The forum comments which follow the story, on the local newspaper's website, seem to give further insight, including an apparent cab driver's attempt to defend his colleagues.
http://www.lep.co.uk/travel/Taxi-ride-t ... 5561306.jp
It would appear that firstly, the meters in Preston could not have arrived at an "even" total (ie 20p or 40p or 60p etc.), instead rising through "odd" numbers (10p, 30p, 50p etc) as the alleged "victims" claim, so at best we have an incorrect amount being quoted as the meter price and at worst...a lie. I'm not sure whether they use calendar contolled meters, or can manually change tariffs, but as their Christmas rate, according to a certain magazine's national tariff tables, would appear to be double time, we can rule that out too.
It
may also be the case that, according to the comments posted on the above link, there may be roadworks or a road closure.
I guess we can't be sure of what happened, but let's face it, much of the stuff that you hear about dishonest cabbies taking the long route is urban legend at best and
many an honest cabbie has finally had his fill of listening to gobby ar*eholes (male or female) who re-state such rubbish or wrongly accuse them. As a result, whilst the few bad eggs are a curse on the trade, I will take much of what is said against a driver as B.S., unless it has firm evidence to back it. This story does not and looks much more like three loud-mouthed troublemakers who had drunk too much.
As for the urban legend I mentioned, there's the classic example of "You're going the long way", when you KNOW you are not. One idiot waited intil the end of a journey to moan about my not taking a motorway link that would have added several miles...and at least £10! onto the journey...I wish I had! Trying to get the half-wit to realise that it was only quicker because you would be travelling at twice the speed of an A-road was pointless!
Here's another example (that has happened more than once!). Two or three cabs had been waiting for almost an hour at a railway station rank a while back. To be honest, it was as much for a chat and a coffee at the end of a shift as anything, but to our surprise a few "jobs" appeared. I got a lazy begger that was only going "round the corner", so I just took a deep breath and thought I'd race back, just in case by some fluke there was a chance of a last job. I was back in double quick time (5mins to 10 mins tops) and amazingly there was one person waiting.
They got in and we set off (it was only another short job, but was better than the previous one, so I was grateful for another few unexpected £'s). Anyway, we'd not travelled so far before they started moaning, saying there should be more cabs and they had been waiting well over half an hour for a cab! Sadly, I wasn't in my "say nothing mood", so pointed out that they must be the invisible man, as I'd been sat there for an hour, only ten minutes earlier and there was no-one there then. They insisted they were right and became aggressive. At this point they were "invited" to leave my cab and I went home....as I should have done an hour earlier! (moral: greed doesn't pay!)
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