Martin Underwood wrote:
"Kooky45" wrote in message
om...
I took a black cab from Heathrow to Twickenham yesterday and
suffered the entire trip listening to the driver swearing his head
off about how awful it was for him having to do a short trip and
the traffic holding him up for over an hour. I fully understand
he'd lose his ticket back to the rank and instead have to sit in
the feeder park for a few hours, but that's the law and it's just
tough. Because of him I will never be taking another black cab
from a Heathrow rank again, no matter where I'm going, and I'm
making sure all my friends and colleagues know about this sorry
tale too. This isn't the first time I've had to suffer an angry
driver taking his frustration with a crap system out on me as a
passenger, and I'm not going to put up with it any more. I took
the cab number but haven't made up my mind whether to report him
or not yet as he did take me to my destination.

Sorry for the rant. I'm hopeful some cabbies will read this and
realise they're causing their own problems by driving their
customers away (pun intended).

What *is* the system? What is the "ticket back to the rank"?

AIUI taxi drivers have to join the long queue in the feeder park unless
they have just finished a short journey from the airport, in which case
they get a special ticket which entitles them to join the rank at one of
the terminals directly. So, if you live at Brentford, your driver will
be happy because he'll get back to the terminal quickly. And if you
live in Kensington, he'll be able to charge you a lot, and he'll be even
happier. But if you live in Chiswick or Twickenham, it's just outside
the "short journey" area, and you may have to suffer a grumpy driver.

If the system penalises taxi drivers in some way for doing short
journeys, why *should* he suffer in silence? For all he knew, you
might have been in a position to lobby for changes to be made, so
he had nothing to lose by moaning. "That's the law and it's tough"
is no excuse for people to have to accept the status quo in silence.

Totally disagree. If you're in a customer-facing job, you should not
take your frustration with your job out on the customer. The driver
knows the rules. If he doesn't like them, he should lobby BAA or the
PCO or whoever makes the rules. "Swearing his head off" to his customer
is indefensible.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)