grandad wrote:
My son has been doing some price checks with other firms in the area. All of them are hackney and should be using the meter for jobs within the borough.
We have been told about overcharging but some of the prices are unbelievable. The first was a quote at 02.00 on a sunday morning from our night club to an address on the edge of the town, about 1.2 miles. the price requested was £22.00
Another was a run in an 8 passenger vehicle from an old folks home to a local ice cream parlour that should have been about £13.00 and the price was £25.00 each way these were both from the town with no dead miles.
The next one is a village to village job that again has to be priced from the pick up to the drop off because our council do not allow any fee for picking up out of town. The job, if done on the meter should be £9.70 at rate 1 and £12.00 for rate 2. 2 firms said that they couldn't do it and to try us as we are private hire, another one gave out the number for another hackney carriage and the rest have so far offered prices ranging from£20.00 at rate 1 and £25.00 for rate 2 right up to £35.00 each way.
I wonder if the Council will do anything when he reports it?
You should request they do a mystery shopper exercise.