Threatened my daughter then left her stranded.

[jeffy83]

Callopie,

As a driver myself, I am extremely disgusted to hear what that driver did to your daughter and her friend. But I wanted to add some comments to this ongoing thread for some clarity (now maybe I do things differently but we'll see?)

If a passenger wants to go to multiple destinations, as previously mentioned by the thread, they can have the 75% payment per stop option, or what some drivers (maybe I'm too nice i dont know?) is that each person just tends to pay whatever is on the meter and the next person pays the difference...
ie:
Child A reaches destination and it says $10, she pays me (or) her friend the $10 and alights from the vehicle.

Child B reaches destination - Meter says $20 (pure hypothetical), as child A has already contributed $10 towards the total cost of the taxi, Child B only has to pay the remaining $10.00 which reaches the total $20.00 fare, all is done, business is concluded. Again I must stipulate, this is up to the driver if he wishes to accept the multiple-hire or if the passengers (usually friends) want to all contribute to the total cost. (Which I see a fair bit on a Saturday night) everyone throws money around to the last person and yeah.

What I suspect from reading this thread, is the driver may not have clearly advised your daughter the passenger, he is within his rights to request an upfront *REASONABLE* payment. Sadly drivers abuse this right and demand far above the recommended amount. Its hard to tell if his $30 expectation ($20 for original + $30 prepayment) is reasonable without knowing PICKUP, DROP 1 and DROP 2 locations (suburb).

Though I suspect he was not doing the right thing (though cannot prove this point) that when your daughter advised she was contacting the police, he drove off. Which says to me in my mind, he knew he was up to no good, and didn't want to get caught. The plus side is, now I note this thread is over 6mths old. That the in-vehicle camera shed some light for you.

I hope this helps, even know I know its 6 months too late. Its been a while since i read NGE.

Jeffy83

[h2o]

Caliope have you tried contacting your local member? They are there to help and this is a matter they should get involved with.

[Caliope]

We did speak to the taxi directorate but despite taking details, there has been no follow up from them. Luckily my daughter actually called the taxi from a phone so we could track the driver from the pick up address. I am disgusted at the lack of contact or concern shown by both Yellow cabs and the directorate.

[Mr Jenko]

I posted a link which was wrong ,coz they don't like links here. If you google taxi you should find the right address for the VTD. It goes something like...wwwdottaxidotvicdotgovdotau . If they remove this post as well then they aren't being to helpful with your concerns.

[brewersarms]

If you are unsatisfied with a fare charged or route taken just ask for a receipt and confirm the taxi number.

You then can take it up with head office with evidence.

[alandrin1]

I've been a cab before where the driver actually fell asleep and my friend and i had to wake him up, needless to say we paid and walked the rest of the way home. I hope your daughter is OK.

[WitchOne]

The VTD, Victorian Taxi Directorate is the closest thing..

[Thing]

Caliope is there an overseeing body you can complain too if you are not satisfied with the response (or lack thereof) from Yellow Cabs?

[Caliope]

What amazes me is despite lodging a complaint, I have heard nothing from Yellow Cabs. In my opinion that means they condone what this driver has done and there has been no action taken. I find this deplorable.

[mmouse11]

Definitely something dodgy about Yellow Cabs.
I had some minor problems with them too.
I used Yellow Cabs for the first time 2 weeks ago (travel a lot), and the driver after saying he didn't know where my street was, just ignored my instructions and drove me an extra few kilometers around the outskirts of Brunswick. (Interesting he knew where to turn once we got to within a block of my street) When I told him he was going the wrong way he simply said it won't make any difference to you, and just keep going. Never had this happen before with any of the other companies and the pure blatantness of it really surprised me. (Fare was approximately 30% more than it should have been thanks to the little stunt.) I'd hate to be a tourist using them.

[customerservicewatchdog]

First of all a big sorry to your daughter to hear about this traumatic experience of hers. In the past I have also had issues with Yellow Cabs. On reporting the incident to Yellow Cabs in writing I did not even get the courtesy of a response let alone any kind of apology for the stress caused. Sadly these larger corporations are not interested in customer service nor customer satisfaction, the mightly dollar reigns supreme yet again.

[WitchOne]

Hey honey, this is the first I've seen of this!! Why haven't you hunted the cabbie down and shot him yet??

[DaddyWayne]

Caliope,

Hope your daughter is OK. There's bad eggs in every bunch. Sounds like your daughter is in the right as she advised it was a multi drop and he didn't object before he accepted the fare.

Please follow it up and I'd even suggest having the driver charged with assualt.

I use disability vouchers as I have major mobility problems and when a driver refuses to accept them I tell him to "turn the meter off and drive me to the police station and we'll let the police sort it out". Apparently, it takes them a month or more for the government to pay their share. Not my problem.
I don't always ring and book. Sometimes I get the cab in the street as it's quicker than waiting 30 minutes or more for a cab (not a wheelchair one) as they don't want to accept the vouchers.

Rogue drivers like this need to be removed from the industry. They tarnish the reputation of all those good drivers. Any problem - take their licence number. And never be afraid of calling the police on them.

[kinko]

Gosh Caliope I hope she's ok! Glad your daughter is a smart cookie who thought to call the police - I wouldn't have known what to do, lol!

I have seriously lost all faith in cabbies now. I have to travel in cabs regularly for work (gotta love cabcharges!) and every time I am in a cab, I fear for my life. The drivers make up their own rules (I have been through two red lights in the past month) and drive so fast that I'm surprised I have not yet been in an accident.

Please keep us updated on how you go with the police - this guy is a complete nut.

[YouCallThatService]

Hi Caliope,

Speeding and ignoring passenger directions. It certainly sounds like the girls got a rogue taxi driver for sure.

I hope the police are able to set this guy straight.

On the matter of the fare, I suspect you will probably get some satisfaction on that.

You said "The driver was informed it was a multiple drop off before the girls got into the cab"

If the driver wanted to excercise his right to enforce a multiple hire, it was up to him to explain it to the girls when they told him it was a multiple drop off.

From what you have said, he didn't do that!

That gives you (and the girls to whom this happened to) the advantage. Both parties (driver and first hirer) first need to agree on the terms for a multiple hire to occur. The girls did their bit by informing the driver of their intentions. If the driver wanted to do a multiple hire arrangement, it was up to him to explain it to them before the taxi even moved an inch.

Good luck with it Caliope. Keep us all posted here and let us know what happens!