Taxi fare is foul... and so is the smell, public complains

SMELLY cars, campaign stickers for the referendum and drivers estimating fares in their head were just some of the complaints made against taxi drivers to the National Transport Authority over the past year.

Figures obtained by the Irish Daily Mail show that 1,282 complaints were made to the NTA against drivers across the country in the year leading up to November 1, 2018.

A selection of complaints obtained by this newspaper show that one driver was given a fixed payment notice for failing to operate his meter while telling a customer he was ‘estimating prices himself’ after giving her a price before her journey started.

Another complainant said she noticed ‘a bad odour in the taxi’, before realising that her friend’s trousers were wet. Despite making a complaint to the NTA, the customer did not pursue the complaint further.

A referendum sticker was also a cause of consternation for a member of the public who reported a taxi driver with a sticker about ‘a major political issue which is extremely emotive and divisive’.

NTA investigators said the driver removed the propaganda once approached about it.

A series of complaints involved drivers refusing journeys because they were too short, with claims of overcharging also featuring.

Overall, 478 complaints referred to driver behaviour; 464 related to fares; 286 involved problems hiring the taxi in the first place; 48 related to the condition of the vehicle; and four related to the driver’s identification.

Despite making a complaint, 374 people did not respond to calls from the NTA for further detail while 42 said they did not want to take the matter further. In total, 27 of the complaints made were referred on to gardaí.

Last year, the highest number of complaints were received during the busy Christmas period with 128 reports made in December 2017 followed by 126 complaints made in July.

A spokesman for taxi group Tiománaí Tacsaí na Héireann said the complaints related to a very small number of drivers. ‘The number of complaints compared to the percentage of number of taxi journeys is very, very small,’ he said. ‘The number of convictions for taxi drivers, whether the complaint is followed through, is even smaller.

‘99.9% of taxi drivers go out and are working hard for a living and they do a really decent job. People will see that over the next couple of weeks when they’re looking for taxis at three, four, five in the morning to get home safely and no other transport services available, that the taxis are there.’

‘99.9% of drivers do a decent job’