First here is the Birmingham Mail's piece on the incident, when the driver had simply been suspended. Second is a statement from the firm on the suspension.
Third is a more recent statement on the firm's Facebook page saying that the driver had been dismissed because he'd effectively lied about completing the job when he hadn't.
Kingstanding taxi driver suspended for 'refusing to deliver poppies' to Aston Villahttps://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/m ... s-15365267Perry Common Royal British Legion called KMR Cars to deliver poppies to Villa Park but driver allegedly refused and drove offA taxi driver has been temporarily suspended after allegations he refused to deliver poppies to Villa Park ahead of Remembrance Sunday.
Kingstanding-based KMR Cars issued a statement following an incident involving one of its drivers and a passenger at the Perry Common Royal British Legion Club on College Road.
The row allegedly happened on Thursday afternoon, with a KMR driver called to the club to take poppies to Aston Villa FC ahead of tonight's designated Remembrance Day match with Bolton Wanderers.
Volunteers from the Royal British Legion will be selling poppies prior to kick-off, with representatives from the RAF, Army and Navy also attending the game.
On Thursday, though, members of the Perry Common Royal British Legion ordered a KMR Cars taxi to drop off poppies to Villa Park.
However, it's been claimed that a driver asked what the poppies were before refusing to take them.
The matter has since been addressed by management at KMR Cars, with an internal investigation launched to investigate the incident further.
A spokesman said: "KMR Cars, as a company, acknowledges and has the most utmost respect for those who fought and put their lives on the line for all of us present today, and must be deservedly be remembered on Sunday 11th November 2018 with the poppy being of a symbol of such sacrifice."
Management later confirmed that "the driver in question has been identified and temporarily suspended from KMR Cars pending further investigation".
No-one was available to comment at Perry Common Royal British Legion Club.
KMR Cars issue statement on Perry Common poppy snubIt has come to our attention that there has been an incident between a driver of the KMR Cars fleet and a passenger at the Perry Common Royal British Legion.
In brief, the allegation made involves a drivers refusal to accompany a passenger who wished to transport poppies.
KMR Cars are aware of the allegation at hand and a full investigation is under way and a statement regarding the outcome will be released shortly.
Firstly, KMR Cars as a company acknowledges and has the most utmost respect for those who fought and put their lives on the line for all of us present today and must be deservedly be remembered on Sunday 11th November 2018 with the poppy being of a symbol of such sacrifice.
KMR Cars has a ZERO PERCENT policy on any single staff/driver/customer who wishes to defame any remembrance/religious views.
KMR Cars does not tolerate bias on the grounds of Race, Religion, Beliefs, Sex, Gender, Disability or other.
KMR Cars have a 200+ multi ethnicity fleet of drivers, who come from all walks of lives and have never refused a single customer based on their religious views.
All of KMR Cars drivers are vetted by the local council and any views from any driver DO NOT represent those of KMR Cars.
Thank you for your patience whilst this matter is being resolved.
KMR Cars
Statement from KMR Cars on dismissal of driverIn regard to the allegations made on the 01/11/18. KMR Cars have completed the full investigation Please see summary points of the Investigation below:
In regard to how we had seen the journey at the office. We had taken the call of the booking at ‘13:01’. We then ‘Dispatched’ the journey to the driver at ‘13:01’. The drivers ‘Vehicle Arrived Time’ was ‘13:19’. His ‘Picked up’ time was ‘13:19’ and His ‘Job Completed’ time was ‘13:19’.
Therefore, on our system it had shown that the journey had been completed by the driver, which clearly had not been. Which shows that the driver had lied about even picking up the journey and completing the job. Due to this gross negligence of the driver and incompetence by not alerting the office of him not picking up the passenger. KMR Cars have dismissed the Driver who cannot be named (due to Data Protection Act) and He shall no longer be representing KMR Cars any longer.
All drivers are vetted and Licensed by their local council, therefore this matter has also been reported to Enforcement at Birmingham City Council (the identified drivers council) and the drivers’ details such as Badge Number, Vehicle Details have now been passed on to them and they are looking into this as a matter of urgency. We are now working with the Birmingham City Council regarding this issue and are assisting them in any way possible.
Once again we would like to reiterate KMR Cars as a company acknowledges and has the most utmost respect for those who fought and put their lives on the line for all of us present today and must be deservedly be remembered on Remembrance Sunday with the poppy being of a symbol of such sacrifice. KMR Cars has a ZERO PERCENT policy on any single staff/driver/customer who wishes to defame any remembrance/religious views. KMR Cars does not tolerate bias on the grounds of Race, Religion, Beliefs, Sex, Gender, Disability or other.
KMR Cars would like to apologise for the outrage that has been a result of this incident whilst we have needed time to gather information.
The company would like to thank those of you that have been patient in this matter and again reiterate that KMR Cars is grateful to our fallen heroes and are happy to have poppies in the vehicle as we have for a number of years preceding this incident.
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