Emirates Chauffeur / Addison Lee Excess Mileage Model

pjh104

Can anyone help with Addison Lee’s excess mileage calculation?

Background is this:

When considering whether to take the offered Emirates chauffeur service from just outside of Cambridge to LGW, we were told an additional cost (for over and above 70 miles) would be calculated on the basis of “driven miles”. We sat down and calculated the excess mileage, applied the cost t&c and decided it was financially sensible to accept the (likely) excess over and above sourcing a car locally or getting the train and holing up for the night at LGW (though we can get a direct train to LGW, recent experience is such that I wouldn’t trust taking the train on the day of a flight). Plus the return journey would be early doors on Good Friday, and the last time we used the train from LGW somebody tried to steal our cases at we pulled into Stevenage….

When we received the confirmation of the car at on line check in, we received a wee bit of a shock, for whereas we had calculated on the basis of an excess of 36 miles (using Google maps and the AA route finder) the figure given is based on an excess of 75 miles. I have queried this with both EK and Addison Lee, and they are blaming each other. At 48 hours notice it proved impossible to make alternative arrangements and we were stuck with a wince inducing additional cost of £245 vs £102 per leg. 

On further enquery, Addison Lee tell us:

1. They use “Google Miles” rather than “Google Maps” to calculate the “expected driven” mileage. Does anyone know what “Google Miles” is?

2. They use an average of three likely routes to deliver the driven miles. Given (by my calculations) two of those routes would be 107 miles and 120 miles (M25 clockwise and M25 anti clock wise), the third route would have to be 208 miles to arrive at 145 miles “average”. 

How can it be fair practise to deliver an average of “driven miles” on the basis of an opaque calculation, leaving aside the issue of it being revealed on 48 hours before the flight (which, to be fair, is more of an Emirates issue)?

The actual miles driven were 110 (including an extended diversion to avoid traffic) on the outbound and 107 on the return.

To clarify, I’m not complaining about the principle of the excess charge, nor the published rate involved, just the calculation of the miles. Given Emirates have washed their hands of it, and Addison Lee as so far sticking to their guns is there a licensing body with which I could raise this?

Thanks in advance

Paul

DullGreyGuy

This is presumably the same query raised on HeadForPoints last month?

As you were advised there, there is no such application as Google Miles so either they've made their own app and given it a name that infringes on someone elses' trademark or are just making things up. 

What the hell route makes for a 208 mile trip?

The T&Cs of Emirate says anything above 70 miles is between you and their service provider, though they provide the basis that the charges should be on. 

If you aren't getting anywhere with Addison Lee then I'd speak to your local council's licensing section about how to make a complaint given the complexity of the Lee model 

pjh104

DullGreyGuy said:

This is presumably the same query raised on HeadForPoints last month?

As you were advised there, there is no such application as Google Miles so either they've made their own app and given it a name that infringes on someone elses' trademark or are just making things up. 

What the hell route makes for a 208 mile trip?

The T&Cs of Emirate says anything above 70 miles is between you and their service provider, though they provide the basis that the charges should be on. 

If you aren't getting anywhere with Addison Lee then I'd speak to your local council's licensing section about how to make a complaint given the complexity of the Lee model 

It is indeed. I’ve been thrashing around a bit trying to understand where I can go next. I’ll try our local licensing section.

mdann52

Have they charged the excess milage in and out of London, by any chance?
Ie the extra distance the driver has done each way?

The T&Cs are unfortunately unclear on exactly what will be charged and to who. This would match your calculations however I believe. "70 driven miles" is unfortunately ambiguous as to whether it's 70 miles each way, 70 miles total, or something else entirely.

pjh104

mdann52 said:

Have they charged the excess milage in and out of London, by any chance?
Ie the extra distance the driver has done each way?

The T&Cs are unfortunately unclear on exactly what will be charged and to who. This would match your calculations however I believe. "70 driven miles" is unfortunately ambiguous as to whether it's 70 miles each way, 70 miles total, or something else entirely.

I did wonder about whether we were being charged for miles driven from a notional “rank” to collect us. 

531063

Would the be a extra charge because of Good Friday ie bank holiday rate

pjh104

531063 said:

Would the be a extra charge because of Good Friday ie bank holiday rate

No, there is nothing in the t&c about bank holiday rates, and the cost was exactly the same on March 5th (outbound) as on Good Friday (return)

pjh104

We got a satisfactory resolution with Addison Lee agreeing our estimate of mileage and refunding the overcharge. From our correspondence with them their “postcode to postcode” pricing is based on the central point of the area designated by the first two letters of your postcode. In our case that is 30 miles north (and further away from LGW) of our actual address.

This was achieved without any suggestion of taking it to the licensing authorities or social media, and the agent we dealt with was always responsive and did appear to be arguing our case within the company.