Taxi Driver Online

A quick skim read of this, and I was trying to find the right phrase to convey my thoughts, but there were too many. For example:

- I wouldn't take this at face value
- I'd take this with a pinch of salt
- I smell $hite

And those are just the nice ones...


Rhyl taxi driver ‘finding it hard to survive’ after Google errors

https://www.rhyljournal.co.uk/news/2492 ... le-errors/

A MAN from Rhyl has had his taxi firm’s Google business profile restored after an error caused it to disappear last week.

Christopher Campbell, 47, who owns Rhyl Cabs Ltd, said he was informed via email in the early hours of February 1 that his profile had been disabled.

It was the second time this has happened to Christopher, who previously spent three months last summer trying to resolve the same issue.

Last week, the Journal reported how two other men from Rhyl had encountered the same issue, and feared they had lost business as a result.

Google confirmed to the Journal this morning (February 10) that Rhyl Cabs’ business profile has now been restored.

Christopher said he was “finding it hard (for his business) to survive” without its presence on Google.

He said: “In the past, there have been issues with Google, where we’ve been removed, disabled or restricted.

“The last time it happened, in June 2024, it took three months to get back on – we had been removed for ‘deceptive comment’.

“But at about 1.30am on February 1 I received an email saying my business profile has been disabled; I appealed it straight away, but for days, nothing happened. It was like it didn’t exist.

“I had one of my drivers move to another firm last week, because he said he can’t afford to go another weekend where the phone doesn’t ring.

“In this day and age, 65-70 per cent of our irregular hours work comes through Google. It’s our main outlet for work.”

Christopher believes the three-month wait last summer for his business profile to re-appear cost him at least £15,000 in missed calls.

While he was pleased and relieved to learn that Google has now fixed the problem, he remains frustrated at how long it has taken to fix.

He added: “It’s the impact of how long it takes to get it back.

“My biggest issue is that it just suddenly takes you off Google, and then you have to jump through all of these hoops.

“It’s such a vital part of anyone’s business now.”

I don't want to laugh about anyone losing any business, but

Seriously, though, I've no doubt he's lost work because of this, but it all seems a tad overdone

It looks like a small scale, fairly bog standard legacy firm, the type we all know and love

(Looks like they've got five drivers, and a post on Facebook suggests they had to stop answering calls when two drivers went on holiday at once, and the shifts couldn't be covered...)

And yet it loses its Google listing for a few days and the whole business is close to collapse.

To be fair, maybe they have very few regular customers, or people who find their phone number by other means etc.

And, to be fair again, I'd guess it's all down to dirty tricks from others in the trade...

On the other hand, maybe the bit of free advertising via the press will get him more work than via Google

They've got a Facebook page and website, but when I click on the website link it shows 'Warning: Potential Security Risk Ahead' and won't let me load the site unless I go into the browser's settings.

Which to my nontechnical mind suggests nothing to do with Google, and it's marked 'unsecure' and thus presumably doesn't have an SSL certificate.

Even worse, I manage to access unsecured sites (indeed this forum is marked unsecure, although apparently there is an SSL certificate in place), so not sure what's up with the Rhyl Cabs site.

Of course, that's nothing to do with the Google listing thing per se, but it does look a tad iffy

http://www.rhylcabs.co.uk

Are the correct answers.

I'm not sure many, maybe even any, punters use google to search for general taxi services.

Maybe for airport work they will google search, but for shopping or a doctor's visit, that just isn't going to happen.

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IDFIMH

actually we used to get two to three dozen a month but a very low overall percentage

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