Late Taxi - result

Willo78

On 29th December I booked a taxi via facebook (so I have the conversation including confirmation of this booking saved!) for this morning at 7:50 to go to a train station.

7:53am this morning I'm getting a bit twitchy as no taxi in sight, so phone the office to be told he's a couple of minutes away. 8:05am I phone again to be told he's round the corner, finally arriving at 8:08am.

As a result of this delay, we miss our train and have to pay £142 for tickets to our destination - not going wasn't an option as it was a work related trip. It is unlikely work will compensate me for the additional cost of tickets as they had already bought us tickets for specific trains. Had the taxi company turned up on time, we would have made our train comfortably.

I'm still waiting for the manager to call me back, apparently he's taken the day off.

Where do I stand on getting the additional train fare refunded by the taxi company given they had sufficient time for the booking, made no effort to contact me to say they were unable to fulfil the request (which would have been fine - there's plenty of other taxi companies around I could have used!) and taking into account the inconvenience I'm now going to have to go to for the recompense (also baring in mind it's just after Christmas and I don't have cash to throw away due to other people's tardiness/inefficiency!).

Thanks in advance! Oh and Happy New Year too!

****************************************************************************************
09/01/13
Just thought I'd give an update to this thread - I was given the full price of the ticket as a refund by the Taxi company along with receiving very sincere apologies for the hassle caused and the slow response by the manager.

Good result I think!

Thanks for all your replies :T

Stigy

Not sure legally, but usually with these things it depends on the reason they were late.

maninthestreet

So the train that you missed due to the late arrival of the taxi - what time was that due to leave, and how far is the railway station from where the taxi picked you up? I suspect the taxi company involved may state that as they actually delivered the service you paid for, i.e conveying you to your destination (railway station), they have met their contractual obligations to you.

martindow

I would imagine that it would also depend on how much slack you had allowed in your timing to allow for delays due to traffic etc. It does seem that the time you requested the taxi allowed very little time to spare as you started worrying when it was only three minutes late.

I don't think that the taxi company would be willing to refund more than the fare they charged and not any consequential loss.

JQ.

You only allowed yourself 18mins slack, sounds like you were cutting it fine from the start. I always phone a cab firm the day before and speak to a human being before an important trip and allow at least 30mins slack.

No harm in asking for a contribution, but I'll be amazed if you get anything other than your fare back.

fred7777

Sorry to say

Willo78 wrote: »

Where do I stand on getting the additional train fare refunded by the taxi company

Legally not a hope but they may offer a small good will gesture.

Willo78 wrote: »

given they had sufficient time for the booking,

makes no difference.

Willo78 wrote: »

made no effort to contact me to say they were unable to fulfil the request

They did fulfill the request to provide the Taxi service they were contracted to, although not at the time they were contracted to provide it.

I assume you did not inform the Taxi service that if they did not get you to the station by a specific time you would miss the train and have to pay £142 more.

If you didn't then the legal principle that where a risk of loss is known to only one party to the contract, the other party is not liable for the loss if it occurs applies.

If you did then their terms and conditions would no doubt have get out clause for this type of loss.

p00hsticks

Willo78 wrote: »

On 29th December I booked a taxi via facebook (so I have the conversation including confirmation of this booking saved!) for this morning at 7:50 to go to a train station.

Who decided that being picked up at 07:50 gave sufficient time - you or the taxi company ? Normally when I book a taxi to the station I tell the taxi company what time my train is (I usually lie and say it leaves ten minutes before it really does to build in an extra bit of a comfort factor) and then let them tell me what time they'll need to pick me up to catch it. I'm not sure it makes any difference legally, but that way I feel the onus is more on them.

But even then, as other posters say I think the best you can hope for is a refund of the taxi fare. If it was imperative that you caught that particular train, you should have stressed that to the taxi company and allowed much more time for getting caught in traffic, in case of accidents, unexpected road closures etc (which could have been the reason for the taxi being late arriving).

chrisnpen

this was about ten years ago so may well be out of date.... Or simply untrue due to the scuzzy nature of the taxi firm i worked for... but i was told that if i didn't get somebody to the train station on time i was obliged to take them to the destination free of charge... sounds a bit far fetched but that what i was told.
no good to you now, of course- but IF the driver was obliged to take you to your destination, maybe the firm will be responsible for recompense.
might be worth asking the local authority that issues the badges?

kerby_crawler

people on forums are weird...

they'll slag off railway companies from morning til night, but your taxi company is apparently blameless...

if you have the facebook evidence of the booking, and the booking was not correctly fulfilled, then contact your local newspaper - the story will be very cheap for them to tell...

Tulyar

Certainly would be pad PR for the company - especially if you booked by e-mail or a means which recorded your request for the 07.50 collection.

It would send out a message that this company was not able to reliably collect you at the time instructed.

p00hsticks

kerby_crawler wrote: »

people on forums are weird...

they'll slag off railway companies from morning til night, but your taxi company is apparently blameless...

I don't think any of us are saying that the taxi company is blameless, just that the OPs chance of getting any compensation higher than a refund of the fare is minimal - just the same as if a train arrived fifteen minutes late and caused a missed flight.