Dundee Tackles Runaway Taxi Customers

16/01/2012

Cabbies across Dundee will meet to talk about proposed changes to the current taxi fare payment system to allow drivers to charge up-front for a given taxi journey.

The talks come as a result of the ever increasing numbers of taxi customers fleeing without paying their fare after getting a taxi direct to their destination.

Unite union taxi spokesman, Chris Elder, commented: ''It's something that we're looking at as there are so many cab drivers getting runners at the end of their journeys at the moment.

''It's not everyone — there are a lot of good people in Dundee — but there are a certain few who don't want to pay.

''A lot of local taxi drivers have noticed that it has escalated recently. Only a few people have brought this to a head but this has been going on for years. Although this is a huge change, it really is no different to the way you pay for any other mode of transport such as buses and trains. 

Mr Elder continued: “When you get on a bus you have to pay upfront or you simply don’t get on”

“We’ve already had positive feedback from customers and I have also read about it currently working in some areas of England.”

Unite and taxi operators hope they will have support from the police as it would undoubtedly reduce the number of 'runners', which in turn would cut the number of hours they currently spent investigating these crimes. 

Licensing officer for Dundee City Council, Rod Wallace, appears to favour the changes.

Wallace said, “I can confirm that there has been a request from members of the taxi liaison group to discuss this”

“I fully appreciate the circumstances that some drivers can get into. If a large group get into a taxi and have maybe had a bit too much to drink then there is not always a guarantee that they will cough up at the end of the journey, leaving the driver in the lurch.”

''I think that this system could work and I'm sure that taxi drivers would make their customers fully aware beforehand.''