On Feb 20, 1:40*pm, Tom Anderson wrote:

Afternoon all,

Here is a story which my housemate just told me.

He arrived at Heathrow by aeroplane at 2230 last night (friday). He'd
previously booked a minicab (from Network Cars of Crouch End, for the
benefit of anyone googling that firm in future) to pick him up and bring
him home to Finsbury Park. He'd been quoted a price of 40 pounds.

(Why he didn't just get the Piccadilly line, i don't know - i suppose
because he could expense a taxi, and preferred that to schlepping his
luggage through the tube.)

A colleague of his was flying with him, and lives near us, so they decided
to share the taxi.

The driver told them that he was not insured to take more than one person,
and that the price would therefore be 80 pounds for the two of them. My
housemate asked him to check this with his controller, and after radioing
in, he claimed that it would actually only be 10 pounds extra, at 50
pounds.

In the end, the colleague was so annoyed by this that she took the tube.
My housemate still took the taxi.

Is there any possible truth to his assertion about insurance, or was this
a barefaced attempt at a scam?

Absolute total horse****, of course. Sounds like they're a firm to
avoid. Interesting to note the discrepancy between the drivers idea of
an achievable scam, i.e. double money, and the controllers slightly
less outrageous notion of an extra tenner on top - would the driver
have to split it with the controller later on for going along with it
all I wonder?

Good on the colleague for telling him to get stuffed. No-one should
stand for such nonsense. Always a good idea to agree a price
beforehand with control and also then with the driver, and have none
of it if they try and bump it up somehow.