pretty lights.



Possibly! Having said that, then it is up to the LAs to look at an ongoing problem that they have created. The guys/girls should have the opportunity to make a decent living, without being politically used as a branch of social services. Unfortunately they will not look at the problem, as it will easily demonstrate that they are the root cause.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

But the problems that drivers in Cardiff are facing (and I'm not denying them) are hardly unique to there;

- which town or city *doesn't* have 'traffic calming' measures of some sort or other slowing drivers up?;

- don't have figures, but I suspect most drivers in the UK trade *don't* benefit from numerical controls (it's certainly the case that *no* PH driver benefits) but that's hardly an argument to justify cherry picking;

- Cardiff may have slipped down the fares league table, but your logic seems to assume that those below a certain position can justifiably cherry pick - which position precisely on the league table do you have in mind?

And even excusing cherry picking, there will always be some drivers (whether the vast majority or a small minority) who abide by the rules, and thus it's them who lose out, and the cherry pickers benefit.

Although there's not much cherry picking here, when it does happen I always say that either the cherry picker benefits and another driver loses out, and/or the passenger simply doesn't get a taxi, thus as a whole the trade loses a fare, and only the cherry picker benefits.

Basically you're arguing for a cheats' charter.

Basically you're arguing for a cheats' charter.


I am arguing about survival..........If there is a so called cheats charter - the Council/ LA started it.

P.S. Re speed bumps/traffic lights etc it is nuts down here - Cardiff is virtually waging war on the motorist.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

OK, so if it's accepted that the cherry pickers are freedom fighters rather than terrorists, who decides who gets to be the freedom fighters?

I mean, if every driver was a freedom fighter and knocked back every fare they didn't want then *every* driver would ultimately be worse off.

Fact is that probably the vast majority of UK taxi drivers are finding it increasingly difficult to make a living (for the kind of reasons you outline), but if you then say that because of that it's OK for some to cheat the system or that every driver should do so, then that either just benefits the cheats, or every driver ultimately suffers even more.

We can go around and around in circles on this one. It is well recognised as to what the proper way to work/conduct yourself is. Having said that; What is the answer 1) If your income is reduced by the LA's, 2) your overheads are not static - but rising, thus making it worse 3) You cannot get out without in many cases losing thousands of pounds 4) the LA's are still content to keep the tariff as cheap as possible????.

If every driver did exactly the same then they are all playing off of a level playing field - nobody is shafting anyone. The LA's would eventually have to put the tariff/system right. By going along with (their) failed rules and regulations/tariffs you are playing into (their) hands - nothing will change.

I refute the accusation that the drivers are cheats, as it is the system itself that is intent on cheating the drivers. As such you have to remember that you/we are business people, if someone shafts you - then you shaft them back. You are there to survive, survival should not mean that you become a slave to excessively long hours, caused by greed from the other side of the table. Unfortunately although you mean well, it is the do gooder attitude who then come along spouting LA rules and regulations that are keeping the pot boiling.

P.S. It is worth remembering that many of the basically night time customers that we are talking about, could not give a stuff as to whether you are in business or not - all they want along with the LA's is cheaper than cheap..........All the drivers want is the best return which then becomes very much a two way street, all due to rules, regulations, and tariffs,, being stacked against them - oh, and the guilt card!

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.