Seeking reimbursement for taxi not showing up!

bod1467

I've got an airport run booked for tomorrow morning. I need to leave by 5AM so I have booked the taxi for 4.45AM.

ThumbRemote

goater78 wrote: »

I would argue you are confusing taxi drivers with servants. I don't think many organisations would phone you if they were running one minute late (maybe ocado).

I take it you mean 'slave' rather than 'servant'. As by definition a taxi driver is performing a service to the customer, and is thus their servant.

System

ThumbRemote wrote: »

I take it you mean 'slave' rather than 'servant'. As by definition a taxi driver is performing a service to the customer, and is thus their servant.

No I don't mean slave. You don't pay a slave.

Servant is a recognised term for people in the employ of a private individual. A taxi driver doesn't fit that criteria.

I think this is a very random point to argue on!

johny2013

Rich66666 wrote: »

If you have pre-booked a taxi for 5:00pm then the taxi should be at the designated area waiting to pick you up at or before 5:00pm, not a second after.

I'd typically expect a taxi to arrive in the scale of maybe 2/3 minutes early to up to 5 mins late. Fairly reasonable given the nature of driving and the fact you can't predict exactly how long every journey will take to the second. Expecting things to be timed to the second all the time I can imagine you'll quite frequently be disappointed with things.

For the journey the op mentioned I'd plan for things to go wrong. My planning would include a taxi not turning up. I'd give 10 minutes before assuming that. I'd then allow enough time to phone another firm, give time for that taxi to get here and still have 10/15 mins to get the train I wanted.

arcon5

johny2013 wrote: »

I'd typically expect a taxi to arrive in the scale of maybe 2/3 minutes early to up to 5 mins late. Fairly reasonable given the nature of driving and the fact you can't predict exactly how long every journey will take to the second. Expecting things to be timed to the second all the time I can imagine you'll quite frequently be disappointed with things.

+1

dancingfairy

o.k well in my experience you have to allow 10-15 minutes leeway for taxis anyway so you probably should have allowed more time. Having said that, if you booked sufficiently in advance (which you did) and made them aware it was to catch a train then yes they should be responsible.
I would write a letter of complaint to the taxi company and see what they say. Obviously if they do not accept any responsibility then you would need to pursue things through court. I think it costs about 40 pounds to go for a small claim. You will need to decide if a) you are likely to win (unfortunately it's your word against theres but presumably you have a log on your phone of all the times you tried to call them) b) how you are going to enforce the judgement if you win - will you want to appoint bailiffs (more cost) and how likely are you to actually get money out of them compared to the time,effort and money it may cost you. Also understandably this will further sour your relatonship with the taxi company and will reduce your option for the future and may cause you issues if you live in a small town/village.
Personally I think a letter of complaint is the way forward but would not neccessarily puruse court for the reasons above, and would consider it an expensive lesson If I got any money or an apology then I think I would leave it at that
df

unholyangel

goater78 wrote: »

On the profit side I find most taxis are self employed and pay a radio rental fee to the local taxi company.

Not all self employed taxi drivers own their own car/plates though. Some "rent" a car from the taxi company (system car), some double shift with an owner, some drive a car that is "plated" by someone else - who may or may not drive with the same company they do.

But usually driving on someone elses plates will cost you. All taxi drivers need to have their own taxi license, but dont need their own plates. However the car they're driving, needs to be plated and hackneyed (taxi version of MOT).

Assuming that was in response to the part about taxi driver/car owner/ company part ofc. If not, i've misunderstood what you meant.

arcon5

Whether they use somebody elses car or not, they are in most instances still 'self-employed'. It's very rare to find a driver that would be on PAYE.

DCFC79

Im glad it was a sensible taxi complaint thread this time rather than the 1 where the OP expected the taxi firm to be mind readers and know he had a package he bought in Ikea.

unholyangel

arcon5 wrote: »

Whether they use somebody elses car or not, they are in most instances still 'self-employed'. It's very rare to find a driver that would be on PAYE.

The paragraph I was replying to was in response (I think anyways, hence why I said if he wasnt, i was mistaken) to a poster saying profit is taken in for the driver, car owner and company.

I was just stating that sometimes the car plates/car (or even both) dont belong to the driver and they have to pay someone else for it. And that is if they are self employed. If they are being paid an hourly rate, the company provides a system car to them (which will be plated and the company cover the cost of it). If they're self employed, it merely means the profit is going to them personally rather than the company since most owner owned companies run as no profit/next to no profit.

If they're driving on someone elses plate/in someone elses car, they may pay them a % of their earnings that day/week, they may pay them a set amount per day/week. Depends on the agreement they have.