Taxi Driver Online

Cabbies miss out on fares

CABBIES in Edinburgh lost out over Christmas after finding their meters had not been adjusted to display higher festive tariffs.

Some taxi drivers missed extra income, at a time when fares are 50 per cent higher than normal, because meters had been wrongly set.

Taxi firms said the company responsible would be "hard pushed" to change every meter in the city’s 1,000-strong black cab fleet by Hogmanay, when higher fares also apply.

John Scambler, a controller at Central Taxis, said some drivers would have avoided potential confrontations with passengers by not asking for the extra fare. He said: "Some passengers would be happy to pay the additional fare, but it would have irritated others. The meters should have been programmed for Christmas when they were altered for the last fares rise in April."

The higher fares applied from 6pm on Christmas Eve to 6am today, and again from 6pm on Hogmanay to 6am on Monday 3 January.

No-one was available for comment yesterday at John Paton & Son, the firm which handles the meter changes.

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IDFIMH

which meter do they use?
surely the time and a half rate would have been set up at the same time the fares were increased?

What a surprise.

Why have calendar controlled meters anyway????? Any decent driver will not abuse a non calander meter.

i just had a calendar control meter fitted, i personally think its great.

seeing how some people will abuse the bank holiday rates after tuesdays bank holiday, perhaps it should be standard?

regards

Captain cab

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Presumably it's aimed at the non-decent ones

Don't know about Edinburgh, but in my manor the council don't check that the Xmas rates have been programmed correctly, so they could be reading anything.

Presumably they haven't been checked in Edinburgh by the council, but I don't know how they would test a calander meter, but obviously if the driver can change the rate himself then an LA can test that.

I think Patons do Cygnus meters.

Your usually issued with a report of all the days where your meter will change from the non standard tariff.

presumably the firm doing the tariff alterations missed out!

hehe

Captain cab

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I think the answer to your question lies at the end of it.

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IDFIMH

So presumably Edinburgh City Council don't check the tarrifs properly, or the situation would have come to light.

If they rely on this report then presumably it's not worth relying on at all.

But assuming Patons did issue these reports, they they cocked up, but whether or not they did issue the reports then ECC cocked up as well.

I would say that its probably a cock up by cygnus, rather than patons

but patons should have checked the info sheet with the tariff

Captain cab

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I think I misunderstood you first time round el Capitano, I thought you meant that the sheet was for the council's benefit.

But I think I know the sheet you mean now

But whoever was at fault in not adjusting the meters, the council clearly didn't test the higher tariffs either, so there are clearly several parties with egg on their face.

But again I'm not really sure how an LA could test a calander meter, but I doubt if either Edinburgh council or the trade want to highlight this

What a proper council would do is to get the supplier to show the first meter that they change, at the different rates at the different times, before they allow that particular type of meter to be sealed.

For the record, my council doesn't. But then when have they ever been proper?

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IDFIMH

Cannot see the logic,all they had to do was add the christmas fare onto the extras,tell the customers this when they get in.Dah

I gather the LTI (oh yes LTI) dealership is responsible for the meter changes on behalf of the council (correct me please if i'm wrong)

As drivers are now forced to use LTI vehicles (theres that LTI word again) Patons virtualy run the Edinburgh trade. It would be nice to see a few legal actions brought against them for loss of earnings.

Roll on the alternatives for some form of kick up the ar@@ for these LTI dealerships that play god.

That's what I thought as well Paul. But if the Xmas tariff in Edinburgh is a % uplift rather than a flat fee then it might be difficult.

The extra on the flagfall wouldn't be a problem, but the extra on the mileage would be a bit more problematic.

If that happened in my manor I would have added the additional flagfall as extras but left the distance uplift well alone