No Go Area

A while back now I had a job to pick up two people from nearby Ulverston and take them the hundred miles or so to Liverpool airport. When I arrived at the address I opened the boot ready to load the cases only to be told that they had none to load all they had was a plastic Tesco carrier bag.
Now to me a couple with no luggage going to the airport seems more than a bit strange.
So I asked them to pay up front and then enquired about the lack of luggage. Well the guy said we don't really want to go to the airport, we just said that for convenience but it’s not far from there though. 
He paid me no problem and told me he would direct me once we got off the motorway and into Liverpool. They were a bit of an odd couple with him being older and from this area she being a true scouse who swore every other word. I listened to them argue all the way down the motorway about nowt in particular and just as they were about to drive me mad at last we turned off the motorway. The guy started to give me directions which seemed to take us in circles several times this caused more arguments between them and it was decided that the lady( and I use the term loosely) would direct me the rest of the way. We drove into Edge Hill and then into what looked like a giant demolition site. Row upon row of terraced houses all boarded up with corrugated iron sheets, no sign of life not even passing or parked cars.
 I began to get a bit nervous and asked are you sure it’s round here, yes she replied “just a bit further. So keeping one eye on the road and the other on the passengers I drove slowly on. Ten minutes later she shouted “stop stop” and even before we had fully stopped she jumped out and ran swearing and shouting towards the only house in all the dereliction that had doors and windows. The guy handed me a ten pound note as he got out and said “thanks mate that’s for you none of the local taxis will come down here” I guess that explains the airport story they gave.

The Language Barrier

Well not so much the language but the dialect of two Indian doctors I had picked up that wanted to go to the local hospital.. I asked them which entrance and one of them said "ANY".. Fine. Maybe I should ask again so I did and got the same response "ANY". I said "Are you sure you want any entrance?" and he said YES.

I then said I would take them to the main entrance and he said "No... I want any entrance". This had me a little baffled until he said it a bit slower. "I want A and E Entrance".

I felt a right plonker.

Man does a runner after £220 taxi ride

Local to where we are based this story made the news today which actually got me thinking as numerous drivers have had people do a runner on them without payment and the police always seem to deal with it differently more often than not saying that its a civil offence and not criminal as I think they just dont want to get involved with it all. So why cant all cases be treat as an offence. Surely if someone makes off without paying then that at the very least is "Obtaining pecuniary advantage". Eother way its still theft, deceit or something similar.

The story in pour local paper is about a man who does a runner after £220 taxi ride from Wales to Haverigg (About 25 miles from Barrow In Furness)

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A MAN failed to pay for a taxi from Wales to Haverigg, a court heard.

Trefor Evans, 22, yesterday pleaded guilty to a charge of deceit for not paying for the taxi.

Evans told Furness Magistrates’ Court that he made the taxi journey from Caernarfon to visit his mother, Sharon Sweeney who lives in Townhead, Haverigg.

Evans said he had taken the 190-mile trip from his home because his mother was upset and asked him to visit her.

When he arrived at the destination, he told the taxi driver that neither he nor his mother had the money to pay the £220 fare.

He told the court: “My mother phoned me and she said she wanted me to come down. She was crying on the phone. I said I couldn’t visit because I couldn’t pay for the trip.

“But she said she would pay for it on the other side. When we got to the house, she said she didn’t have the money. I thought that I was in a bad situation.

“I was in a bad situation and didn’t know what to do.”

Mr Evans then ran away from the driver, Darren Fitzjohn, as he unsuccessfully tried to get the money for the fare from his sister.

He was originally due to appear in front of the magistrates on October 12.

Evans, who is unemployed, said he missed the original date because he lived in Wales and didn’t have the money to travel to Barrow.

He said: “I couldn’t get back up here from Caernarfon.

“I fell out with my mother over this situation and had nowhere to stay up here.”

Magistrates asked Evans to think carefully about whether or not he knowingly left Wales with the intention of not paying the fare.

Evans told the hearing he felt that he was guilty as he had failed to pay the fare and wanted the case to be dealt with so he could return home.

Evans, of Bro Seiont, Caernarfon, was ordered to pay £220 compensation to the taxi driver.

Inflation

Today, I picked a fare up from the local hospital. It was a lady who`s battery had gone flat on the car and had got a lift to the hospital but needed a taxi back home.

At the start of the journey she asked me how much it would cost and I estimated around £3.00p to which she exclaimed that it was too expensive and I must have got it wrong as she had never paid that amount to get home before.

I asked her what she normally pays and she said about £1.80p. This had me a little baffled as I knew that £1.80 would only get her part way to her house so I started digging a bit deeper and decided to ask her when the last time she got a taxi was.

Her reply...... "I don't normally use taxis as I have my own car but last time I got one from the hospital to home must have been about 5 years ago or maybe longer"

Did she not realise that due to inflation, the rising costs of running a car that taxi fares would have increaded in that periood of time

Seems to me she was stuck in some sort of timewarp and expected to pay 2003 prices.