Taxi Driver Online

JD the scheme is not about touting at bus stops ................. the scheme is about vehicles allowing people standing at bus stops to hail the cab to stop and be carried to the town centre for £1.

To comply with S59 the driver appears to have to have the express consent of the initial hirer, which we accept is a legal requirement however the council have indicated that by asking the initial hirer for their consent would constitute touting.

If the initil hirer gives their consent then it need not be sought from other travellers.

I should also point out again that the taxi, upon picking up the first passenger and attaining their consent, would travel to the town centre using the shortest possible route.


I would never suggest a scheme where the taxi stops at bus stops and asks people if they want to be taken to the town centre for £1 as that would quite clearly be touting ................ but I cannot accept that the public stopping a taxi which is identified as being part of the scheme is touting.

The bottom line I suppose is that we are in the public service sector and we want to provide an identified service to the public upon their request.
We allow anyone and everyone to push us about and I feel its time we started pushing back.

B. Lucky

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"Here's a simple solution. If you don't want to pay more for a premium service then wait in the queue, problem solved".
Skull on TDO

TF pi$$ed on his chips.

So let me get this straight you want bus stops to be used as a "designated" Taxi stand? And you want to take people from the bus stop into town for a set fee of one pound each? What if there was only one passenger would the cab wait for other passengers or pull off with just the one punter? Will the cab be stopping at other bus stops along the way or will they be going straight to town with the one punter?

I'm all for getting back at busses but it has to be within the law otherwise you're pizzing against the wind. I don't know enough about your scheme to form an opinion but I have laid out the legislation in which seperate fares work.

There is case law on consent of higherer on TDO, there is also case law on running at seperate fares.

Taxi stands can be installed at bus stops there is no doubt about that but the use is normally curtailed to the hours when very few buses are in operation.

However it will be interesting to see what Gateshead has in mind.

JD

JD, I think it will work this way,
For example, Ell Tell is stood waiting on the no9 bus, and has waited for about 1 hour (not long enough for him) and he See's GA in his LTI boneshaker coming so he sticks has hand out ( not 2 fingers lol) GA has a big coloured sticker on his windscreen that allows him to pick up and take him into town for £1.00 just then GBC comes running to the bus stop and asks if he can go as well, so GA asks Ell Tell if GBC can share Ell Tell being GBC's best mate (NOT LOL) says yes, Just as Sussex comes past in his private hire and has to keep on going, (oh dear how sad never mind, )so off they go to sunny Gates-head town center picking up some more TDO folk on the way

But in that case if the bloke can't wait for the late bus then he should pay the full fare. As the cab trade has bailed him out.

If the system can get non taxi customers to become taxi customers, then great. But if it only gets taxi customers, usually paying full fare, only paying a pound a go, then not so great IMO.

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IDFIMH

Ok this is the way we see it working to the greatest benefit to the public and ourselves.

I pick Mrs Smith up at Tesco's and take her 5 miles to her home on a housing estate. She pays her normal fare and gets out, I clear my meter and affix my orange circle sticker in my windscreen and drive around to the shops where there is a bus stop with people waiting I then drive up to the bus stop and -

A - no-one puts their hand out to indicate they want to take advantage of the scheme so I drive past and along the bus route towards the town centre.

B - A person puts their hand out indicating they wish to take advantage of the scheme so I stop and they get in, I then inform them that I will have to start the meter as it is a legal requirement, but I will only charge £1 for the journey to the town centre. I then must ask if that person minds if the vehicle stops and picks further people up who wish to take advantage of the scheme from bus stops en-route and also only charge them £1.
B.1 - If the person does not give consent then the vehicle must take the passenger to the town centre using the shortest possible route and only £1 would still be charged. The orange sticker must also be removed.
B.2 - If the person gives consent the shortest possible route is still taken however if someone indicates from a bus stop that they wish to be picked up as part of the scheme the vehicle would stop and charge that person £1.

When the vehicle reaches the town centre the passengers get out, the orange sticker is removed and the car returns to the rank to wait for another taxi hiring.

B. Lucky

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"Here's a simple solution. If you don't want to pay more for a premium service then wait in the queue, problem solved".
Skull on TDO

TF pi$$ed on his chips.

So why would the first hirer agree to you picking up passengers subsequently? Why would they waste time and risk ending up sitting beside some drunk/chav/smelly/idiot etc?

Some drivers and passengers have difficulty with the basic meter on/meter off concept, so while this scheme may look workable on paper (and even there it doesn't look that good), in practice I suspect it'll cause a lot of problems.

Reminds me of a fare I had last week - it was chucking out time and I was the only taxi on the rank. Posh bloke came up and said he would get in but we would have to wait a few minutes for his mates. I said I would have to put the meter on. He blew up and said that was "ridiculous" (told you he was posh). I told him I'd waited well over an hour earlier in the evening for a fare and so I didn't like people sitting in the car while I could be getting another fare.

He was only going a mile or so, but while I would have been waiting with him stinking up my car with his takeaway I got a four-mile run.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Mr GA your theory is spot on, and if it comes off then bloody well done.

But I'm having my first and last ever doom-monger moment, and I don't think the practise will succeed.

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IDFIMH

A similar scheme was tried in Lincoln in 1985/86. Lincoln City transport bought 20 FX4's licensed them as public carriage vehicles, and ran them timetabled, between buses, to sweep up passengers to prevent the other bus operator, (Lincolnshire Road Car)from gaining a toehold. The fares were set higher than the buses by about a third, as I remember. I also remember using them on occaisions, usually as the only passenger. The losses proved disasterous for the bus company, and they eventually sold off the fleet of FX's by tender. They even offered them to the local taxi trade that was after they tried to issue themselves 20 hackney carriage licenses, to find a use for their erstwhile useless "limo's" as they called them. That failed too.

Now, having said all that, if anyone out there wants to try anything legal for themselves, well, good for them. Just don't include me. It's why I support local licensing for local conditions, not a one size fits all set of conditions, which end up fitting, and suiting no one.

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Former taxi driver

So why would the first hirer agree to you picking up passengers subsequently? Whay would they waste time and risk ending up sitting beside some drunk/chav/smelly/idio tetc?


because we are a friendly bunch in the North east, who can actually bear to be with one another!

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ALS

And they have double Decker LTI's there as well, so room for a smelly one up top

I'm saying nothing

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

The idea has been made more confusing by us having to alter the original far easier concept which was "If your standing at a bus stop and you see a taxi with an orange circle in its windscreen, stick your hand out and it will stop and take you to the town centre for a quid".

Some people (Dusty) make stupid statements like "why would they want to sit next to ..........................." when they are waiting to get on a bus where they will be sitting next to all of the named people anyway. What he doesn't consider is the fact that the driver of the taxi is far more aware of the circumstances the passenger could find themselves in than a bus driver.
So the next time you get on a bus remember that a drunk will never sit behind you belching their rancid breath over your shoulder, the chav won't constantly ask you if you know who they are (or who their uncle Tommy is), the idiot won't get on and the smelly won't decide that although the bus is practically empty they will sit right next to you.

What a fine world Dusty lives in .......................... I wonder what colour the sky is there.

B. Lucky

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"Here's a simple solution. If you don't want to pay more for a premium service then wait in the queue, problem solved".
Skull on TDO

TF pi$$ed on his chips.

Yes, I know what happens on a bus, but if you'd read my post properly then you'd see that I asked why the first passenger would put themselves in the same position as on a bus - it's the difference between having no choice (on a bus) and having the choice (in a taxi).

You might as well ask a taxi passenger on a standard fare if they'd mind picking someone else up on the way - what difference would it make if they're getting a cheap fare?

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

That's actually what I said, which is a bit different from what you claimed I said

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Is Hartlepool in your manor?

www.hartlepooltoday.co.uk/ViewArticle.a ... ionID=1109

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IDFIMH