In message , Kooky45
writes
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).

I'm a London licensed taxi driver so I can speak with some authority
about the Heathrow system.

Taxis plying for hire at Heathrow have to first queue in a taxi feeder
park which can take as much as 3 hours before they get to the actual
terminal. The drivers are all 'green badge' drivers which means that
their knowledge is of the central London area, where the majority of
taxi passengers wish to go.

Taxis are legally obliged to take any fare up to 20 mile of Heathrow if
it is within the Metropolitan Police district. They can refuse any fares
outside the Met or over 20 miles. Fares outside the Met are by
negotiation and can be any amount.

In order to stop (or at least reduce) the frustration and bad feeling
that getting a local fare used to generate a 'local fare' system was
introduced. This means that a driver getting a fare to local areas is
given a special ticket which entitles them to return to any of the ranks
without going through the feeder park first PROVIDED THIS IS WITHIN ONE
HOUR of leaving the airport.

The problem is that some local journeys, particularly in the rush hours,
is that it takes more than an hour to get back so the driver loses his
place and has to go back to the feeder park. No driver enjoys this BUT
THEY SHOULD NOT TAKE IT OUT ON THE CUSTOMER.

I just take it as best I can and concentrate on getting back to the
airport as fast as I can (less of a problem when you work nights, but a
real problem when the fares have nearly all finished at about 11p.m.)

I make no apology for the actions of the driver. He should not take this
out on his passengers. There are good and bad in every occupation. There
are also good and bad customers.

For example some customers who know the situation will ask for Brentford
when they go the Chiswick because you get a ticket to go back from
Brentford, but not from Chiswick. Likewise from St Margarets but not
from Richmond. The system is full of anomalies.

The whole thing should have been sorted out with the introduction of a
new computer system. Guess what? The system is not up and running
despite the fact that we were given guarantees that it would be working
no later than the end of September. In the meantime drivers have to pay
£3.16 every time t hey go into Heathrow for the 'priviledge' of picking
up and can only charge £1 to the passengers. It seems that everything
anything promised with a computer system is always late and always costs
more that estimated! OK. now I'm ranting about computer programmers or
am I just being picking out one part of the system and ignoring the
(good) rest, just like people do with the taxi trade?

Mike




--
Mike Hughes
A Taxi driver licensed for London and Brighton
at home in Tarring, West Sussex, England