Taxi Driver Online

Student stranded after taxis demand minimum fare

A YOUNG woman was left stranded when multiple taxis refused to pick her up from Swindon railway station.

Georgia Scott had to lug a heavy suitcase almost an hour through the streets after three cab drivers told her they wouldn’t accept her journey on October 25.

One driver would only take cash, which Georgia didn’t have, and the other two refused to drive her home – saying the journey was under the minimum fare of £10.

Georgia was travelling home from the University of Exeter to celebrate her 19th birthday.

She said: “I just couldn’t really believe it.

“I had a stressful trip anyway because I’d booked the wrong train tickets for the wrong day. I walked out of the train station just exhausted and it was only about 11.30am.”

Three taxis were waiting in the rank.

Georgia said: “They were ones which are also suitable for disabled people, so I definitely knew there would be room for my bag in the back of the car.“

The asthmatic student lives near Mannington Roundabout and was expecting her fare to cost £7. The first driver refused her because they didn’t take card payments

“The next one asked me where I was going, and then said no there was a £10 minimum fare,” said Georgia.

“I asked him want he meant because I’d done that trip before and, to be honest I’d done shorter trips, so I couldn’t understand it.”

Georgia’s parents were away for the weekend so weren’t able to come and collect her.

She added: “He repeated it was a £10 minimum faire to take me and my journey was less than this.

“I went to the third taxi and he said the exact same thing.

“I was told I could pay £10 for the trip but that’s not what my fare is,” said Georgia.

“So I was just stood there with this massive bag. I was gobsmacked,” she added.

As a result Georgia, who is a fresher studying English and drama, had to walk almost an hour through the streets to get home.

She said: “It’s probably a five–minute drive. But with the bag I couldn’t go my short route because the ground is quite rough so I was worried the bag was break, or it would veer off the path and end up in the canal.

“It had all my work in and my laptop. The last thing I needed was a smashed laptop.”

Georgia said the bus routes don’t go near enough to her house to take one, and being a Sunday the busses were less dependable.

“I suffer from asthma,” added Georgia. “So when I’m walking with something heavy like that, it takes me much longer. I was just exhausted when I eventually got back.”

She added: “I had money and I was willing to pay. We’re all going through a tough time so I thought they would want to take me regardless.”

“Next time I will definitely book one,” Georgia added.

Andrew Lucas, secretary of the Swindon Taxi Association said: “It’s illegal for any taxi to refuse the fare without good reason. There is no minimum fare and if something like this happens to people I would suggest they email the council straightaway with a description of the vehicle, licence plate or registration number and make a complaint. Because that is not something we would advocate.”

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IDFIMH

Take this with a pinch salt, one driver would only take cash, but she did not have any to pay him, later in the article she states she did have cash.

can they really afford to insist on that high a minimum ?

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

I don't think she said she had cash. She said she had money, but that may have been in her bank account.

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Grandad,

Definition of money. A current medium of exchange in the form of coins and banknotes; coins and banknotes collectively.

In this article she stated she did have money(cash).

That's certainly the most obvious definition. But there are lots of different definitions of money. For example, money in your bank account, which obviously isn't coins or notes.

She said, "I had money and I was willing to pay", which I took roughly to mean that she was good for the money. Which could mean she had money in her bank account, but no cash, or even that she's potless but within her credit card limit

So in the context of the article as a whole, when she said she had money then it's maybe reasonable to construe money as NOT meaning cash or coins.

Suspect the fact that the car in pole didn't do the job had something to do with the other cars' refusal - they maybe would have done the job if they'd been in pole, but didn't fancy doing another car's leftovers

And I'm wondering if it's maybe one of those scenarios where you suspect the driver in front is only saying they don't have a card reader because it's a shortish run. Certainly heard of drivers saying that they've got a minimum spend for card runs, which of course would be illegal, but it does happen. Maybe it was something to do with a minimum card spend rather than a minimum fare as such.

Ignoring the card issue, point blank refusals are pretty rare here, but do happen on rare occasions for very short runs, particuarly at the station.

And when it has happened I've been pretty reluctant to take the run, perhaps sending the passenger back up to the front car to tell the driver they're obliged to take them, or perhaps telling the driver myself, and I've fallen out with a few of them over the years because of this. In fact that's one reason I tend to avoid the station these days.

And I'm sure once or twice I've refused people on the basis that the front car has refused them. Not sure if that would be a good reason for me to refuse them, or whether that means I'm breaching the rules as well, but it's never come to any kind of formal complaint or anything like that.

There's always been drivers at the station who think it's a great idea if we all send local runs to the back car. Great idea in principle, but would get very messy in practice, especially if the back car doesn't want the run either.

So in my book the rules are straightforward, and although it's not much fun waiting three hours for a £4 run, at the end of the day it's just pot luck, and if no one did the short runs then we'd all end up slightly worse off.

Don't hackney carriages have to use the meter off the rank for a local job?

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Grandad,

Indeed, but isn't that what the article is all about?

Or are you alluding to Edders saying:


I took that to question why they can afford to knock back £7 runs just now, even assuming they can get away with breaking the rules.

Good question, and of course, and particularly if you've waited a long time, you'll always want a longer rather than shorter run.

But sometimes a short run is better than none, and I'm starting to lose count of the number of times I've sat 1-2 hours on the rank later in the evening and eventually pulled off and gone home - I'd be cock-a-hoop with a £7 run instead.

Of course, every driver always has different attitudes about that sort of thing. If the drivers in the article thought they wouldn't get another run that night, what's the betting they'd have scooped the student and her suitcase up?

No.

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IDFIMH

Agree, the minimum fare for a TAXI is the flag fall.

Anyone cherry picking should loose their license but having said that it shows what has become of our trade when the majority of people allow it to go on.