Taxi Driver Online

According to Google this looks like quite a quick run of 2.4 miles, so hardly round the corner.

Must be a lot of mega jobs around if they can afford to knock back a job like that

I'd guess the vast majority of drivers would just do the run, but once the first driver knocked it back...

But, as per usual, there might be some other important facts that we're not being told


Brighton taxi drivers 'abandoned' Hove women in city late at night

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/2335918 ... ate-night/


Image: The Argus

Taxi drivers have been accused of leaving people stranded in the city late at night as they "cherry-pick bumper fares".

Nicole Humphreys told The Argus that she was fobbed off by more than half a dozen cabbies in Brighton at 3am on February 4 after a night out.

The 50-year-old said the taxi driver at the front of a rank near Burger King on King’s Road told her: “No love, I’m waiting for someone else.”

She approached “six or seven” hackney carriages only to be told they were waiting for someone else or to “get the one in front”.

One of the cabbies told the 50-year-old, who was trying to get to Hove Street, that his colleagues "don’t want to take you on a short journey".

Nicole was with her sister, husband and daughter - who had just turned 18 - but says things would have been much worse if she had been alone.

She said: “I went up to the taxi rank on my own, so they wouldn’t have known I was with a group of people.

"What if this had been my daughter? What if this had been a person who was on their own? That’s my main concern.

“They have an element of responsibility to get people home safely.”

Nicole gave up on the hackney carriage service and booked an Uber instead - although she is concerned as not everyone has access to the taxi app.

The following day, Nicole contacted Brighton and Hove City Council, which regulates the city’s taxis.

A council spokesman said: “Taxi drivers licensed to stand for hire at a taxi rank must – when at the front of the rank – take the first person or group who asks to be transported.

"Failure to do so could leave the driver at risk of having their license withdrawn.

“People unhappy with the conduct of a taxi driver should raise their concerns with the taxi company in the first instance.

"If they feel your complaint is sufficiently serious, they will refer your complaint to our hackney carriage office.

“If a person is not satisfied with the response from the taxi operator, or they have a complaint about a taxi operator, please contact us about taxis via our website.

"This form can also be used if you have hailed a taxi from a rank and your complaint is about, among other things, a driver's behaviour.

“We investigate all incidents of alleged misconduct by taxi drivers when we are given the information we need in order to do so – including the taxi number and/or the license plate of the vehicle.”

As usual, slightly confusing in that the complaint was about a street hire, although the advice seems to be about the trade generally rather than just public hire jobs.

But which also maybe explains the generic use of the word taxi, hence adding to the confusion. Then the council refers to complaints to the hackney carriage office

Doesn't it also deal with private hire?

are you sure about that it looks to only be about a mile to me ? Sussex can you enlighten us.

It clearly was a short job but would be back on the rank in about 10 mins. I think the problem was that with the first having refused then the others behind didn't want to be seen taking a fare from behind front rank. We have had similar problems locally in the past.

The thing is that by law she was entitled to choose the taxi she wanted so the ones refusing from behind front rank were also breaking consumer laws!

This will be a massive publicity coup for Uber in Brighton and a big own goal for the black cab trade Idiots

There was an incident in Skegness about 12 years ago when some customers of mine (couple + 6 kids) were on holiday they went to the rank and there was an 8 seater about 5 cars back but he refused to take them saying they had to use the front car and despite remonstrating with him he steadfastly refused to take them all the cars in front were 4 seater saloons

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

Hove Street sounds potentially confusing, but this is the trip Google came up with. So it's 2.4 miles, and looks mostly a straightforward run along the front:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Burge ... 50.8267495

However, it looks like a bit of a detour is entailed because it's a dual carriageway and you can't immediately u-turn, so it might be a bit shorter than the 2.4 miles suggested by Google.

And someone in the comments claiming it's not actually a rank there at all - there's certainly no sign of one on StreetView.

So it might be an informal night rank, or maybe just cars congregating in a late-night hotspot, and the first driver she asked may in fact have had a legitimate booking and was thus justified in refusing her, but who knows?

Sussex?

It's also a p*** easy job.

More than likely get a tenner and be back on that rank within 10 minutes.

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IDFIMH

Problem is the fella at the front refusal has more than likely miffed the rest off.

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IDFIMH

Guessing the spokesperson didn't talk to the licensing team before speaking to the press.

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IDFIMH

Some may say informal, others may say illegal.

But it's a very busy 'rank' at night, dealing with 100s and 100s coming up from the clubs on the beach.

Loads of multi-seater out-of-town work, at crazy high quoted prices.

Which is why the fella at the front turned down a 10-minute fare for a tenner.

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IDFIMH

Thanks, Sussex - sounds about right.

As for the council's statement, indeed I did think it might have been written by the comms team rather than with licensing input, hence the lack of technical clarity and generic terminology.

Or maybe licensing supplied the comms team with a statement, but the comms team thought they'd need to do their comms stuff and make it more suitable for public consumption. Which is all very well to a degree, but to that extent it ends up confusing things and lacking clarity, at least as far as the legal niceties are concerned.