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Taxi's Refusing Short Trips on the Rank


Paul Neades

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I have spoken to the Licensing dept at the council and had an update.

The drivers in the origional complaint have been dealt with via a disciplinary process.

They get 3 warnings then are taken to disciplinary. The council are all over this now and are clamping down on licensing which is great news.

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Yep Paul is right. I had to take a £15 taxi ride so this was my chance. Thought I would ride in civvies so straight pink corduroy and mandarin shirt. Got into the banter with driver and he confirmed that they had been briefed about said issues. Truth is I think he just wanted to keep me talking and dropped me off with the cab still moving. Can't think what his problem was.

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  • 1 month later...

Very interesting letter sent into The Hereford Times, from the chairman of Herefordshire's Taxi Association, Mr John Jones.

 

He clearly states that the issue of refusing short distance fares is a clear breach of the law, and urges anyone who has had a fare turned down to report the driver to the licensing department.

 

Mr Jones also says that this problem has been "brought to his attention...."

 

Hmmm. I wonder if somebody pointed him in the direction of this Hereford Voice thread????

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I have reported these drivers again in the past week  to the officers of  regulatory committee, it seems rather  coincidental that Mr Jones now states the

" problem has been brought to his attention". I do know that two taxi drivers will be in front of the regulatory committee with in the next two weeks with a recommendation  for their licences to be revoked! whether it is these drivers who are refusing "short distance fairs" I am not sure.

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  • 2 weeks later...

There has also been an issue along these same lines in Worcester. I was reading about it in the WEN.

 

It would seem that through the Worcester BID team, they sometimes employ taxi Marshalls.....and when these guys are on duty, the problem disappears....!

 

Just wondering if Hereford might go down this route on weekends?

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There has also been an issue along these same lines in Worcester. I was reading about it in the WEN.

 

It would seem that through the Worcester BID team, they sometimes employ taxi Marshalls.....and when these guys are on duty, the problem disappears....!

 

Just wondering if Hereford might go down this route on weekends?

 

How is Bewell Street recently? Not been down there recently. Largest unofficial rank in the World exists down there .... 

 

Going slightly off topic dippy I would guess your reply was prompted by the re-ordering of the topics as this was suddenly near the top having been dormant for nearly 10 days .... Manipulation. Must be a reason! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Truth is Rebecca you do look like you could cause trouble perhaps jumping out of the busted up Skoda while he or she is adjusting the dash cam. I reckon you made them nervous!!!

Seriously though we now have a name to complain and its on this thread somewhere. Did you get his badge number?

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I was refused a taxi from commercial road to the left bank last night. I could not believe what I heard,

 

I would never get a taxi for that length of trip. But that is not the point. How far is minimum for certain drivers to be interested? The queue of waiting taxis can get fairly long so this must cause friction in the Rank if the front car refuses to go ? There must be some sort of etiquette going on or it would all fall apart? What are the Council doing? 

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You might reconsider your opening line if you had a severe ankle sprain with a complete rupture of the ligament with instability of the joint like I have, still, that should be irrelevant. If someone wants a taxi, regardless of the distance of paying passenger, this should not be an issue, it's a lottery.

 

Absolutely.

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My biggest concern from what we see is vulnerable persons that feel safer taking a cab a short distance than walking, albeit to another venue or just around the corner home. If you are trading in Hereford you abide by the rules and respect the needs of our residents or go trade elsewhere.

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My biggest concern from what we see is vulnerable persons that feel safer taking a cab a short distance than walking, albeit to another venue or just around the corner home. If you are trading in Hereford you abide by the rules and respect the needs of our residents or go trade elsewhere.

 

Spot on Paul  :Thumbs-Up:

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You might reconsider your opening line if you had a severe ankle sprain with a complete rupture of the ligament with instability of the joint like I have,

 

I was pulled up on this earlier on in the thread. Obviously if someone is mobility impaired then it makes sense to get a lift. I was making a general point that really short trips are sometimes just laziness. The way the thread is going you would assume that everyone wanting a short trip has a broken leg or similar. Just petty point scoring in my book.

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Roger as the years catch up and the walk up the hill gets more of a challenge we never assume laziness is an excuse. TAXI

 

I just have a son who is able bodied and he doesn't understand the concept of a bus. He just rings a cab (private hire normally) as he can't be bothered to make an effort to walk to the end of the Street .... :-p

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Roger, your missing the point, of course they are lazy people around and that will always be the case. The point here is, if someone is prepared to pay for a service, in this case, a taxi, the distance of the trip required is irrelevant. There are many people waiting for hackney carriage licenses and in my opinion the driver should be given one warning and if this behaviour continues then licenses should be revoked.

 

Rebecca is correct with her comment 'its a lottery' sometimes there will be a queue of people waiting for a taxi, some will want to go a mile or less others will want to go further. A driver can not pick and choose the better fares, what next?  

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  • 4 weeks later...

This is still happening, I reported a Blueline cab for refusing a trip for a young lady from commercial road to the stagecoach. The council need to keep acting on this and the taxi firms need to keep putting pressure on the drivers to stop this practice.

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This is still happening, I reported a Blueline cab for refusing a trip for a young lady from commercial road to the stagecoach. The council need to keep acting on this and the taxi firms need to keep putting pressure on the drivers to stop this practice.

 

Is there anyway you can get the taxi number or vehicle concerned? I use taxis often and I will just boycott the ones named and shamed and I will be more than happy to tell them they are losing business over it. There was a rape on the Castle Green only this week apparently so this really needs sorting out, maybe she was refused a taxi, the council would show interest then I'm sure!

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  • 3 months later...

Grabbed a taxi tonight outside Yates on Commercial Road to go to my gaff just off Aylestone Hill. It wasn't for my benefit but for the person I was with. The driver did not have a scooby doo about where our requested destination was. He had to be guided in street by street by my son. Not hard because after the 'U' turn in Commercial Road he then had to perform one left turn and two right turns to get to where I live. As he never knew where he was going he probably never knew it was so short as to be not worth his while to take us. Meter said £3.40 at the end and my son gave him a fiver. Bit too generous a tip I thought.  :tongue_32:

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  • 5 months later...

From BBC Wales website tonight .

 

 

Five Cardiff taxi drivers have had their hackney licences suspended for refusing short fares.

A city council spokeswoman said drivers cannot refuse a fare that starts and ends in the city and the authority wanted to "flush out" those who breach the law.

Following complaints, the council has been carrying out an investigation since September 2015.

Mystery shopper exercises are continuing to catch drivers at fault.

Information cards are being given out and people are urged to take note of the badge number or vehicle registration of drivers who refuse fares.

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