On Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:40:37 +0000, Tom Anderson
wrote:

Is there any possible truth to his assertion about insurance, or was this
a barefaced attempt at a scam?

The latter, I'd think. Not unusual in the taxi industry, IMX.

Taxi fares may well include an extra sum for an extra passenger, but
normally this is a small amount, and has nothing whatsoever to do with
insurance - the driver is licenced and insured to carry the number of
people stated on their plate.

That said, there's nothing saying that a minicab firm cannot have a
fares structure that charges the same amount for each passenger, but
I've never come across one. And I've never been asked to specify the
number of passengers when booking one, other than when I asked for a
minibus once.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

On Feb 21, 7:58*pm, (Neil Williams)
wrote:

On Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:40:37 +0000, Tom Anderson
wrote:
Is there any possible truth to his assertion about insurance, or was this
a barefaced attempt at a scam?

The latter, I'd think. *Not unusual in the taxi industry, IMX.

Taxi fares may well include an extra sum for an extra passenger, but
normally this is a small amount, and has nothing whatsoever to do with
insurance - the driver is licenced and insured to carry the number of
people stated on their plate.

London minicabs don't have these plates - instead (if they're
licensed) they display a diamond-in-circle licence in the front
windscreen and back window as can be seen he

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/resources/corp...le-licence.jpg
or via http://tinyurl.com/TfL-Private-Hire-licence

The licence stickers do show how many passengers the vehicle is
permitted to carry, but the text of that is rather small - though to
be fair, it's normally pretty obvious how many passengers are allowed,
as it's the number of seats!

Additionally many minicabs will also have a more obvious TfL "Private
Hire" roundel (grey with blue bar) on display too, which allows them
to pick up and set down passengers on red routes - this is shown in
diagrammatic form on this TfL webpage (can't immediately find a photo
on the web):

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/businessandpar..._fix_the_signs
or via http://tinyurl.com/TfL-PHV-red-route-sticker

On Feb 22, 2:05*am, Mizter T wrote:

Additionally many minicabs will also have a more obvious TfL "Private
Hire" roundel (grey with blue bar) on display too, which allows them
to pick up and set down passengers on red routes - this is shown in
diagrammatic form on this TfL webpage (can't immediately find a photo
on the web):

I wondered what those were for - thanks.

Though I don't understand why anyone - taxi, private hire, car, lorry
or anything, should be stopping on a Red Route other than in a
designated parking bay, as that negates the whole point of *having* a
Red Route in the first place.

Neil

Neil Williams wrote:
On Feb 22, 2:05 am, Mizter T wrote:

Additionally many minicabs will also have a more obvious TfL "Private
Hire" roundel (grey with blue bar) on display too, which allows them
to pick up and set down passengers on red routes - this is shown in
diagrammatic form on this TfL webpage (can't immediately find a photo
on the web):

I wondered what those were for - thanks.

Though I don't understand why anyone - taxi, private hire, car, lorry
or anything, should be stopping on a Red Route other than in a
designated parking bay, as that negates the whole point of *having* a
Red Route in the first place.

And yet London's traffic basically works, on the whole. Junctions tend to be
the pinch points.

Taxis need to be hailable on red routes - without that, London would become,
in tourists' eyes, the only city in the world where the taxis would always
sail past and never pick you up. The huge number of one-way roads and banned
turns mean that a taxi pulling around a corner from a red route to pick
someone up might be putting the fare up by a fiver - it would significantly
reducing the capacity of the fleet to carry people home at busy times. Taxis
setting down on red routes is harder to justify.

Since minicabs are only supposed to perform pre-booked journeys, I see
little justification for allowing them to pick up on red routes, because
finding the right person, checking they are the right person and
reprogramming the satnav takes so much longer than someone hailing a taxi,
saying where they are going and zooming away.

--
We are the Strasbourg. Referendum is futile.

On Feb 26, 2:03*pm, "Basil Jet"
wrote:

Taxis need to be hailable on red routes - without that, London would become,
in tourists' eyes, the only city in the world where the taxis would always
sail past and never pick you up. The huge number of one-way roads and banned
turns mean that a taxi pulling around a corner from a red route to pick
someone up might be putting the fare up by a fiver - it would significantly
reducing the capacity of the fleet to carry people home at busy times. Taxis
setting down on red routes is harder to justify.

Agreed to some extent, as setting down is so much slower as there is a
financial transaction to perform. Another way of reducing the impact
of this might perhaps be for taxis to accept Oyster PAYG?

Neil

On Feb 26, 4:33*pm, Neil Williams wrote:

On Feb 26, 2:03*pm, "Basil Jet"
wrote:
Taxis need to be hailable on red routes - without that, London would become,
in tourists' eyes, the only city in the world where the taxis would always
sail past and never pick you up. The huge number of one-way roads and banned
turns mean that a taxi pulling around a corner from a red route to pick
someone up might be putting the fare up by a fiver - it would significantly
reducing the capacity of the fleet to carry people home at busy times. Taxis
setting down on red routes is harder to justify.

Agreed to some extent, as setting down is so much slower as there is a
financial transaction to perform. *Another way of reducing the impact
of this might perhaps be for taxis to accept Oyster PAYG?

Err, see what started this thread - giving shifty minicab drivers the
ability to devour your Oyster PAYG credit probably ain't a winning
idea.

I should get round to offer the counterpoint to the above, if only to
balance things out.

In message
,
Mizter T writes

Agreed to some extent, as setting down is so much slower as there is a
financial transaction to perform. *Another way of reducing the impact
of this might perhaps be for taxis to accept Oyster PAYG?

Err, see what started this thread - giving shifty minicab drivers the
ability to devour your Oyster PAYG credit probably ain't a winning
idea.

I should get round to offer the counterpoint to the above, if only to
balance things out.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to point out that a Taxi driver
isn't a 'shifty minicab driver'.

Apples and Oranges innit?
--
Steve Fitzgerald has now left the building.
You will find him in London's Docklands, E16, UK
(please use the reply to address for email)

On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:55:42 -0800 (PST), Mizter T
wrote:

Err, see what started this thread - giving shifty minicab drivers the
ability to devour your Oyster PAYG credit probably ain't a winning
idea.

I was referring more to black cab drivers.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

In message
,
Neil Williams writes

Another way of reducing the impact of this might perhaps be for taxis
to accept Oyster PAYG?

"Oi guv', you'll need an OEP if you wanna go sarf of the river" ...
--
Paul Terry

Neil Williams wrote:
On Feb 26, 2:03 pm, "Basil Jet"
wrote:

Taxis need to be hailable on red routes - without that, London would
become, in tourists' eyes, the only city in the world where the
taxis would always sail past and never pick you up. The huge number
of one-way roads and banned turns mean that a taxi pulling around a
corner from a red route to pick someone up might be putting the fare
up by a fiver - it would significantly reducing the capacity of the
fleet to carry people home at busy times. Taxis setting down on red
routes is harder to justify.

Agreed to some extent, as setting down is so much slower as there is a
financial transaction to perform. Another way of reducing the impact
of this might perhaps be for taxis to accept Oyster PAYG?

That'd work well - as long as the card has enough cash loaded for those
journeys from Heathrow discussed up thread, with some change left over.

£100 should do it...

Paul S