Taxi Driver Online

Glasgow taxi driver suspended after 'threatening' complainer

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glas ... r-33539055

The taxi driver had been the subject of a complaint over allegedly offering fixed fares to passengers.

A Glasgow taxi driver has been suspended after he was accused of threatening another driver who made a complaint about him.

It was alleged that Qamar Farooq had been offering a fixed price to passengers, rather than using his meter as required — and he was called in for questioning by the city’s taxi and private hire enforcement unit.

After this interview, Mr Farooq then allegedly approached the complainer and “threatened him for doing so”. He was called before Glasgow City Council’s licensing committee and denied offering a fixed price.

He also claimed he had asked the other driver why he was laughing at him — but councillors on the committee decided to suspend him for two weeks.

Enforcement officers had received a complaint that Mr Farooq had contravened a licence condition which requires a taxi driver to “ensure that a taximeter fitted in the taxi shall be operated at all times, within the licensed area”.

The complainer alleged he had seen Mr Farooq “refusing hires” and asked him why. “He said the older couple were too drunk, which was not true, and I said ‘what about the girls?’.

“He said they were going to Sauchiehall Street and he asked for a fixed price of £10, which they refused to pay and said to put the meter on.”

The complainer then said he wasn’t allowed to offer a fixed price and could be reported and alleged Mr Farooq responded in “an extremely aggressive way”.

In his interview, Mr Farooq said the old couple were drunk and other drivers had already refused them. He added he told the girls that the “meter starts at £6 and it would be approximately £10 to Sauchiehall Street” but they “walked away”.

The committee heard that the day after Mr Farooq’s enforcement interview, he “approached the taxi driver who had submitted the online complaint against him and threatened him for doing so”.

A video, showing some of the exchange, was shown to councillors. Cllr Sean Ferguson, SNP, who was chairing the committee, said: “We only have a partial clip, we can’t attest to the veracity of what you have just said in your defence there.

“But what we have seen, you did behave in a very aggressive manner. The way you behaved in that video was profoundly unfortunate.”

Cllr Ferguson and Cllr Leòdhas Massie, Your Party, wanted to suspend Mr Farooq for one month, but Bailie Hanif Raja, Labour, backed by Cllr Eunis Jassemi, Labour, proposed a two-week suspension.

The two-week ban passed by three votes to two.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can offer a fixed price, as long as it's below meter, but you should engage the meter in any case.

And I wonder which rank the fare was from? For those reading this from the planet Jupiter, Sauchiehall Street is the main shopping street bang in the centre of Glasgow

So I'm guessing it wasn't going very far, and to that extent wouldn't have clocked £10. But not enough info in the piece to work it all out precisely.

correcting you
your wrong

Glasgow taxi driver license
condition 8
The driver of a taxi shall ensure that a taximeter fitted in the taxi in his charge shall be operated at all times,within the licenced area,in accordance with any detailed requirements imposed by the Licensed Authority

there is no mention about fixed prices lower or otherwise in the license conditions UNLESS it is a hire going outside glasgow and that is only that you must inform the hirer of the the cost or the method of calculating the cost before setting off

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i started out with nothing and ive still got most of it left

But, Jozef, there's nothing in the driver's licence conditions that's inconsistent with what I said yesterday. And nothing either in the conditions that's inconsistent with drivers being able to discount if they want to

Just that the meter has to be engaged during a hire within the authority area - that's not the same as saying the metered fare has to be charged.

Although, of course, it may not happen in Glasgow very often, but nothing in law to actually stop discounting. And it's actually quite common in other authorities

In fact, the first words on your fare card (after the titles etc) are 'maximum fares':

https://onlineservices.glasgow.gov.uk/c ... NTDXUTZ3DX

And check out the Scottish Government's best practice guidance on taxi fares, which says:



https://www.gov.scot/publications/taxi- ... n/pages/8/

And there's other stuff there about discounting. Which is all complete and utter BS in terms of the stuff about security etc, but no point banging on about that just now.

But, as regards the basic legal principle, that's it

fair point
if there is a driver out there who discounts the metered fare i,ve yet to meet him

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i started out with nothing and ive still got most of it left