Taxi Driver Online

Teenage girl's terror after taxi driver's 'foul-mouthed rant' at her and her friends on Hull night out

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hu ... er-2633791

Abbie Jones, 18, was left horrified after the encounter which she has reported to Hull City Council


Image: Hull Daily Mail

A teenager has spoken of her shock and terror after she says a taxi driver launched a foul-mouthed rant against her and her friends following a night out at Atik.

Abbie Jones, a student at the University of Hull, went to the city centre nightclub with friends on Friday before heading to Hull Paragon to get a taxi home at around 3am on Saturday, March 9.

The 18-year-old was part of a group of eight and according to Miss Jones, they were the only ones in the interchange in the early hours of the morning.

Miss Jones and three of her friends got in one taxi but as another friend came to join them in the cab, the driver allegedly startling hurling abuse at them.

How the alleged abuse began

She said: “The driver turned around straight away and started swearing and we were all taken aback. He said nothing then started shouting ‘get in my f****** taxi. I will leave if you don’t. Get the f*** in right now’.

“None of us could believe it and then my other friend refused to get into the taxi. He said ‘I’m not going with you’ and slammed the door closed.”

Miss Jones said the group were “tipsy” but not “overly drunk”, with nobody misbehaving in the taxi.

The teenager, who is living in student halls, was the first to leave the taxi and as the group disembarked Miss Jones moved towards the front of the vehicle to text her other friends to say she had arrived home safely.

She expected the driver to leave but he is then said to have driven up alongside Miss Jones before launching another foul-mouthed tirade.

Further swearing


Image: Hull Daily Mail/Peter Harbour

“He started shouting saying ‘do you want my f****** number? You can come in and f****** get it’. He carried on shouting this constant abuse and he was shouting ‘come back in the vehicle and get it yourself’.

“I showed him my phone and that I was texting my friends but he kept shouting. He refused to leave and carried on shouting so we walked off and went to reception until he left.”

Horrified by her experiences both at Hull Paragon and outside her accommodation, Miss Jones noted down the driver’s details which were available to see in the back of the taxi.

She has reported her ordeal to Hull City Council and she admits this is the first time she has had an unnerving experience with a taxi driver in the city since moving here from Leeds in September 2018.

'It was scary'

“It was unusual and it made me feel uncomfortable,” Miss Jones said. “As a girl and with everything going on in Hull I am glad I was with my friends.

“It was scary and horrible. We paid him, he did his job and he should have left. My group is mostly girls and we make sure none of us go out on our own and we do feel uneasy given what has happened recently.

“It was just such a shock. I have never been in a situation like that and none of us knew how to react.”

'They have a duty of care'

A day after Miss Jones’ experience, a mum from Hessle said she was left stranded in Spring Bank around 4am on Sunday morning after the taxi driver allegedly told her to leave the cab when she said she had no money.

Miss Jones believes it would have been a lot more dangerous had she been more drunk and she believes the driver should have shown more care and respect to his passengers on that night.

“I know they are handling drunk people but they should understand the situation they are in,” she said. “They have a duty to make sure people get home – they shouldn’t be hurling abuse.

“He shouldn’t be in that position and if I were a girl on my own I could have been wasted drunk and not known what I was doing and God knows what would have happened then.”

This is presumably a reference to the unsolved disappearance of another student in Hull, Libby Squire, who had gotten into a taxi after a night out about six weeks ago, but had apparently been dropped at or near her home before her (suspected) abduction.

This has been all over the press, and don't think the taxi driver is under suspicion, but haven't really seen any specific mention of him, so assume he was traced and ruled out.

Anyway, for what it's worth a suspect has been arrested and charged with an array of other offences, and sounds like a real oddball:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/b ... t-14118298

But somehow I suspect this latest article about the Hull driver wouldn't have appeared but for the Libby Squire case.

No excuse for a repeated verbal attack on any punters.

But something must have set the driver off, and a bunch of semi, maybe fully, pi**ed up students defo ticks that box.

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IDFIMH

Hull bosses react as women report spate of 'terrifying' taxi ordeals

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hu ... rt-2644333

Peter Nilsson and Magnus Murray have had their say after worrying stories appeared on social media last week

Hull taxi bosses have urged cabbie drivers to act like “human beings” and not abandon their customers after a number of worrying reports involving drivers on social media.

In the past week, a number of women have taken to Facebook to post alarming ordeals involving taxi drivers in the city.

Kayleigh-Marie Jopling, a mum-of-two from Hessle, claimed that a taxi driver abandoned her in Spring Bank at 4.30am last Sunday morning.

Just a day prior, Abbie Jones, a University of Hull student, alleged that she and her friends were subjected to foul-mouthed tirades by a cabbie driver.

Both of the women got in vehicles waiting in the taxi rank at Hull Paragon and Magnus Murray, secretary of the Humber Taxi Association, said it is worrying to hear accounts of such behaviour which he feels is becoming more common.

'Drivers should be getting people home safe'


Image: Hull Daily Mail

He wants taxi drivers to show more compassion towards passengers, particularly women and young children, if they are missing small amounts off their fare.

Mr Murray said: “What concerns me is that if a young girl is short on a £4 fare because she only has £3 a driver would kick her out. What is he achieving?

“It’s pounds and pennies. Carry on taking them to where they want to go and I just want them to think that they have done a good deed getting people home.

“It is women and young children who are getting kicked out because they haven’t got the fare but these taxi drivers are human beings and they should be getting these people home safe.

“That to me is far more important than arguing over a few quid.”

Mr Murray, who is part of the Humber Taxi Association which was previously known as the Humber Private Hire Association (HPHA), has urged unhappy customers to carry on reporting their experiences to Hull City Council and the individual taxi operators.

“Make an official complaint through the correct procedure,” Mr Murray said. “That makes it formal and we urge people to report it to the licensing officers.

“There are always two sides to a story but if a driver gets pulled in it is on his record and if that type of behaviour reoccurs they can suspend their licence.”

What to do if you're a customer

Peter Nilsson, who is chairman of the Hull Hackney Carriage Association, was also keen to issue advice to drivers and passengers following recent articles published by Hull Live.


Image: Hull Daily Mail

He said he was “not happy” hear about customers having bad experiences in taxis and reiterated that drivers have a “duty of care” to their customers.

“We want every ride we do to be safe for both driver and customer,” Mr Nilsson said. “When getting in a taxi, take a picture of the taxi or take note of the number on the doors.

“This helps track down the vehicle you’ve been in. Should any customer feel the driver isn’t being professional, please video the journey.

“Almost everyone has a phone that can do this. If a complaints needs to be made, this is evidence that can be used.”

'Drop non-payers off at nearest police station'

From a drivers’ point of view, Mr Nilsson also pointed out that cabbies have a right to end the journey immediately should they be subjected to abuse en route.

He said that if someone refuses to pay, taxi drivers are entitled to drop customers off at a police station.

“Each taxi is an individual business. We expect to be paid for every journey. We advise taxi drivers that if someone refuses to pay that passenger should be dropped off at the nearest police station.

Anyone who wants to complain about their taxi experience should call Hull City Council’s licensing authority on 01482 300 300.

Is the above not just an open invite to the scroats of this world?

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IDFIMH

indeed word will soon get round that the taxis will let you off money and they'll all expect it

as for the original incident I'll bet there were a few annoying words said to the driver first which of course the angelic young thing forgot to mention

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

There's are 2 sides to a story.people in drink at the weekend can be very exasperating,I've given it up precisely because of that.i really haven't got the patience anymore!.

I've found the older I get the less tolerant of pi**/smack head punters I get.

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IDFIMH

I feel the same, I only do the weekend nights but I find myself going out earlier and earlier in the day so I can come home earlier. Give it a year or two and they’ll end up being day shifts!