a taxi service's obligations?

muddlemand

Anyone know what my rights are if a pre-booked car doesn't turn up, or turns up too late to get me to my destination by the time agreed?

Disabilities mean that I can't drive my son (who is home educated) to his morning GCSEs. I'm safe to drive later in the day, but I have morning stiffness and can't usually even get dressed by 9am. It's too far for him to cycle and there's no bus (we're rural!). I have asked everyone I know, but no one else can do these mornings, so I booked a taxi. For three one-way trips it is £75, which is a big deal on my budget. They're a company that do airport runs and similar, and even offer "guided tours" where they take you round the sights and wait while you lunch, in other words you book a whole day I imagine. So not just a little company only used to short trips within town.

I should mention that it's a half-hour drive without traffic, a full hour in the rush hour (M4 and then town centre), and we booked a 7.30am pick up for a 9am exam, that is 90 minutes, to leave plenty of margin.

The first morning, the car arrived early - we're in a village and he probably wanted to be sure of finding us. My son got there for his exam 30 minutes early. Today the car got here 15 minutes late and my son texted that he got there with literally 3 minutes to spare.

With the weather, I'm not surprised traffic is worse in the rush hour but I feel a taxi company should allow for that - at least a little. A fallen tree or a motorway pile-up is one thing, but heavier rush hour traffic when the weather's been dreadful all night and forecast to continue... well, if I was driving I'd allow more time!

Also no one called to say he was running late - my son had to keep phoning, as "a couple more minutes" turned into more and more minutes - and we weren't given any reason for the lateness. Obviously this isn't great on the morning of his second-ever GCSE.

I have phoned to ask for reassurance that this won't happen the next time (which is the last time this year, but he's taking more GCSEs next year) - and didn't even get a sorry, only that she could ask the driver what made him late. I reminded her that even missing a plane, a later one can be taken, but missing a public exam means resitting months later, he really can't afford to be late - in case they care. I've brought the next pick up forward by 10 minutes - inconveniencing us because we can't rely on them(!) - and said there'll be trouble if my son is late for his GCSE. But I have no idea what kind of trouble to give them if my bluff is called.

All three trips are the same driver, so I hope he gets the message that it's worth making extra effort next time. But have I got any comeback at all if they do screw up?

1. How late are they "allowed" to be and still call it the service I'm paying for?

2. Are they obliged to let us know if they're delayed - legally, I mean; obviously they're obliged by good manners! (I wouldn't dream of not phoning, if I got late for a friend when I'd given a definite time, and you'd think when you're being paid, you give more not less.)

3. At what point am I within my rights to refuse payment?

4.a. If in despair I book a different taxi at the last minute (if I can get one!), can I charge that fare to the first company?

4.b. If I have to pay the fees for re-sitting the exam, could I charge that to the taxi company? (This I'm sure is wishful thinking - but if I were running a business, I would ideally offer any expenses incurred because of our failure; customer service overrides everything, after all.)

There are no T&Cs on their website and I can't find this by googling. No disclaimer about circumstances beyond their control when I booked, not that I'd expect it to be mentioned like that, but I would like to know when "fair enough" becomes "not what I ordered".

pinkshoes

If the taxi driver was 15 mins late,and he arrived at almost 9am, that imples that the journey can take upto 1h15mins, so i would suggest asking for an earlier pick up of 7.15am.

Just politely point out teh importance at arriving well before before 9am, and perhaps ask the taxi company at what time they would suggest a pick up.

soolin

I agreewith pink shoes, taxi was 15 minutes late which in itself would not have been an issue, so it looks like traffic is more of an issue than you thought.

Personally I am a worrier and would allow a lot more than 1 1/2 hours for a journey that can take over an hour. At worse your son will get there really early, so make sure he has money for a cup of tea somewhere.

The last exam I took which was a good few years ago was in central London and I travelled by train. The journey should have been 1 hr and 5 minutes door to door but I left 2 1/2 hours before my exam and ended up sitting in a Wimpy type place for a while . it meant I had time to find the venue, make sure I knew where I was meant to be, do all the necessary faffing about- in plenty of time.

stugib

muddlemand wrote: »

we booked a 7.30am pick up for a 9am exam, that is 90 minutes, to leave plenty of margin.

If you booked a pickup time only, I think all you can expect is for them to be there at that time, not know what time you need to be at your destination and work it all out for you each day.

daytona0

That's life for you...


IF you were driving your son to school then what is to stop a major pile up from happening on the motorway, causing a 30 minute delay? Who would you blame then?

Similar principal applies to the taxi service, along with buses and trains and planes and tuk tuk vehicles etc. Some things are outside of the taxi companies' control, and the best solution is to plan to be early as apposed to possibly late.

NotRichAtAll

i would tend to agree with the others, you need to arrange an earlier pickup, as the window you have created is too small for todays age of traffic jams, bad weather, have your son picked up at 6:30-7am i would rather sit round for 30 minutes waiting for the exam to start rather than turning up with 3 minutes spare and been all stressed entering the exam.
remember the taxi driver is not going to deliberatley drive slow as time is money to him.

unholyangel

The rules might vary district to district as the licensing conditions are set by your local council. Check their website and see if they have the conditions for taxi driver/taxi operator licence available online.

Generally it will come down to whether it was within their control or not. A taxi being late is usually due to one of two things. 1) a bad/inexperienced dispatcher/controller, 2) a customer (either taking an age to come out, or telling the dispatcher they're only going from A to B when really they're going from A to B to C to D).


Most companies around here would have told you why it was late though I don't think they are obliged to as not all of them do.

susancs

I must admit that I would allow more than 90 minutes for a journey that would normally take at least 60 minutes. MY daughter is currently doing A levels and leaving an hour earlier than usual to ensure she can de-stress before the exam and also the school state that candidates have to be outside the school hall at least 15 minutes prior to the exam start time. For GCSEs the school had a breakfast club from 8am for the 9am exams as they said research showed that those arriving in plenty of time and those having something to drink and or eat no more than an hour before did much better in exams.

stevemLS

This is part of the standard conditions of a private hire licence in my local authority area:

11. Prompt attendance
(a) The driver of the Private Hire vehicle shall, if he is aware that the vehicle has been hired
to be in attendance at an appointed time and place, or he has otherwise been instructed
by the operator or proprietor of the vehicle to be in attendance at an appointed time and
place, punctually attend at that appointed time and place, unless delayed or prevented by
sufficient cause.
(b) The driver shall immediately report to the Operator such delay.

However, given the importance, do what others have said and book to be there way too early.

If I book to get a train in town, first thing in morning normally 15 mins, they won't take the booking if they think you are going to be there at least 30 mins before the train unless you clearly and unequivocaly say that you accept it is entirely at your own risk.

timbstoke

Mine is the same - if it's a booking to the station, they ask what time the train is. My answer is usually "whenever I get there" since I rarely book in advance, but it's a good touch.

In answer to your questions though:

1. You're paying for transport from A to B. If it's too late to take that exam, you don't have to take the taxi, and therefore won't pay for it. If you take it, then you've used the service and will be expected to pay.
2. Probably not. From a taxi drivers perspective, your son was going to school. School starts at 9am, and unlike a trip to the airport, it's not usually the end of the world if you get there at ten past. If it's so much more important that he be there punctually, you need to be absolutely sure the driver knows this.
3. You can refuse payment at the point where the service is so poor you've made other arrangements and therefore refused the service.
4a. Of course not. You pay the company that takes you, and you don't pay the company that didn't. Why would you expect a free journey?
4b. Unlikely. Unless you can show that they've been negligent in failing to get you there on time, you wouldn't have a case.

muddlemand

Thanks for all these replies!

@ unholyangel:

"The rules might vary district to district as the licensing conditions are set by your local council. Check their website and see if they have the conditions for taxi driver/taxi operator licence available online.

Generally it will come down to whether it was within their control or not. A taxi being late is usually due to one of two things. 1) a bad/inexperienced dispatcher/controller, 2) a customer (either taking an age to come out, or telling the dispatcher they're only going from A to B when really they're going from A to B to C to D).

Most companies around here would have told you why it was late though I don't think they are obliged to as not all of them do."

Thank you - I did check their website, even using Google site search with search terms 'terms', 'conditions', 'T&C' - nothing on any page.

The reason, nice as it would be, is less important to us than being certain it won't happen next time! Which at the moment we can't feel secure about. (It definitely wasn't your reason 2, my son was waiting outside in the rain for more than 5 minutes before the guy eventually turned up, and it's a straightforward door to door drive exactly the same as the first time.) The driver told my son "traffic" which doesn't really explain it, but is probably the best we'll know.

@ stevemLS:

"This is part of the standard conditions of a private hire licence in my local authority area:

11. Prompt attendance
(a) The driver of the Private Hire vehicle shall, if he is aware that the vehicle has been hired
to be in attendance at an appointed time and place, or he has otherwise been instructed
by the operator or proprietor of the vehicle to be in attendance at an appointed time and
place, punctually attend at that appointed time and place, unless delayed or prevented by
sufficient cause.
(b) The driver shall immediately report to the Operator such delay."

Thank you! Would this be something my Council can tell me? I don't know where to begin looking. 11.(b) is exactly what I think is reasonable, but didn't expect to have the *right* to.

@ timbstoke

"1. You're paying for transport from A to B. If it's too late to take that exam, you don't have to take the taxi, and therefore won't pay for it. If you take it, then you've used the service and will be expected to pay.
2. Probably not. From a taxi drivers perspective, your son was going to school. School starts at 9am, and unlike a trip to the airport, it's not usually the end of the world if you get there at ten past. If it's so much more important that he be there punctually, you need to be absolutely sure the driver knows this.
3. You can refuse payment at the point where the service is so poor you've made other arrangements and therefore refused the service.
4a. Of course not. You pay the company that takes you, and you don't pay the company that didn't. Why would you expect a free journey?
4b. Unlikely. Unless you can show that they've been negligent in failing to get you there on time, you wouldn't have a case."

Thank you.
1. Is this in law, or your view of what's reasonable?
2. They did know how much it matters (see below).
3. That I'd expect (a long time ago, had similar with a different company but we'd pre-paid... but that's a whole different story.)
4a. My reason for asking this was mainly because of that previous occasion, when the "emergency" booking was from the airport and cost £250, though our prepaid fare was £100 (and I didn't get either amount back in the end).
4b. Said it was wishful thinking! No idea how one would show it was negligence, without a spy camera showing the driver taking a detour on the way to us or something!

@ all the others - I should have made some things more clear:

- They WERE told it was a GCSE. They WERE told the exam began at 9am and he must arrive at 8.30am. When I originally booked (all three trips), I repeated this over and over again on the phone with great emphasis - polite and friendly (I always am) but very emphatic and letting her know it really mattered and we were really stressed about it.

- The drive is maximum an hour, not "at least" an hour. My ex did this drive for 12 years, to work, in the same morning rush hour; it never took him more than an hour, through gales, trees down, accidents etc. Once EVER he couldn't get through because the road was closed (not the motorway, one of the rural A roads between us and the M4). And @ daytona0: as I said, for something like a fallen tree or motorway pileup, I consider that fair enough - of course I do, anyone reasonable would. (But I'd still expect to be contacted if there was a delay.) This morning, traffic was heavier because of bad weather, hardly unforeseeable.

In fact the first time, the driver arrived here 15 mins early as I said - and got my son there 30 mins early - despite discovering roadworks he hadn't known about. He said to my son that he'd allow more time now that he knew about the roadworks. But today he arrived here 15 mins late and there 28 mins late. (The same driver.)

And after this morning's fiasco, I have brought the third and final one to 8.20am instead of 8.30am. We'll see how long that gives my son to kick his heels and stress out before the paper begins. (@ susancs: he has breakfast before he leaves here and takes a snack for when he arrives there. He's even more healthy-food conscious than I am.)

(It didn't help today that when he got there, he was told he was in the wrong place by someone who wouldn't consult the list, so he was running around in the rain from one building to another, only for them to realise he'd been in the right place all along. Thank goodness today's wasn't a subject he struggles with. And then he went out on his bike this afternoon to de-stress, and the wind pushed him onto the verge on a big (fast!) road. I like to think he's used up his quota of rotten luck for the month of June...)