Taxi Driver Online

I know this is going to be down to how you feel at the time/what kind of day you'v had but would you folks chase after a runner punter?

Personally for the sake of four quid or something i'm not going to chase someone for a mile, cause I'd rather just go get another hire to make up for the loss...but for a hire of £10 and upwards I'd probably persue them just out of sheer anooyance.

What kind of experiences have you lot had in terms of actual numbers of people trying to dodge the fare and success rate with catching them? And what about someone being sick in the back of the cab. What kind of rights do you have as a hack or PH driver to demand payment for loss of earnings when trying to clean up and any damage caused?

The first time it happened to me I was ready to kill for the £6.00 fare. But now After 2 years in the game and it having happened no more than 4 or 5 times I just laugh and drive on after all I have made more in tips. Anyway what are you going to do if you catch them? If there are 2 of them you are likely to come off worse in a fight and anyway if it ends up in court and you have hit them you just know that with our legal system it is YOU who will get done.

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Grandad,

The being sick issue is a bit different. We are just about to have it added to the table of fares that a soiling charge of £100 maximum may be charged. My understanding is that unless it is on the table of fares you have no automatic right to charge. Again, if you take someone home and they are sick and don't have the money to pay, what can you do? If they are that drunk where would you stand if you took them to a cash point and forced them to withdraw the money. Dodgy ground. If they pay up, not a problem but I suppose that if you have taken them to their home address you could always send them a bill together with a photograph of them in the car as some kind of proof.

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Grandad,

Like most I have had a few sickies over the years, most have paid the £50. But what I do now is to carry with me in the cab is a couple of small white plastic bags, the type that you could put inside a small peddle bin.

You may laugh but I would rather give them one of those if possible, I call it the modern day sick bag. One other thing that I do if someone looks worse for wear - is to ask for the £50 up front explaining why. Most do not want to pay that so they move on

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