Taxi enforcement officers in Glasgow have encouraged customers to report taxi drivers who refuse to accept short journey fares.
The call went out after it was alleged that some drivers have been sitting with their ‘for hire’ light off and only accepting long-distance fares. And the problem has been highlighted not by aggrieved customers – but by other taxi drivers, who believe a few rogue drivers are tarnishing the reputation of the industry in the Scottish city.
Drivers are entitled to refuse a fare, but only for exceptional reasons such as if a prospective customer is extremely drunk or abusive. They are entitled to turn off their lights or negotiate a fare if a customer is travelling beyond the city limits, too. But they are not allowed to refuse ‘short hop’ fares purely on the grounds of the distance travelled. To dissuade some short-hop fares, a few rogue drivers are quoting well over the actual metered price for the journey in the hope to force the customer to look elsewhere.
Council officials have supported the drivers calling for these short-hop refusniks to be reported, and a spokeswoman commented recently in the local press that: “They shouldn’t be refusing hires, unless there is a very good reason to do so. We would urge customers to report any incidents.”
Turning customers away
It seems strange that some drivers would be so short-sighted as to turn any fare away, but some drivers would argue that a short-hop fare actually costs more than the amount of revenue it generates. When you take into account the cost of petrol, the licensing fees, and even ‘hidden’ expenses such as taxi driver insurance, running costs and general wear and tear on the vehicle, it can be easy to extrapolate that short-hop fares are simply not worth the effort.
Sure, all drivers would love to be doing cost-effective long trips all the time, but the simple truth is that its the customers who dictate demand, and not the whims of the driver or his/her willingness to do a short-hop journey. If a customer only wants to travel a couple of miles then that is exactly what the driver is obligated to provide, under the terms of their contract with the Council.
Picking and choosing what journeys you accept (in London it’s the classic ‘I’m not going south of the river at this time of the night, mate!’ version) for no good reason does not endear the profession to the public. Drivers have to accept that by signing up to become a taxi driver, they are there to provide a service to the public, no matter what Joe Public wants.