In The Air Tonight

As in the Phil Collins song "Can you feel it coming in the air tonight".

There I was with 4 passengers on board driving into town when one of them farted and it really stunk so down come the windows and no one would admit to it so at the end of the journey the fare was £3.80p on the meter and so I asked for £4.80p.

Obviously they asked me why I wanted £4.80p to which I replied that the extra pound is for an air freshener.

I expected them to not pay it and personally I wants bothered if they didn't as I was just having a laugh with them but they took me seriously and paid me the extra pound and apologised.

This got me thinking,. Maybe if I could fine everyone who didnt behave in the cab then I could be rich within a week.

RESPECT...... Wots that?

Is it just me or every cabbie that this happens to. Why does a mother get in the back of the car with a young child around 2 or 3 years old and allow the child to put their dirty shoes on the seats and allow them to put their grubby little hands everywhere making marks on the furnishings.

I will not drive off until a child has a seatbelt on as its a safety issue and its the law so the mother puts the seatbelt on the child only after I had told her too and within travelling about 500 yards the child had undone the belt and was trying to stand up on the seat putting his sticky hands all over my window whilst the mother didnt do a thing. I stopped the car and told him to get his feet off the seats and get his belt back on. He looked at me and quietly did as I told him but I shouldnt have to do this.

Its not my job to tell mothers to make sure their kids behave and then she had the cheek to ask me why I shouted at him to sit down to which I replied to her. "You weren't gonna do anything so I had to". She said that he wasn't doing any harm and was just inquisitive. She obviously didn't care what her little darling was doing in the taxi and didn't seem to mind that he was stood up on the seat with his moody shoes.

Maybe its the usual attitude of "Its not my property so I don`t care "

How would she like it if my previous passenger had done the same and then I went to pick her up. Would she sit in the same seat with dirt all over it.

Have respect for other peoples property. Its not too much to ask...

Is it a bird?.. Is it a plane?...

No..... Its low flying furniture.


about a week ago I got a call to an address in the flats on Barrow Island so off I trundles over the bridge and onto the Island thinking no more about this until I had to go through the one way system which meant driving down a street where objects were being hurled everywhere. A TV set came crashing down in front of me. There was already what looked like the remains of a wardrobe or bedside cabinet on the road all smashed up along with a few electrical appliances.

As I manoeuvred round the falling TV set I heard another crash on the floor behind me and a look through my mirror noticed that I had narrowly missed being hit by a low flying guitar, a lamp and a microwave oven.

Being a warm day I had the window down and could hear shouting and screaming between a male and female. It was a domestic and hard to say who was throwing the property but it was a stupid thing to do as its the school summer holidays, kids are normally playing there, traffic has to pass through the one way system and someone could have seriously got hurt.

It was pointless me getting out the car to try and calm the situation as I just needed to get the car out the way of any other low flying debris. At this point it was a quick phone call to the local police and I left it at that as it wasnt my problem, I didnt want to get involved and I had a fare to pick up and I`d rather be making money than trying to sort someone else's mess and lose money.

It got me thinking though.. Maybe time to change the highway code...

If you want to cross the road, look right.... look left..... and look up...

Incapable

I got a call to pick up a fare from a flat in Ormsgill only to find when I got there that the woman was so drunk that she could hardly stand up. I dont think there was a risk of her being sick but I did think that I would struggle to get her out the car at the other end and get the fare.

Her mate that was with her was more sober and so I explained to her that I could not take her friend as a matter of health and safety as we do have a policy of reserving the right to refuse to take any passenger who is at risk of causing a hazard to the vehicle whilst being driven. Her mate explained that she had to get her home and so I got to thinking....

Hmmm..... If I take her and I cant get her out at the other end then I will need help. This takes time. I may not get the fare and so the police maybe involved so I said to the more sober one that I would take her if she travelled in the back with her and I would bring her back home.

She said she couldn't afford the fare back so thinking that more time would be wasted getting the police or any other help I decided to take the two women, bring one back and only charge the fare that it would have been to her house.

In a way I lost out by about £1.20 but at the same time it saved the hassle and saved more time if I did have problems at the other end.

I do recall reading somewhere and it may not be Barrow Councils rules. It may have been in a taxi magazine but there is a law somewhere to protect drivers along the lines of

• "The driver reserves the right to refuse to take any passenger who in his or her opinion may cause a danger to the vehicle, the motion of the vehicle or other passengers".

Not sure of the exact wording but its a catch 22. If we refused to take any drunken person then we wouldn't make any money but you have to draw the line somewhere.

Calm Down

Last weekend Bob (The owner of this blog) was parked up on Holker Street in Barrow when he witnessed an altercation between a man and his wife. I`m not sure of the circumstances but Bob was telling me over the radio what was going on and I could hear it in the background and mid sentence Bob went quiet and I couldn't raise him on the radio.

This got alarm bells going in my head and so I raced off to Bobs location to check he was OK. Bob was fine. I got there after it had all calmed down. it turned out that there was a bit of trouble and Bob had politely told the guy to calm down a bit but then the guy got aggressive with Bob.

It wasn't even Bobs problem. he was an innocent by-stander who just tried to calm the situation.

Whats the world coming to when aggressive cretins like this have a go at innocent people for no reason at all.

Red Lights mean I`m home

This weekend I picked up a rather drunken young man who fell into the taxi and told me that he wanted to go to Hawcoat Village. He even paid me £10 up front and we agreed he can have the change from what's on the meter when we get there so off we go. Nice easy fare me thinks as I`ve been paid up front.

Alls well til we get to the first set of traffic lights which were on red. As soon as the car stopped he opened the door and tried to get out. Realising he wasn't at home he apologised and shut the door.

The next two sets of lights were on green but the next set was red and the exact same thing happened again. Unfortunately there were 3 more sets of lights to go through and they were all on red.

You guessed it, at each one when the car stopped, he opened the door, tried to get out and got back in. When I did get him to his destination and I stopped the car, he got out, told me to keep the change and staggered into his house.

No explanation for why he kept trying to get out when I stopped at red lights and yet although drunk, he was sober enough to apologise and made his way into his house ok.

Drunk and in love

Picked a fare up from the rank this weekend and took her and a mate of hers to two seperate addresses in the same area. The first person (30ish years old) who wanted dropping off was reasonably sober but the second one (about 18 years old) was well drunk.She was talking gibberish and saying that she didn't weant to go home as her boyfriend would beat her up.

I asked her Why this is likely to happen and she said that he doesnt like her going out and always beats her up everytime so I said to her "Why dont you leave him if he beats you up? and her reply.......

The classic..... "Cos I Love Him"..

For gods sake why stay in a violent relationship just because you love someone. She asked my advice and I gave it to her but she was having none of it and just wanted to go home to her man even of it meant getting a beating.



I will never understand women that stay with a violent man just because they love him or sometimes theres the other excuse, "I only stay with him cos of the kids" Anyway, she was very drunk and didnt look capable of anything and I didnt fancy dropping her off last so I told the other passenger that I would do her a deal on the fare and drop the drunk woman off first and only charge the fare to that address. It didnt bother me as I had to go past the other womans house to get back to town.

At the first woman's address it seemed to take forever whilst she got out of the car and fell into a bush in her garden. She managed to rummage up 45p for the fare.

After she got out the car I took the other woman home and asked for £7.20p which was on the meter. After rummaging through her purse she managed to come up with £6.21p and said I would have to go back for the rest tomorrow.

Not worth it for 99p so I just wrote it off and took the £6.21p ... I was just glad to have them both out the cab.

Sometimes you have to right things off otherwise you lose out more trying to fioght for your money. Its not worth the hassle... I just had horrible thoughts of dropping the drunken one off last and not getting paid at all dso £6.21p is better than nothing.

EGGstremely Dangerous

This week has been a very distressing week for some of our drivers. For no apparent reason one driver had his vehicle door kicked in by some drunken yob who thought it was funny and a good laugh just to jump up at it and kick it.

His excuse would probably be that he was drunk and didn't know what he was doing but the next lot of idiots weren't drunk so what would their excuse be.

These idiots were driving round in a car. Speeding round and screeching the brakes as boy racers tend to do without showing any respect for other road users. The passenger in the car had eggs with him and was throwing them at passing vehicles.

One egg hit our drivers windscreen and you can imagine the force. If our driver is travelling at 25mph and the idiots in the other car throwing eggs were going at 40mph in the other direction then thats a combined force of 65mph when the egg hits the windscreen and splatters all over it blocking our drivers view and therefore potentially leading to an accident.

The police dont seem to do anything about it and cars remain damaged and egged and these idiots get away with it. What sort of a kick do they get from it.

End of Rant....

Split Personalities

This week I picked up a guy who was really very loud mouthed, drunk and stunk of stale cigarette smoke. He told me all about how he had got into a fight as he had been causing some trouble and how he made it out that it wasnt his fault. Anyway, I took the guy to his home address and dropped him off and thought no more about it.

Lets move forward about 36 hours.. I get a call to go to an address to pick a fare up. The same address I dropped this obnoxious lout off at 2 nights ago. Out he comes and gets into the car. Very smartly dressed in suit and tie and asked me to take him to his place of work. This same man was of a different character. He was polite and even gave a tip on the fare. He tells me he works for a local bank and has a wife and 2 children and that his wifes been ill. I couldnt believe it was the same person I picked up a couple of days ago.

I then brought the subject up of his night out and what an idiot he was acting. He went a deep shade of red and apologised to me for his behaviour but lets face it. We don't expect this sort of behaviour from someone in such a high stranding trustworthy job.

There are a lot of Jekyll and Hyde type characters out there and we meet them all the time. At night after having a few beers they pluck up the courage to start trouble but during the day they wouldn't say a word.

Voicemail Gadget

Picked as fare up earlier this week and he proceeded to tell me all about his mobile phone and how the voicemail on it no longer works. Before I could say anything, he then went on to tell me that he had dropped the phone and the voicemail hasn't worked since and do I think that he may have broke his voicemail.

Are some people really this thick. I did suggest to him to take his phone to pieces and give it a shake and see if there was a small chip in there that spoke when he touched it and if there was then he has to take it to the local phone shop and ask them to put his voicemail back in his phone as it had fell out.

Wonder if the idiot really did go to a mobile phone shop.

Whilst on the journey he asked me what I knew about CD players as all his CDs were jumping. I suggested he needed a new stylus for it (like they used to have for playing records). I wonder what the store staff will think when he asks for a needle for a CD player.

Maybe I shouldnt wind the passengers up but some really do ask for it.

Compensation

You may remember a story about an aggressive taxi fare on Boxing Day last year where the passenger was arrested and charged. Full details HERE.

The incident happened on Boxing Day, The court case was 13th January 2009 and the outcome was a 4 month curfew and £100 compensation payable to me.

6 months down the line and I still havnt received a penny of it so today I telephoned the magistrates court and was told that this person has a lot of previous convictions and is paying off previous fines and compensation. The courts have confrimed that his last fine was paid off last week and they have now sent him a "means Test" form. This will allow the magistrates to assess how much compensation a week he can pay me.

Its just so annoying to be a victim of crime and be left out of pocket all this time. What is the point of compensation being awarded if the defendant cant pay and even if paid then getting a few quid per week isnt beneficial.

This sends out the wroing message to the criminal as they know that any fine they get can be paid weekly or monthly and they probably wont miss it. What sort of deterrent is that?

Taxi for one person

Part of the job description being a taxi driver is having to put up with the drunks and other idiots that we get in the cab but this week I just couldn't believe it when a passenger got in the cab and told me where he wanted to go. Seeing the meter start on £1.50p on tariff 4 he thought I was ripping him off and told me that the meter said I was charging him for 4 people. I did try to explain that the number 4 was the tariff number and not the amount of people in the cab.

He insisted that I turn the meter off and set it to number 1 for 1 person. (Tariff 1 is more expensive than tariff 4) but he's the customer and the customer is always right (do they still say that).

I put the meter on number 1 as he requested. It started at £2.00p and he never queried the extra 50 pence difference. He was just quite happy to see the number 1 on the meter thinking it meant one person.

At the end of the short half mile or so journey he paid the fare of £2.20p, gave me a £5 note and told me to keep the change.

You just cant understand how some peoples brains function.

Bingo!!!!!

Bingo must be a very popular game among both old and young as we pick up all walks of life from the sad pathetic chavs to the old age pensioners that like to while away a few hours of the day playing their favorite game.

Some people go to pass a few hours during the day for a little fun. Others take it more seriously and go to gamble their money with a chance of winning and others virtually live in the bingo halls spending money day and night.

After the game of bingo, the taxi driver will wait to pick the fare up and the fare on most occasions will see the taxi driver waiting and keep us waiting whilst they feed the rest of their money into slot machines hoping to make a big win.

The chances are they will come out and get in the cab and say they didnt win and have a moan about why they bother going and that theu`ve spent all their money and so this leads to a situation earlier this week when I picked up a young chav from the bingo. She saw me waiting but kept feeding more and more coins into a rather hungry looking slot machine and shouting abuse at it. Shortly after she came out and attempted to light up what seemed the end of a cigarette, took 2 puffs then threw it down on the floor and then got in my car.

In true Jeremy Kyle chav style she said "Didnt win again, dunno why I bother, its good fun though innit, i need a drink, sort of... take me to the Barrow Arms innit"

After translating this I made the journey of less than half a mile and she was telling me how good she was at playing bingo and hardly ever lost. Its a game of skill she said, you have to have an idea of what numbers are going to come up..

Game of SKILL..... Its balls coming out of a machine at Random.. She wasnt happy when i told her this. I went on to say that there's no skill in bingo. Its numbers at random being drawn and marked off on a card. How can that be skilful.

She wasn't happy when I pointed out that bingo was just like the lottery. Its a gamble. You pay your money and you either win or lose. There's no skill.

At the end of the short journey she had the cheek to say that the taxis are too expensive and take up all her money. This sad pathetic whimp of a chav had just spent a fair few quid in the bingo, is now off to the pub to spend probably a lot more and she whinges about the taxi fare.

Think I`ll put the lottery on tonight. If I do it a set way, maybe I will win... I think not. Its all totally RANDOM.

Now lets see how many bingo players I`ve upset.

Found Property

First fare of the day and I picked up a young girl and took her to an address on Walney Island. She duly paid the fare and got out of the cab and I drove off.

Shortly after, the office called me on the radio and asked if I had found anything on the back seat as the girl I had dropped off had lost something. I wasnt aware of what it was that she lost til I turned round and had a look. Maybe its just me but at a very quick glance it looked like a long haired rat and so I dived out of the car and was about to shut the door when the office radio'd to me saying it was a hair extension.

I suppose I should have looked more carefully rather than just glance but its made me more wary of what goods people carry in the cab.

Go on, laugh at my expense. looking at it, it looks nothing like a rat but at the time I thought it was something sinister and you never know if there`s teeth hiding under any hairy thing that could jump up and bite....... :)

A Trip to the beach

The weather lately has been extremely hot and today I picked up 2 American Ladies and an English Lady. The Americans were staying with her and they wanted me to take them to the beach so they could take photographs.

When I got to the beach they asked if I could leave the meter running and walk with them on the beach and take photos. What a great time. we had a walk and took some photos and spent a good 20 minutes there. The cuistomers bought me an Icecream and then off we went to another beach whjere we spent around 10 minutes before heading in the opposite direction towards Furness Abbey for even more pictures.

If only I could get customers like this all the time. I get to enjoy myself on the beach and get paid for it at the same time as well as making the most of this fantastic heatwave

RESPECT

RESPECT..... Wheres it gone...

This weekend, last job of the night around 4am I picked a young chav up and took him to an address in the town centre. On the journey into town he was ok and very quiet, you know the type, not very talkative but there again chavs do have a limited vocabulary.

On arriving at his destination he didnt have enough to pay the fare and got out the cab and knocked on a door to get it. After getting no response he kicked the door and shouted words to the effect of "Open this F****ng door now. A woman answered the door and he became very abusive with her. "Pay the taxi now you slag" was what he said to her.

5 minutes went by whilst he went in the house with her and then she shouted through the partly open front door for me to get the police. Just then, the young chav came out and paid me the fare using money given to him by the woman. At this point I learnt that the woman was his mother as he told me that his mother gave him the money.

I then notice his mother at the door with blood all over her nose and mouth. The young chav grabbed his mobile phone from me and flew towards his mother who immediately slammed the door and locked him out.

I`ve now been paid and am on my way but as I moved off down the street I could hear this young thug banging and kicking the door and shouting obscenities at the top of his voice. I did call the police for fear of his mothers safety and judging by the noise he was making then I`m guessing most the neighbours would have also called the Police

Maybe its me, maybe its the way I`ve been brought up but I was always taught to respect my elders and I never ever would have treated my mother like this. Whats the world come to???

The best of it is that this violent chav didnt seem drunk or high on drugs and yet he was violent towards his mother and had total disregard for his mothers neighbours.

Wheres That Then?

I picked 3 females up this week and the conversation in the cab between them was along the lines of a new taxi company not knowing where streets and places were and how the service is of no good.

My ears pricked up so I could try and find out which company they were on about.

One girl says that when she rang for a cab she wanted to be picked up from the Cemetery Cottages Club only to be asked by the taxi office - "Wheres That Then". Up the road from the Tally Ho was the answer. Tally Ho???? Never heard of that one. What area is that...... Our young passenger said "Near Asda". The reply from the cab compnay was "Which Asda". Our girl says "Theres only one asda, got in a stroppy mood and told them that they were all a bunch of useless $£*&$ and hung up.

So the other girl in the car asks her mate which company she rang and she said she didnt know as she had used her other mates phone and it just said TAXI on the phone.

Her other mate (the 3rd girl in the car) who had been quiet upto now started laughing. At this point I found out her mate lived in Manchester ( about 90 miles away) and was visiting our local town and so the cab company in question was a Manchester company. No wonder they were confused,

Priorities and Liberties

It was early evening when I got a call to pick a young girl up from the local chinese. She got in the car with 2 carrier bags. One had her chinese meal in it and the other was full of tins of beer.

During the journey she asks me if £2.10p would get her home. I knew it wouldnt but there again wouldnt be too far off and under normal circumstances, a young girl on her own I would have took her home so to make sure she got home safely but some people just take it for granted that as they pay for a taxi at the end of the journey that they can get away with a little bit more than they would if buying goods in a shop.

Now look at the scenario. She`s got in the cab with chinese and beer and then expects a cheap cab home. Would she have expected cheap beer or food. So when the meter got to £2.10p I stopped tha cab. She then said she could pay when she gets home and I started getting a little suspicious about it. I took her home. Fare was £2.50p. She then asked me if I could come back for the other 40p nbext Tuesday then had the cheek to say that if I`m coming back next Tuesday she will keep the money she has and pay me it all next week.

I was having none of it. I took the £2.10p and also said that I required payment of the balance there and then. She offered me 2 cans of larger as payment. So I took them.

At least when I finished a long shift I had a drink to relax with.

It just annoys me that customers take liberties this way. Their priorities are all wrong.

Country Roads - Take Me Home

Maybe its a title of a song but this week it was reality for us drivers as a small section of road was closed off due to a serious accident which left the road closed for a few hours.

This meant a good mile and half or more detour to get from Barrow In Furness to the next town of Dalton In Furness. The options were a detour along the bypass or depending on where you wanted to be in Dalton using country roads via our local tourist attraction Furness Abbey.

Around this area we are used to a wide variety of different styles of roads but the narrow country lanes and the backroads were kept busy as everyone was using them and travelling in oppsite directions meant a tight squeeze at some places to get through.

The passengers didn't mind as they understood the road was closed and seemed to enjoy the alternate scenic route but it makes you think.....

How much we miss a small section of road that is closed. A quarter of a mile section of road caused a mile to 2 mile detour.

The Cover of a mobile phone

Earlier this week I picked a fare up and took her home, dropped her off. She paid the fare got out the cab and I carried on to my next job. Nothing wrong with that.... Lets move forward 3 days....

3 days later..... She rings the office saying she may have left her phone in my cab. Now at this point I have probably picked up a lot of fares in the last few days and if it wasnt in the cab then its possible anyone could have taken it. As it happens a quick search of the cab revealed a lump down the back of the rear seat. Having to get my hand down and wriggle it around under the seat I managed to grab what felt like a mobile phone and slowly pull it from under the back of the seat.

When I got the phone out and looked at it the cover that holds the battery in place was missing so I guessed it had come off whilst trapped underneath the seat.

It took near on 20 minutes for me to get my tools out and start removing the rear seat so that I could find this persons phone cover. What I did find was about 8 pennies, a train ticket and a receipt for something but no phone cover.

I decided not to hang about any more on this, put the seat back in the car and went to deliver the phone to the lady who had lost it and explained that it was stuck solid down the back of the seat and I couldnt find the missing cover.

Her reply....... Oh that... I knows its missing, I lost it a while ago.

Meanwhile I had been looking for a part that wasnt there.

The things we do for customers. If only she had explained this to our telephonists when she rang up about it in the first place...

Bah....

The Paratrooper

What a way to end a shift. The guy I picked up from one of the towns main nightclubs was well drunk. He clambered into the back of the cab, couldn't remember where he was going and after telling me he wanted to go to the nearby Isle of Walney I then set off.

He decided to lean forward, then sideways and did a few funny manoeuvres in the rear seat before finally falling asleep. I thought nothing of this as its quite usual for drunks to fall asleep on their way home but what did startle me was that part way through the journey he suddenly, woke up, sat up as straight as he could, mumbled something, opened the door and jumped out of the car.

I stopped to make sure he was ok after he decided to jump out of a moving car and after a bit of sorting out it transpires he thought he was in an aeroplane and was ready to parachute out.

He was very lucky not to sustain any injuries apart from ripped clothing and a few grazes and it was a good job I was going slow as I was in an area with speed ramps.

Strange thing is, he seemed to sober up pretty quick, realised what had happened, apologised and paid the fare before walking off up the road.

Taxi drivers grumpy workers?

A recent report shows that London Taxi drivers are Britain's grumpiest workers, according to a survey on Monday, while secretaries are the happiest.

The gloomy prospect of ferrying around strangers every day makes taxi-drivers laugh less than any other profession, according to the survey of 4 000 workers.

Drivers cited traffic jams, the rising cost of petrol, drunken passengers and frisky couples as reasons not to be cheerful.

Fitness instructors could lighten up too, with just 0.9% of them saying they enjoy a giggle in the gym.

Those in recruitment could also do with a good dose of humour, the survey said, as just 3.8% laughed regularly during the working day.

By contrast, 53.5% of secretaries said they laughed on a regular basis during a working day, with a quarter of those surveyed confessing that most of their amusement comes from watching the stressful lives of their disgruntled bosses.

Other workers scoring high on the laughter scale were, perhaps surprisingly, accountants - many of whom said they regularly played pranks or wound up their workmates to alleviate the daily grind - and teachers.

The results of the survey, conducted for comedy TV channel G.O.L.D. also revealed a correlation between laughter at work and days off taken sick.

The more we laugh, it seems, the less we skive.

Heroin courier taxi driver jailed

You never know what could be lurking in your cab. Customers leave all sorts of stuff and some of it is never claimed such as the taser gun that Bob found in his cab a while ago. If you missed that story then click HERE to read it on the blog.

The chances are that you don't know exactly what goods your passengers are carrying and if a customer asked you to deliver a package to an address then would you just do it or question what is in the package.

Read the latest taxi news below and ask yourself. What would you do if given a package to deliver. This story is slightly different in view of the fact the idiotic driver knew what he was carrying.


Heres the story from the BBC News website


A taxi driver who admitted carrying £200,000 worth of heroin to Scotland has been jailed for 32 months.
John Arnold, 45, of George Street, Whitefield, Manchester, was driving north on the A74(M) when police stopped him for routine checks near Lockerbie.
Officers noticed he was nervous and carried out a drugs search of his taxi where they found four packs of heroin.
At the High Court in Edinburgh, Judge Lord Brailsford described it as an "act of gross folly and stupidity".

The court heard how police officers stopped him on the motorway in the south of Scotland in August last year.
They noticed Arnold appeared nervous and was vague and evasive when he spoke to them.

They also spotted a carrier bag sticking out from beneath the front passenger seat and detained him for a drugs search.
Police officers found four packages wrapped in brown paper each containing a half kilogramme of heroin.
The haul was worth a maximum of £200,000 if broken down into street deals.
Arnold told police he was being paid £300 to bring the package north from his home city.
He admitted being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug on 21 August last year.
Arnold had previously been granted bail to allow him to have a knee operation.
Judge Lord Brailsford said he now had no choice but to jail him.
He said: "I am prepared to accept that this offence is out of character.
"I have no alternative but to impose a custodial sentence."
'Strong suspicion'
The judge said he would have jailed him for four years, but the sentence would be reduced following his guilty plea.
Defence counsel Frances Connor said Arnold ran an amateur football team and through that contributed to youth training in his local area.
She said: "It is clear he has disappointed many people by his appearance here today."
Ms Connor said that for several months Arnold had been transporting a man on local journeys who came to be a valued customer.
He was asked by the man to run him to Glasgow where he had "some business" and was offered cash payment for the trip.
However, when Arnold went to pick up the passenger he was told he could not go and would like him to take a package to Glasgow.
The defence counsel said: "He knew something was wrong.
"He had a strong suspicion about what he was being asked to do."

Penny Pinching

The majority of fares will pay what is on the meter and usually give you a tip. Sometimes big, sometimes small. It works both ways as if its say for example £1.90p on the meter the chances are the customer will give you £2 and say keep the change. If it says £2.10p on the meter then I will often say to the customer just give us £2 but this week I got one customer who I had been told was a bit tight and I didn't know whether to believe it or not so off we set on a short journey that was to be £2.25p on the meter.

The customer paid me using a £2 coin, a 20p coin and 3 2p coins totalling £2.26p. I took the money and out it away expecting him to get out the car but he sat there. I had a feeling he was waiting for his penny change so when I rummaged through my loose change and gave him a penny he then thanked me and got out of the car.

Prior to picking this person up I could see him feeding coins into a slot machine and losing.

Red-faced police crack mystery

|A recent news story in Ireland. Nothing to do with taxis but made me laugh anyway

Irish police chasing a Polish driver who had apparently committed more then 50 motoring offences have discovered the embarrassing truth.
Officers had been puzzled how the mysterious 'Prawo Jazdy' had always produced his documents - but with a different address each time.
However, they have now discovered that 'Prawo Jazdy' is Polish for driving licence, reports Metro.
An internal Garda memo, reported in Irish papers, said officers taking details of Polish traffic offenders had been mistakenly using 'Prawo Jazdy', printed in the top right corner of the driving licence, as the holder's name.
"Prawo Jazdy is actually the Polish for driving licence and not the first and surname on the licence," the police memo said.
"It is quite embarrassing to see the system has created Prawo Jazdy as a person with over 50 identities."
A Garda spokesman declined to comment on the reports.

Taxi-driver's own goal

A taxi driver unwittingly became the getaway driver for a thief who had just burgled his home.
Mr Shen, of Huainan city, picked up the passenger at a bus stop at around 3am, reports Xin'an Evening Post.
"He had a lot of home appliances, so I helped him put all of his things into the cab," he said.
"I noticed he had a fish without a tail, and I thought how much it looked like the fish in my freezer at home. But then I laughed at myself for even having the thought."
The passenger said he had just returned from a trip to his home town and had been dropped off by a long distance bus.
Mr Shen only realised the truth when he later returned home to find his house broken into and his possessions - including the tail-less fish - missing.
Police later arrested a 56-year-old man who faces charges of burglary and theft.

Sleep

Why is it that when people are so relaxed in a car that they fall asleep on the journey. It usaully happens with kids on long journeys. Maybe its the drone of the engine or something along those lines.

Its a totally differnt thing when you pick up one of the towns visitors to the local hostelry's and they`ve had a little too much to drink and are tired. Its a common occurance late at night that they will invariably fall asleep during the journey and the hardest part is trying to wake them.

Whats the best way to wake them and get the fare off them. I usually just shout loud or give them a dig but sometimes it doesnt work.

One guy I picked up this week was so tired and drunk that he managed to tell me where he wanted to be before falling asleep. When I got to his house I woke him. This was a major fete in itself as he seemed totally out of it. A shout, a dig, a poke and a prod woke him then it was the usualy 5 minutes of him going through his pockets so he could pay me. First off he offers to pay by Barclaycard. I couldnt accept this payment as we are not geared up for it but I did take a look at his card and note down his name should I have needed it for anything. He then pulled out a condom and offered me that. This was followed by a load of loose change amounting to 27p and 4 lollies which he tried to sell me as part of the taxi fare.

At this point I wasnt sure what I was going to do with him when his wife/partner came out the house and paid the fare and dragged him out of the car.

I wouldnt have liked to be him the next morning.

Bank Holiday Cruising

Its been a busy bank holiday weekend with the usual mixed weather but this didnt stop thousands of holiday makers enjoying Barrow and The Lake District as "The Tahitian Princess" Cruise Liner docked and welcomed American holiday makers to the town.


This meant plenty of taxis at the docks waiting for the passengers and taking them on a daily tour of such areas as Coniston and The Lakes as well as local historic places like Furness Abbey and a drive round the coast.

A great day out for the passengers and the drivers and no one lost out as even the drivers who stayed locally to pick up our regular fares were more than happy as it meant there wern't as many cabs in the town and therefore more work for the local lads

Responsible Adult

She was a young girl with a baby in a travel seat who got into the car. She opened the rear door. put the baby seat in the car complete with baby in it and then went round to the other side and got in the back seat and told me where she wanted to go to.

I asked her if she was going to strap the baby in and she said that she never does and it will be ok. I told her that its not ok, its dangerous if I pull up quick and its illegal. She then proceeded to strap the baby seat into the car and hadn't the faintest idea what to do. She had the child facing forward and didnt know how the seat belt attached to the baby seat. I had to sort it all out for her.

During the journey I asked if it was her child and how old it was. Yes, it was her child and it was 7 months old. Makes you wonder how a young mum can have a child of 7 months and have no idea how to fasten the child into a car safely. She told me she normally travels in her boyfriends car and the baby is never fastened in as its easier to get in and out the car but since she split from her boyfriend she has to get taxis.

Laziness is what it is, she puts the "cant be bothered strapping baby in attitude" before her childs safety. What sort of a mother is this.? I told her this as well. I don`t think she valued my opinion but she won`t ever travel in my vehicle without her baby being properly strapped in.

I doubt she would ever travel in my car again as she would be scared I`d have another go at her over safety of children.

Office staff safety

Its quite disturbing and quite common to hear of assaults on taxi drivers and very rare to hear of assaults on the taxi office staff but it does happen.

As a telephonist answering the phone to a customer, what would you do if they were abusive on the phone. As for me, I wouldnt send them a cab. If they are like that on the phone then what will they be like in the cab. Safety HAS to come first.

Here is one such story. [double click the image to view full size]


What do you think. Does the punishment fit the crime. We are trying to supply a public service. If it was a police officer that was assaulted then the culprit almost certainly would have been sent down so why not for this case. We are both serving the public.

The Long and Winding Road

Last weekend saw the annual Keswick to Barrow Walk. Now if you've never heard of this, it is a gruelling 40 mile sponsored walk raising money for charities whilst taking in some of the Lake Districts breathtaking scenary.


For us taxi drivers, we had to go and pick a few people up from the finishing post as they were too lame to walk anymore but the problem with any event like this is the amount of road closures. Actually, not so much the closures but more the parking and waiting restrictions meaning complete chaos if we went to the designated pick up point and the customer was too tired to walk to it.




Even so, it would have been a great day out for many and thousands of pounds would have been raised for various charities so well done to everyone who took part. The walk was open to everyone including disabled people and its good to see so many taking part as all proceeds will be split between many local charities.



I`ve only ever done the Keswick to Barrow once..... and that was in the car... Ho Hum...

Smelly food and wind

It was a windy day, not too windy as I picked a fare up from one of the many local fast food chains. She got in the car with her food and young son and as you know, the smell of this stuff tends to linger so down goes the windows a little bit to let some fresh air in.

Kids, being kids and having to play about, the litle boy decided to put the back window down and the wind started blowing in the car. The female passenger (who had rather long hair) told the young boy to put the window up, exclaiming and I quote the following, "Put that window up now, I've got hair all over my face".

The young boy calmly turned round to her and said "Why don`t you get a shave then"

Kids seem to say the funniest things.... and in all innocence

Wow!!! I`ve won car

This week or so the company has yet again excelled itself using advanced technology in a move up from the "Ringback" that we provided customers with. Instead of Ringback, our customers who call us using a mobile will get a "Textback".

So whats a Textback". In simple terms its a text telling the customer that their taxi is outside and the beauty of it is that the text also tells the customer what the make model colour and registration of the taxi is.

This has many benefits, It allows the customer to easily spot you, They and you know you have the right fare and car. The customer knows they are being picked up by the cab they ordered and not another one trying to steal the job.

On this one particular day, I picked a young girl up who told me that everytime she rang for a taxi she got sent a junk text message telling her she had won a car. She debated this with her boyfriend and each had thought the other had entered a competition and won a taxi cab.

I didnt realise people could be that thick. I wonder if she replied to the text to see if she really had won a prize.

Honestly. some people are only alive cos its illegal to shoot them. And its right what they say, "In every bunch of roses, theres always one prick".

A nice day out

This week gone I went to the train station to pick up a fare and assumed he was going to Eskdale Avenue in the town but it turned out he wanted to go to Eskdale in the Lake District so off we went and just over an hour later got him to his destination. We had a good chat on the way there and on the way back I was in no rush so had a run around the area and took in some of the sites for a hot summery day.

Not a bad day out. Could do with more of them. Get paid a taxi fare and enjoy yourself at the same time. Sounds good to me.

Pictures are of some of the scenic areas of The Lakes. As always, double click the image to view full size. The picture below shows Birker Fell and it does cut a bit of milage off your journey if you go over the top. What a view from the top...

Pinch Punch, 1st of the month

Its the first day of May meaning two bank holidays on the way. The first is this weekend and the next will be the last weekend of May. Hopefully this means a busy start and end of month but the bit in the middle is usually a quiet one.

As its the 1st May it got me thinking about where the saying "Pinch Punch, 1st of the month" comes from and what its all about. I did ask a few fares but I think they must have thought I was going senile as the majority hadnt heard of it and those that had, couldmt explain it.

Stupid Girl

More CCTV footage shows a girl standing in the middle of the road on her own making no attempt to move when she saw me. I had manoeuvre around her as she just stood there. Afterwards I stopped the car and could hear the conversation between her and a friend.

It appears that the young girl in the road (aged around 14) was arguing with her friend saying she wasn't going home and has had enough of life and was going to stay stood in the middle of the road and not move.

Shortly after, the young girl was dragged off the road and onto the pavement by her friend, then the young girl ran off with her friend chasing her.

No Food cos I said so...

Last night I picked up two girls from the local Chinese takeaway. One of them had food which was not wrapped up and I refused to take her unless she wrapped it up. I do have a sign saying no food and no drink to be carried open or consumed in the car but no one seems to take any notice.

She asked me why I wouldn't allow food in the car and I explained that if I pulled up quick due to some idiot stepping out in front of me then I would probably end up with curry all down the back of my neck. She insisted that she wouldn't spill it but I`ve heard it all before and stood my ground. She did eventually wrap it up but what annoys me is that if I was to do it in their car then they wouldnt like it. - No respect for property thats not their own.

On a serious note, if I was to have an accident and the food got spilt due to the accident and a passenger got scalded off it then would my insurance pay out. I doubt it. So there's another reason not to have food open in the car.

Lap of Luxury

The latest car to join our fleet at A1 83-83-83 is certainly turning a few heads.
Local taxi users just cannot believe it when this brand new Bentley look- a- like purrs to a halt outside to pick them up. Then when they step inside to a world of plush leather and walnut trim to be transported in the lap of luxury they are astonished.
One chap who had ridden in style the previous day told me, when I picked him up in my more mundane saloon that he couldn't stop smiling for the rest of his day.
Tony the colourful character who runs the big shiny beast tells me that it can be hired for any occasion. Weddings, nights out, birthdays, executive travel or even just to give your old mum a treat.

One extreme to another

Earlier today I picked up an elderly gentleman and took him to Walney Island (Not too far from Barrows Town centre). During the journey he was sick in the car. Not through drink or anything but he was genuinly ill. It wasn't a lot of sick and he said he couldnt afford the soiling fee and if I kept the meter running whilst he cleaned it up then he would pay the total on the meter.

I thought this would be a good idea as it saves him money, it was a genuine illness and not self inflicted through drink and I thought it would also save me the job of cleaning it up.

The elderly gentleman went in his house and came out with all sorts of cleaning stuff and set to work cleaning the mess up that he had made. Now bear in mind that it wasnt much and therefore shouldn't have took that long but by the time he had finished, the car on the inside looked the cleanest it has done in a long time. Not only had he cleaned the mess up but he had polished and waxed the interior trims and dashboard and made it smell really nice then opened the back doors and done them and wiped round the trims. I didn't ask him to do this but he said he felt bad about what happened and wanted to put things right.

I never expected this and after inspecting what he had done to clean the car and admiring his work I didn't have the heart to charge him the fare.

If only everyone else was like that.

Later on as day turned to night and the usual drunken idiots that cant handle their beer came out to play it was a different matter, violence, aggression and abuse were the order of the night but thats about the norm these days with these cretins that cant handle their beer

Hair raising

Quite often when the computers in our cabs give us a job to do we will find that the persons name is spelt wrong usually due to the operator mis-hearing the customer or a case of bad spelling and so this week I got a job at a local hostelry to pick up someone by the name of "No hair".

I pulled up outside the pub and waited a moment when a guy asked me if the name was O'Hare. I quickly figured out that this was the correct fare and as he got in the car I couldn't help but notice he was totally bald. I rather quickly moved my data screen out of his view in case he thought someone was taking the mick out of him.

I`ve had some strange names come up on that screen in the past and some strange spellings. One that could have been embarrassing was the name MUFF. Turns out it should have been Murph.

Anyone else had any strange names????