Clipped by private hire taxi

[taurus]

This evening a private hire taxi changed lanes without signalling and clipped my front wing putting a slight scrape and dent in it. It is an old Toyota I use as a runabout so I don't give a hoot about the damage to be honest.

What irritates me is that as he pulled out I sounded my horn, braked and nearly avoided the coming together, then again sounded my horn and flashed him - at which point he blithely continued on his way.

I followed him sounding my horn and flashing the headlights until about a mile further on he pulled in to pick up his fare, at which point I had words with him.

Despite protesting he hadn't hit me the scrape on my wing and the matching scrape on his rear wheelarch seemed to convince him he'd done it. When I offered to involve the law he rapidly changed his tune and offered a cash settlement.

I gave him my address which is local - and he seemed to have no idea where it was. Odd for a taxi driver not to know the area?

Now - I'm not fussed about the scrape, I've bashed it worse just getting my kit in and out of it - but I'm annoyed that he cleared off without stopping and a bit suspicious at his change of tune when the police were mentioned and not knowing a local address. He was also really keen I didn't photograph his car, licence plate and no. plate.

Part of me says just wait and see if he delivers the promised cash and leave it at that.

Another part of me says its a bit dubious, but if I wait until tomorrow and ring the feds then it's a bit late to do anything about it.

Any wisdom folks?

[joem83]

Did you take a pic of his plate and taxi number?

Also if you did and not sure what to do, give 101 a call?

[Deleted]

I highly doubt he'll come back given the aforementioned suspicious behavior - hopefully you got some details such as the reg/etc?

[chunkybond]

The Uber drivers are actually the WORST drivers on the street in London, period.

The number of times they are in the wrong lane, don't indicate, run red lights, park badly to pick up fares etc is shocking.

Oh, and two (Yes, two) have driven in to the back of me in the space of a week. Absolutely shocking.

[taurus]

I've got his licence plate and registration.

I guess if he doesn't show up as promised I can always track him via the cab company. Their head office is round the corner so I can go in a make a nuisance of myself.

[qwerty]

Report him the the police and the council. The police can deal with him for the manner of his driving and the council can investigate whether he is a fit and proper taxi driver.

[ChasR]

His driving was stupid but coming from there before (albeit being hit by someone else) and seeing others affected I can see why he was irresponsible.

If one was driving for a firm (I.e the car was rented to them for a fee or the car was driven via a percentage scheme (if a driver earns 1k for 2 weeks half of it will go to the company) some firms work on stupid terms here IMHO. They will charge you more than full whack to get something repaired but will do a shoddy job of it and pocket the rest.

As an example I remember a tired Pug 406 with 450k on the clock after another car hit him. the taxi driver 'fessed up to be fair. He was made to pay £650 for the damage! The car suffered from the bumper breaking (it looked fine but the foglight mounts had snapped), headlight (cracked) and a bent bonnet?

How did it come back? Same as the above bar a new headlight and a bonnet with so much orange peel that you would have thought the car was an orange if it was painted orange!

Sure, there is the hassle of dealing with things but IMHO the above (which is rife in the industry) is daylight robbery if you ask me. The company can say to work elsewhere but other places IME are not all that different. I guess from a company perspective going through the insurance can really hike things up especially with public liability involved.

OTOH, it never ceases to amaze me how taxi drivers trash the company cars and are quick to moan when there are no spare cars to drive ; it does seem that brains are lacking here or I am missing something!

Call me soft, but I say wait and failing that, call the police.

[taurus]

Some good thoughts here - thanks folks. Well he's due to turn up at 4.00pm today and pay up, otherwise I'll report him as a failing to stop after a collision and then also take it up with the taxi firm. I will update when I get home and see if he's kept his word.

He was really keen for me not to take a photo of his licence plate so I'm guessing that's something to do with the way the taxi is operating, in which case he may be glad to pay up and have done with it.

[retroade]

If it were me I wouldn't have given him the option to drive off. The options would have been give me insurance details, pay now or call the cops right here right now, I bet he would have paid.

I would also have taken plenty of pictures. This guy is in the wrong, he can't dictate whether you take photos or not. The whole thing is very suspicious.

Sounds to me like either this guy shouldn't be driving or there's some dodgy practice going on with the cab firm. Either way not your problem, let the plod / council take care of it. Just make sure you get reimbursed.

Could be this guy is not CRB checked, in which case not only is he illegally driving a cab but also a potential risk to passengers.

Has he not mentioned insurance at all?

Whole thing sounds fishy to me, I'd be calling 101 this morning. Not that I have much faith in plod following these things up, but it should get his plate on the ANPR system as a failure to stop.

[Ryannn]

I had a lot of problems when I got hit by a taxi.

Refused to tell me where he worked, I found out just by reading the door ffs! Called the place and they denied all knowledge of him!

Once I got that sorted out, we agreed a cash price and he said he'd only pay when the work was done, fair enough. I got the work done for that agreed price (I already knew a place that did bumpers for x amount) and when I went back with the receipt he began to haggle again at a price lower than I paid!

I'd never give one the benefit of doubt again. Always call the police, even just 101.

[steveo3002]

be surprised if he turns up

wana watch out he doesnt do the dirty and have a dozen taxi rank mates witness you hit him and now he has whiplash

[jasonj]

Sept 15, 2015 6:04:22 GMT taurus said:

Some good thoughts here - thanks folks. Well he's due to turn up at 4.00pm today and pay up, otherwise I'll report him as a failing to stop after a collision and then also take it up with the taxi firm. I will update when I get home and see if he's kept his word.

He was really keen for me not to take a photo of his licence plate so I'm guessing that's something to do with the way the taxi is operating, in which case he may be glad to pay up and have done with it.

Just be careful if you report him as you might get had for failure to report an accident. Come up with some story saying you were still in shock last night after it happened and that's why you didn't report it right away.

[taurus]

You've got 24 hours to report an accident and you only really need to report it if you caused the damage or someone was injured. Either way I'll be within the 24 hour period so it leaves my options open.

[ratchart]

Maybe I'm paranoid but personally, I'd be a little worried that the minicab driver has your address, as he's already acted in a dishonest manner. 

If it's just a normal private car driver then I can understand why you wouldn't bother involving authorities and insurance companies etc, but I would have had no scruples against reporting a (so called) professional driver straight away. And if he (or the firm he works for) is doing something more illegal than a bit of careless/dangerous driving then they deserve to have the book thrown at them. 

[taurus]

Well he turned up, apologized, handed over what we agreed without quibble and we shook on it.

Fair enough in my book.

[andyborris]

Every one makes mistakes, it's the way we/they deal with them that counts....happy(ish) ending I think.

[Ryannn]

Sept 15, 2015 16:40:15 GMT taurus said:

Well he turned up, apologized, handed over what we agreed without quibble and we shook on it.

Fair enough in my book.

Genuinely surprising!

[Deleted]

Sept 15, 2015 9:24:20 GMT jasonj said:

Sept 15, 2015 6:04:22 GMT taurus said:

Some good thoughts here - thanks folks. Well he's due to turn up at 4.00pm today and pay up, otherwise I'll report him as a failing to stop after a collision and then also take it up with the taxi firm. I will update when I get home and see if he's kept his word.

He was really keen for me not to take a photo of his licence plate so I'm guessing that's something to do with the way the taxi is operating, in which case he may be glad to pay up and have done with it.

Just be careful if you report him as you might get had for failure to report an accident. Come up with some story saying you were still in shock last night after it happened and that's why you didn't report it right away.

You only have to report an accident to the police if there are injuries.

[henspeed]

All is well that ends well.
Just goes to show that no everyone in the world is a tosser