In message , Jim
writes

I make no apology for the actions of the driver. He should not take this
out on his passengers. There are good and bad in every occupation. There
are also good and bad customers.

For example some customers who know the situation will ask for Brentford
when they go the Chiswick because you get a ticket to go back from
Brentford, but not from Chiswick. Likewise from St Margarets but not
from Richmond. The system is full of anomalies.


Mike is this an example of a good customer or a bad customer? It sounds good
from the driver's point of view, as long as he can get back within an hour.

This is an example of a *good* customer who knows the system.

Although Chiswick is outside the arbitrary distance limit, the roads to
and from as so fast that you can easily get back within the one hour
limit allowed. That is why asking for Brentford (or even Chiswick
roundabout) allows the driver to bet a return ticket. The driver will be
happy to do this as you are helping him out.

--
Mike Hughes
A Taxi driver licensed for London and Brighton
at home in Tarring, West Sussex, England

"Leigh Mallory" wrote in message
...

nothing could prepare you for the scenario that I came
up against 3 years ago when I found myself at 2.30 am
dropping off three big guys in a back street of Brixton
one of them held a knife to my throat while the other
two pulled me out of the cab & robbed me.

What cab were you driving, and what was the partition like? Would this be
possible in a modern cab?

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

"John Rowland" wrote in message
...
"Leigh Mallory" wrote in message
...

nothing could prepare you for the scenario that I came
up against 3 years ago when I found myself at 2.30 am
dropping off three big guys in a back street of Brixton
one of them held a knife to my throat while the other
two pulled me out of the cab & robbed me.

What cab were you driving, and what was the partition like?
Would this be possible in a modern cab?

In retrospect, this message looks a little callous.... I'm sorry about what
happened to you.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

"Spicknspan" wrote in message
...

95% of the time there are far too many taxis. Unfortunately,
the decision as to the numbers appears to be based on the
demand for cabs during those peak
times, such as a rainy Saturday night.

As a cab driver myself, I've often wondered if there'd be
a benefit to permitting knowledge boys in the latter stages
of the knowledge to work Friday and Saturday nights in the
West End only. I've been out for 3 years now, and I know
I could have done the job 6 months before I got my badge.

I would have thought many of the runs from Central London on Friday and
Saturday nights would go way out into the suburbs, and since All-London
knowledge students don't do that until the last few months of their
training, this is the time of the week when they are least fit to do the
job. Also, where are the knowledge students going to get taxis from? If they
only work 8 hours a week, they won't be able to afford to hire a taxi.

A better idea would be to allow qualified suburban yellow-badge taxis to
pick up at the directional rank at Cranbourn St, since they are better
qualified to take people to the suburbs than the All-London green-badges,
and it's stupid to have them driving an empty taxi back to their suburb at
the time of peak demand. They should be charged a sizeable fee to pick up
here, otherwise it might be in their interest to repeatedly work the
Cranbourn St rank, driving back to it empty. This would probably require the
directional rank marshalls to split destinations by the 9 yellow badge
sectors instead of NE - NW - SE - SW as now.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes