Taxi Driver Online

Came across a very brief article simply saying that increaed West Lothian tariffs had come into effect, but nothing other than that, and no numbers, so not really worth bothering about. But the article linked to the tariff card, and it's quite straightforward compared to some, but a couple of items stood out:

First a rare cancellation fee for pre-bookings. But like a £200 sickie fee, what are the chances of getting this?


But note also that it includes 'metered private hire car'. Worth recalling that in Scotland, if a PHV is fitted with a meter, it must be set to the HC tariffs.

But maybe interesting that a PHV without a meter wouldn't be automatically entitled to a cancellation fee. On the other hand, chances of actually getting it probably not that high, so to a degree it's academic anyway.

https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/taxi-pri ... cars-fares

More interesting is maybe the luggage charges:


So a 50kg female student arrives at the station with a couple of 30kg suitcases. Do I stand there while she struggles to get them into the boot, or grab hold of them to make sure I get an extra £12?

Or do I tell her to stop and then spend several minutes explaining the charge, and ask whether she wants to incur it?

And I doubt they would want to incur it, so I stand there while she struggles to lift them, and maybe scrapes the metal of the suitcase over the car's paintwork

And how do you define what 'cannot reasonably be lifted by own person'? I could see that one going all the way to the Supreme Court, and still no hope of a clear and definitive answer

Or, as is often the case with rail or airport runs, the driver and the passenger lift a heavy piece of luggage into the bootspace together, because it's maybe a tad heavy for one...

Would that mean I could charge £18 for three pieces of luggage. say?

Anyway, the charge reads like something dreamt up by someone sitting behind a desk, and if it's relevant to the real world then it's only in terms of confusion and conflict

Might not be that important if it was 50p per item, say. But £6 'for each piece of luggage or additional item'?

The sickie fee of £200 has no chance of being met by a pi** head at night, however for contract work i.e. schools and social service work, then it makes it so much easier.

I like the cancellation fee, but that would only apply to the firms and then only via a credit card booking.

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IDFIMH

I wonder if the £6 is to pay for another driver to assist, although clearly that driver will not be at the other end.

If the suitcases are crazy heavy I always get the student to lift them in.

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IDFIMH

I'd guess the theory is that it's recoverable by the driver (or it wouldn't be on the HC's tariff card) but in practice possibly even more difficult to retrieve than a sickie fee.

Recall the one in Angus:


That's been there for as long as I can remember, so I doubt it's simply something that's been added in the era of card payments.

And to recover such a charge, the office would need people to have registered some kind of account with bank/card details and to have agreed to a lengthy contract (which, of course, they won't have read ) such that they could help themselves to such a charge if it's a no-show.

I'd guess that applies to very few (if any) customers in Angus or West Lothian, even these days, never mind back when the charge first appeared on the tariff card