78 PRIVATE HIRE AND TAXI MONTHLY
FLOUTING THE LAW
CARDIFF DRIVERS WHO ‘CHERRY-PICK’ FARES
COULD LOSE THEIR LICENCE
Taxi drivers who cherry- pick passengers in an attempt to land bigger fares face having their licences revoked. That’s the message being sent out by Cardiff Council when its Public Protection Committee stripped a driver of his licence after he refused to take a passenger from the city’s central station to City Hall. Mohammed Asfaque Ali, 27, of Grangetown, Cardiff, denied refusing to take the woman and is expected to appeal. Since the construction of the St Davids2 shop- ping development, the number of taxi ranks in the city has been cut, leaving cabbies with fewer official places from which to ply their trade. This has led to some drivers picking
and choosing their cus- tomers. Paul Shone, the council’s licensing operations man- ager, told the South Wales Echo: “It’s a hidden offence. They sit there with their lights off and say they are not working. I think it’s become accept- ed practice.”
Mr Shone said officers carried out a series of test purchases during the last few weeks and were due to prosecute three more drivers. Helen Ward, a 31-year- old account manager from Cardiff Bay, said she had frequent prob- lems in getting a taxi to take her home from the city centre.
She said: “I’ve lost count of the number of times this has happened and it’s at different times of the day and night.”
Mathab Khan, chair- man of the Cardiff Hackney Carriage Association, blamed the problem on a com- bination of lack of rank space, too many taxis and part-time drivers trying to make a quick buck.
He added that drivers caught cherry-picking should be given a warn- ing before getting to the stage where their licences are revoked, and called for council officers to be on duty during the night in order to monitor potential problems.
He said: “There’s 900 drivers out there and not everybody sticks to the rules. I’m totally against cherry-picking. The regular drivers who depend on this job are not cherry-pickers.”
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BRISTOL CABBIES WHO WON’T DRIVE TO HARTCLIFFE COULD BE BREACHING LICENCE
A group of women on a birthday night out said they were stunned when four different taxi drivers refused to drive them home to Hartcliffe. Bristol cabbies have denied the revellers’ claims that Hartcliffe is being treated as a “no- go” area by some drivers on late-night runs. Ayesha Wilson, 33, a full-time mum, said she and her friends were turned away by four cabbies as soon as they revealed their des- tination.
She said the group queued for a taxi in the city centre at 2am on a recent Sunday morning after celebrating one of the group’s 30th birthday. Ms Wilson said: “As soon as the taxi marshal told the first taxi driver that we wanted to go to Hartcliffe he just drove off. This happened with the following three taxis, which all refused to take us. “All of us were relatively sober, we definitely weren’t rowdy, and felt we were discriminated against because of
where we lived.
“I really do not under- stand this because the Fulford Road and Her- ridge Road area where we wanted to go is per- fectly quiet and respectable.
“When I challenged the taxi marshal over the behaviour of the taxi companies, he said taxi drivers were within their rights to pick and choose their customers.”
Ms Wilson said the fifth taxi agreed to take them home.
Shafiq Hamed, chair- man of the Taxi Club Association, which rep- resents hackney carriage drivers in Bris- tol, denied Hartcliffe was being treated as a no-go area by any of his mem- bers. He told the Bristol Evening Post: “This was obviously a one-off situ- ation in which there may have been other issues. There could be occa- sions when drivers would refuse to take a large party of women if they were drunk or rowdy because it could put them in a vulnerable position.
“Drivers are feeling the pinch in these econom- ic times and they would not turn away a fare of £12 to £13 to take these ladies home.”
Cllr Ron Stone, chair- man of the city council’s taxi licensing committee, said: “I am very disappointed to hear that this has taken place and any drivers acting in this way would certainly be in breach of their licence. If we can find out who is doing this then we will take action.” Simon Caplan, spokesman for Bristol City Council, said: “If taxis are operating from a rank they are bound to take anyone who is in a fit state as long as the destination is within the city boundary. “Our advice to any members of the public who feel taxi drivers are breaching regulations is to take the licence number and report it to Taxi Licensing.”
He said the council would contact Ms Wil- son and the incident would be investigated.
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