Taxi firm refuses to take disabled people.

[Waldo 96]

b) What rubbish. As I said, a disabled person should not have to pay a premium for the same services as an able bodied person. That's the law.

 

I agree, but you're getting an extra service (putting up ramps) that abled bodied people do not get; are you saying you should get that extra service for free?

 

If I was to have the taxi driver stop and fiddle around with ramps or whatever, I'd think it only fair that I pay for his time.

[Claire_ 10]

If time getting ramps out is on the meter as waiting time the driver will be being paid. If they weren't getting any more money there wouldn't be any incentive for them to deliberately take their time - quite the opposite.

 

---------- Post added 14-01-2014 at 16:29 ----------

 

 

And that's part of the cost of running a business - under the DDA you have make 'reasonable adjustment' for disabled people and you can't charge more for it.

But what is reasonable?

[Bruno 10]

a) Yes you are extremely fortunate not to suffer discrimination against you. Others of us aren't so lucky... Try reading that sentence back but exchange the concept to "I'm going to charge my customers extra for having an entrance to my shop that's not stepped" and see how wrong it is.

 

b) What rubbish. As I said, a disabled person should not have to pay a premium for the same services as an able bodied person. That's the law

 

c) All new hackney carriages (black-cabs) have to have wheelchair ramps these days. it's the law

 

d) Until you have actually experienced drivers of hackney carriages doing this, you probably aren't qualified to speak. It was a very common scam of certain hackney carriage drivers, to knock up as much waiting time as possible both boarding and exiting the cab. It was an issue brought before the taxi licensing people on a number of occasions by various people who had been discriminated against.

i was pointing out if I was going to be a taxi driver working through such as City Cars or Excel why should I buy a specially adapted car that's going to cost me more to purchase ?

Can you not ask for more money from whoever pays disability allowance to cover extra charges?

 

I agree if a driver deliberately taking time so the meter adds more is wrong, so maybe a small extra charge to cover the time and handling of ramps and wheelchairs to make it fair to the driver.

[garrence 10]

I think the charging premium is due to them having a wheelchair friendly car which presumably costs more to purchase and run than a standard saloon.

 

It's just a cost to the business for meeting their obligations under the Equalities Act (which replaced the DDA).

 

The Act would apply to all taxi companies and thus is fair to all.

 

It's quite normal for a business to spend some revenue from able-bodied customers on making reasonable adjustments to accommodate their disabled customers.

 

The owner of the taxi company has done a Ratner.

Edited January 14, 2014 by garrence

[Scabbydog 10]

 

And that's part of the cost of running a business - under the DDA you have make 'reasonable adjustment' for disabled people and you can't charge more for it.

 

So does that mean folk who rent out canoes have to adapt them to take wheel chairs?

[JFKvsNixon 11]

So does that mean folk who rent out canoes have to adapt them to take wheel chairs?

 

I guess the key words are - reasonable adjustment.

[garrence 10]

So does that mean folk who rent out canoes have to adapt them to take wheel chairs?

 

CanoeEngland's PaddleAbility pages are a good place to start learning about canoeing for disabled people.

[Scabbydog 10]

I guess the key words are - reasonable adjustment.

 

So once you have established that not all businesses are suitable for wheelchairs, would it be reasonable for a self employed minicab driver not to offer wheelchair access?

[garrence 10]

So once you have established that not all businesses are suitable for wheelchairs, would it be reasonable for a self employed minicab driver not to offer wheelchair access?

 

The requirements relating to taxis are Sections 160 to 173 of the Equality Act.

[Scabbydog 10]

The requirements relating to taxis are Sections 160 to 173 of the Equality Act.

 

So what does it say about self employed minicab drivers?

[garrence 10]

So what does it say about self employed minicab drivers?

 

It defines "taxi" as follows:

 

“taxi”—

(a)means a vehicle which is licensed under section 37 of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 or section 6 of the Metropolitan Public Carriage Act 1869, and

(b)in sections 162 and 165 to 167, also includes a taxi licensed under section 10 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982,

[JFKvsNixon 11]

So once you have established that not all businesses are suitable for wheelchairs, would it be reasonable for a self employed minicab driver not to offer wheelchair access?

 

Remember we are talking about a decent sized taxi firm not an individual taxi.

 

Taking this into account, and also taking into account the number of taxis that I've been in that have had room for disabled access, so the expense cannot be that prohibitive, I'd say that it is reasonable for a decent sized taxi firm to be able to offer taxis for people requiring disabled access.

Edited January 14, 2014 by JFKvsNixon
Spelling as usual.