A Teesside Taxi Firm refuses to Take Disabled Passengers, Over Fares Row

17. Section 36 imposes certain duties on drivers of “taxibuses” to provide assistance to
people in wheelchairs, to carry them in safety and not to charge extra for doing so.
Failure to abide by these duties could lead to prosecution through a Magistrates’ court
and a maximum fine of £1,000.

The law is the law.

If we can choose what laws we want to obey then Im all for that, just don't complain when I steal your taxi instead of hiring it to get from a to b

British people know they cannot discriminate regardless of excuse.

Here is a muslim taxi driver that lost his license because he would not take a guide dog saying it was against his religion, if your faith interferes with your job then you need another job.

www.secularism.org.uk...

reply to post by projectbane

"Why do disabled think they can get away with anything? They already get the best parking spots at the supermarket!!"

um are you for real..im not going to say most of what i want here because i,ll surely be kicked off..i wont use the word "hope" but perhaps one day you can experience the delight and joyful perks of being handicapped..maybee by no fault of your own even.

Cabbies are in hot water now a days it seems

onus on taxicab drivers\

I come from a smaller area with only a few competing companies. They get to pick and choose who to have in their cars, this is mainly a safety issue with drunks. Picking up handicapped people with wheel chairs and canes should't be an issue, if it is, they should get fired on the spot. Take the keys away or go work for another company if you are a private owner.
Drive up to the person or place, turn your meter on, escort person if needed, load person, load wheelchair in trunk and off you go, turn meter off at destination and fill out slips etc. How hard is this to do?

Cabbies in crosshairs after discharge deaths

It's part of being a taxi driver, you either want to do it or you don't. I think mainly these drivers are burnt out and just don't wanna do it anymore. Sometimes I escorted elderly handicapped people right into the hospital, up to the certain floor in the elevator and then I go with no tip. It's not hard to do. Makes me feel good helping other people.

_______________________

Unless you are a cab driver, most other people don't have a clue on how the
cab business works.
No profit is made till the gas, insurance, car washes and rental is deducted first.
A cab driver needs to hustle to make a living, let alone just to break even.
I don't know what the $ is, to rent a cab these days, but when I did school runs
it was $80. per shift, plus paying the gas, maintenance and a wash, and all
this had to be recouped in eight hours, before making any profit.
By the time you buckle in 6 little kids, their back packs ect., just to drive
them two three blocks unfortunately it is just not worth it.
It just ends up being charity work that one can not sustain a living in doing.
'Who' the passengers are is not the point or issue, the factor is TIME.
Cab companies are private, not publicly owned, at least in democratic countries.
The solution is to have reliable public transport for those in need, and to have a
health system or public/insurance system to subsidize for the extra time
and care that they need.
CAB DRIVERS ARE NOT A CHARITY, they have families to feed and
bills to pay too.
btw being female I refused to do night runs, so go ahead and scream discriminatory Lol
For me sensibility and safety always comes first and 'charity' should be a choice
not forced. Isn't that what free capitalism is about ?
. . . I'm beginning to think england and Stalinism had a lot in common
________________________________

reply to post by bigyin


Thanks for the details on UK taxi rules - also to pavmas for his info about other taxi charges.
It appears that there are several means for charging for extra time and effort in the taxi system, or at least in one locality.

I am disabled myself, thankfully not mobility impaired presently, but with my condition I've come to know wheelchairs from time to time.
We have "handicap accessible" public transportation in the city that handles the bulk of these needs, even the regular busses "kneel" or have wheelchair lifts - but the fares on the "handi-vans" are completely different than regular bus fare - special equipment = surcharge fare.
Taxi regulations provide for various types of charges, but in most areas of Texas, taxi service is nonexistent. My town has no bus or taxi service, but thankfully we have two resident cabmen that drive in the city for a living and we have 1 handicap van for the senior center folks.

The problem is administering things equitably while providing an equivalent level of access to the mobility impaired at a reasonable/regulated cost. Obviously, the problem with refusing to service the disabled here in the US is that the litigation expense will put you out of business and the government will probably be levying charges against you, not to mention what the refused customer's lawyer wants to charge you.

gajoa

There is more to this and meets the eye. here is a local forum and they discuss more about this firm.
fansonline.net...

dragonridr

pavmas
Oh my God

As for the disabled customers themselves not all expect to get the service for the same money as able bodied. Some of them do recognise and appreciate the effort put in and tip well. Obviously they are going to get a taxi anytime they want one. The others will find it more difficult especially at busy times.

You are saying now that the ones that don't pay extra will have added difficulty on top of their disability. but the ones that pay a surcharge will get a taxi anytime they want.

The ones that will get the taxi are the ones that have been made to feel guilty and pay extra, you have managed to make them think they should pay more, the odd yawn and sigh works wonders then.

You do understand that disabled people have higher living cost than normal, they have a limited budget

Yes everyone's aware that a disability costs more money because you need help. And as such they pay for that help through buying assistance usually for things that cant do like maybe mow the grass or shop for groceries. So im not sure your point really other than you think that extra assistance they pay for should be free i guess. Well i figure let your taxes pay for it hey i know you could put them all in a home and take care of them right? Really people with disabilities want to be independent and thats why they pay for assistance. You are actingly like there children and need protection from the big bad world its actually insulting.

No disabled people want treated the same' charging different rates is wrong and against the law, I have put a link from people that use this firm, they sent minibuses for everyone who just phones a taxi (read the forum) my wife and I got a minibus whn we phoned a taxi to go to the shops the other day, they are taxis pure and simple. The reason they buy mini buses is to get the school contracts, this firm made over £2 million last year, and you can bet over £1 million was for contracts, but when using them at other times they want to use them as normal taxes and charge only disabled peole extra when they use them.

The same company charged a woman £2 extra because she had a walking stick.

The have openly said that they will not carry disabled people, lets see if they give up the contracts they have, the firm is at fault not the drivers because the firm overcharge for radio and car so in effect the drivers are doing the contracts for nil to cover their car and radio and the company pockets the £1million.

If you charge people different rates you are breaking the law, you cant charge gay people more in hotels because the sheets need extra cleaning because of two stains instead of one.

They will be lucky if they get one disabled caller a week, 400 cars, so I would say that most weeks some drivers wont see a disabled person outside the contract.

The guy is trying to shape local government to suit his agenda, he has already managed to get them to allow private hire to pick up from town.

Hackney cars and insurance cost a lot more than private hire but they are not allowed to pick up in the street.

If there was ever and outcry it should be by hackney drivers against this firm.

reply to post by ganjoa


What this boils down to is they don't want to obey the law, they have been caught overcharging and have said that if they are not allowed to carry on overcharging they will now not be picking up disabled people.

The want to decide what laws to obey, NO charges have been mads.

So if an able bodied person gets in their taxis, do a runner, I know it breaking the law but hey' if they dont obey the law regarding their passengers why should the passengers obey the law.

If disabled people are not protected under the law then why should taxis drivers be protected.

What is here to discuss?

If Taxi driver has to do more work, then can charge more.

This is not about moral or immoral, its about getting paid for the time you spend.

Normally how taxi works? he comes by(he stays in the driver seat), you open the door by yourself, you get in, arrive at destination, pay, and close the door. But for disabled person it is different, they need to do way more work, get out of driver seat, etc.


Its about the amount of work that is put into it. If you want to be a better human, give all you services for free, lets see how that works out.

dam00
So not discriminating against a disabled person is discriminating against somebody else?
the way I see it is this taxi firm have taken the law into their own hands to get ahead of the competition it is also reported that this is a firm not just a single cabbie so rather than making cuts or organising his fleet of vehicles better he is just going to refuse to pick up disabled drivers putting the pressure on other firms or single self employed cabbies or maybee just leaving all wheel chair users in that area stranded

As the owner of a taxi service pointed out a few posts above yours, it costs more in materiel and time to accommodate the handicapped. Why shouldn't they charge more for a service that costs more to provide?

pavmas
reply to post by ganjoa

 

What this boils down to is they don't want to obey the law, they have been caught overcharging and have said that if they are not allowed to carry on overcharging they will now not be picking up disabled people.

The want to decide what laws to obey, NO charges have been mads.

So if an able bodied person gets in their taxis, do a runner, I know it breaking the law but hey' if they dont obey the law regarding their passengers why should the passengers obey the law.

If disabled people are not protected under the law then why should taxis drivers be protected.

This is a great example of what happens when government interferes in the free market. The government makes it illegal to charge more for a service when said service costs the provider in materials and time. Thus the provider stops doing said service and the people who made it difficult to provide the service in the first place demand more laws.

pavmas
17. Section 36 imposes certain duties on drivers of “taxibuses” to provide assistance to
people in wheelchairs, to carry them in safety and not to charge extra for doing so.
Failure to abide by these duties could lead to prosecution through a Magistrates’ court
and a maximum fine of £1,000.

The law is the law.

If we can choose what laws we want to obey then Im all for that, just don't complain when I steal your taxi instead of hiring it to get from a to b

You honestly equate to charging for a service the same as stealing?

I don't get how the basic principle here is constantly being missed.....

If someone books a minibus, say for example to go pick up a large item from a shop that won't fit in a standard taxi ( which I have done in the past) that person will be charged at the minibus rate for that journey..they are simply paying for the service they booked.

Disabled passengers aren't being charged at a different rate as everyone else.There is no such rate as a disabled person rate..they are being charged at the same rate as everyone else who requires and books a minibus. The same principle for a standard taxi applies. It doesn't matter if only one passenger or four passengers get into a taxi you pay the same standard fare.There is a two tier pricing system for two different types of taxi that every passenger is eligible to pay and not just disabled people. How is this discrimination?

reply to post by dam00


if this is not fair then neither is it fair to charge someone for the purchase of a wheelchair, companies which produce wheelchairs ought to give them out for free to disabled people, damn the fact that it cost money to produce them, just like damn the fact that a minibus cost more money for this company to run then a taxi does,

so whats your rebutal? insurance covers the wheel chair? then go after the insurance companies for not covering the minibus.


a private company has every damn right to charge what it wants to, if the customer doesnt like it then they can just go with a different company, if there is no different company then start one! cause if they are overcharging then they are easy to beat competition, that is unless they arent overcharging per their costs.....

You do understand that disabled people have higher living cost than normal,
they have a limited budget

That is an issue for government, insurance companies, the health care
system and possibly charities, religious institutions, family and freinds.
Dumping your budget on the backs of other private individuals is
just plain wrong.

________________________

pavmas
you cant charge gay people more in hotels because the sheets need extra cleaning
because of two stains instead of one.

They do, and rightly so. It is called 'with holding deposits for damage'
Whether is is smoke in a non-smoking room, or x-tra necessary cleaning
needed then there is a penalty fee.
(And rightfully so)
. . . in other words respect other peoples property and time,
Taking advantage of others is not acceptable it is freeloading.

__________________________

reply to post by ToneDeaf



Good post.

I want to add another point which is I have a list of people who I refuse to pick up. Not because they are disabled but because of several reasons such as they were rude, they were obnoxious, they made threatening remarks, they failed to pay last time, they failed to show up last time, they damaged my vehicle last time, and some other reasons I can't remember .... oh yes the woman with the extremely loud voice who screamed all the way for 40 miles and drove me scatty and deaf.

So all these folk are in my phone as 'Ding' which means if they call i just don't answer the phone.

is that discriminatory or illegal ?

Its my taxi and I will decide who I pick up.

pavmas
Hey Big Yin

I drove in Scotland for years, you know if you are caught rejecting a fare because the person is black, disabled, catholic, gay etc the you can wave bye bye to your licence.

So the disabled people that pay more, do you offer them a refund if sitting in traffic and the meter is ticking over.

I know the rules and I have never refused anybody on any of the grounds you listed.

I take wheelchairs when I can, which isn't very often. The last one I got the wheelchair was actually too big for my vehicle, it didn't fit in so I phoned another guy I know with a bigger van and he came round. The customer was taken to his destination, but if he phoned me again I would have to send him to the other taxi guy again as I know he doesn't fit in my van.

My point is that as it stands wheelchair users find it difficult to get a taxi in my area. I know this because they tell me so when I speak to them. I'm telling you why some of them find difficulty and to make it easier for them I think there needs to be changes to the charging.

To the poster who said to turn the meter on when the taxi arrives at the customers pick up point and then start loading them in. That as far as I know is illegal. The meter can only be started when the wheels start to roll and should be stopped when the wheels stop at the drop point. The time before and after is not accounted for.

Boro Taxis,