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Dont know if I posted this....but thanks to all concerned.
Soiling Charges
As many of you will be aware, my newest best buddies are the good folks of taxi driver online website. Whilst it is true, I seem to recall calling them the very spawn of Satan, and whilst it is similarly true, they did seem to regard me in the same vein, I must admit I do have a begrudging respect for some of the posters on the site. Indeed, whilst I don’t always agree with them, I do actually quite like the majority of the people on there (so don’t tell them they’ll think I’m getting soft). Indeed, at least one of the posters is trying to teach me how to be impartial, I imagine this is a rather difficult task, obviously I’m seen as a challenge.
I know the Doom Twins have reservations, but I do actually believe if the trade was left in the hands of TDO, for its many faults, it wouldn’t actually be a bad job.
Okay, that should save me from being banned for a little while.
Recently a debate has taken place regarding Soiling Charges, and some of you are not going to like this one little bit.
The debate was stimulated by a story that emanated from Gloucestershire, basically a Mum was concerned about her babe in arms, on a trip to the hospital the baby was sick on the seat of the taxi, the taxi driver duly fined the woman £50 and uproar naturally ensued. Evidently, the cab driver was a pillock of the first order (is that impartial?).
Originally some of the subscribers were left wondering why the mother decided to get a cab if the baby was ill, obviously an ambulance would have been more appropriate, however, thread’s on websites do develop.
The intrepid (surely infamous.....Ed) John Davies made a few discreet enquiries with the licensing section of the Local Authority where the incident occurred, he was assured the situation had been resolved, further enquires led our intrepid reporter to the taxi office, where he was assured the £50 fine had not been reimbursed to the lady. Indeed, the lady even confirmed she was still quite upset about the incident and hadn’t received her money back.
I must add at this point I can’t quite understand the driver, unless the child was exorcist type sick, surely £50 was a bit much?
This naturally led to the question being raised as to the validity of soiling charges being on a table of fares.
The debate led us to Section 68 of the 1847 act, amongst the various other bits in section 68 the following is included; “For fixing the rates or fares, as well for time as distance, to be paid for such hackney carriages within the prescribed distance, and for securing the due publication of such fares”.
Section 65 (1) of the 1976 act states;
“A district council may fix the rates or fares within the district as well for time as distance, and all other charges in connection with the hire of a vehicle or with the arrangements for the hire of a vehicle, to be paid in respect of the hire of hackney carriages by means of a table (hereafter in this section referred to as a “table of fares”) made or varied in accordance with the provisions of this section.”
Obviously the wording “all other charges in connection with the hire of a vehicle” is open to a degree of debate, however, the question remains does that piece of wording permit a soiling charge to be applied to the tariff?
I find myself in something of a quandary here, you see I firmly believe soiling charges should be included on tariff cards and lawfully chargeable, unfortunately firmly believing and being lawful are not quite the same things.
In order to stimulate the debate, I’m not going to say anything either way, I will leave that to the news editor of TDO who states;
“section 68 is quite explicit in what can be regulated and it certainly doesn’t allow cab drivers to demand money from fare paying passengers by way of an arbitrary fining system unlawfully implied in a table of fares for vehicle damage”
Are soiling charges lawful part of the table of fares? I leave that to you good people to decide, but if they aren’t what about congestion charges, road tolls etc?
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