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Taxi's refusing to take someone in a wheelchair

2»

Comments

  • #32
    minidazzler
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,650 ✭✭✭✭minidazzler


    MagicMarker wrote: »
    Why?

    There are only a few wheelchair taxi's around, even most minibuses can't take them, so if one comes along, wheelchair gets priority because who knows when the next one will be available. Also, regulations say something to that effect, taxi drivers don't get wheelchair taxi's out of the goodness of their hearts, AFAIK there are incentives. Not sure what they are though.


  • #33
    Mike 1972
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,017 ✭✭✭Mike 1972


    MagicMarker wrote: »
    Maybe it's an insurance issue? There are taxis available with wheelchair access.

    Why in this day and age are all taxi's not wheelchair accessable ?


  • #34
    2qk4u
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,162 ✭✭✭2qk4u


    MagicMarker wrote: »
    A taxi driver may not unreasonably refuse a fair, do you think a taxi driver asking a customer to use the taxi at the top of the rank is unreasonable? No taxi driver in the country would be punished for doing this.
    Yes they would, its the regulations , Im not just making this up. Go have a read of this - http://taxiregulation.nationaltransport.ie/for-users/


  • #35
    minidazzler
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,650 ✭✭✭✭minidazzler


    MagicMarker wrote: »
    Link?

    http://taxiregulation.nationaltransport.ie/for-operators/spsv-vehicle-licensing/


  • #36
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    minidazzler wrote: »
    There are only a few wheelchair taxi's around, even most minibuses can't take them, so if one comes along, wheelchair gets priority because who knows when the next one will be available. Also, regulations say something to that effect, taxi drivers don't get wheelchair taxi's out of the goodness of their hearts, AFAIK there are incentives. Not sure what they are though.
    Oh that's fine, a wheelchair user getting priority to one of the few wheelchair accessible taxis is fine. But that's not what 2qk4u said, she/he said that that a wheelchair user gets priority in response to someone mentioning that maybe this woman skipped the queue of people, and it hasn't been determined that she approached a wheelchair accessible taxi.


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  • #37
    2qk4u
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,162 ✭✭✭2qk4u


    Mike 1972 wrote: »
    Why in this day and age are all taxi's not wheelchair accessable ?

    Because they are too expensive to buy.


  • #38
    j8wk2feszrnpao
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,438 ✭✭✭j8wk2feszrnpao


    Mike 1972 wrote: »
    Why in this day and age are all taxi's not wheelchair accessable ?


    Costs, I'd imagine.


  • #39
    280special
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 386 ✭✭280special


    I know that in the past bus operators could not refuse to take someone unless they were a danger to themselves or other passengers...most times drunks were the only ones not allowed on ! Even were someone got on the bus and didnt have the money or refused to pay the fare the driver was obliged to take them to the next stop or town if it was in the country before getting them off the bus.

    Surely if that is the case a Taxi cannot refuse a fare without just cause?


    By the way, no one in the Q of passengers raised or voiced any objections, thankfully the attitudes of some on this forum might not be that commonplace.


  • #40
    j8wk2feszrnpao
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,438 ✭✭✭j8wk2feszrnpao


    2qk4u wrote: »
    Yes they would, its the regulations , Im not just making this up. Go have a read of this - http://taxiregulation.nationaltransport.ie/for-users/

    Reading that, then the taxi asking the user to use the taxi at the top wouldn't be unreasonable.


  • #41
    Mike 1972
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,017 ✭✭✭Mike 1972


    280special wrote: »
    I know that in the past bus operators could not refuse to take someone unless they were a danger to themselves or other passengers...most times drunks were the only ones not allowed on ! Even were someone got on the bus and didnt have the money or refused to pay the fare the driver was obliged to take them to the next stop or town if it was in the country before getting them off the bus.
    .

    How long ago are we talking about ?
    It hasnt been the case for as I can remember and I seriously doubt it ever was.
    Malachi Dead Yearbook wrote: »
    Costs, I'd imagine.
    Just how much does a wheelchair accessible vehicle cost ?

    Surely making it mandatory for PSV's manufactured after a certain date would bring costs down through economies of scale ?


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  • #42
    2qk4u
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,162 ✭✭✭2qk4u


    Malachi Dead Yearbook wrote: »
    Reading that, then the taxi asking the user to use the taxi at the top wouldn't be unreasonable.
    Its an offence and the driver will get a €250 fine .


  • #43
    Mat the trasher
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 365 ✭✭Mat the trasher


    http://taxiregulation.nationaltransport.ie/for-users/taxi-compliments-and-complaints/when-can-a-taxi-driver-refuse-service/


  • #44
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    2qk4u wrote: »
    Its an offence and the driver will get a €250 fine .
    Has a driver ever been fined for asking someone to use the taxi at the top of the rank?


  • #45
    280special
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 386 ✭✭280special


    Mike 1972 wrote: »
    How long ago are we talking about ?
    It hasnt been the case for as I can remember and I seriously doubt it ever was.

    It was the case in the late 80's as well as untill at least the late 90's. How do I know ? Because back then I was a regular, 5 day a week, traveller on a private coach, I remember at least three or four occasions when the driver cited the regs to various drunks or guys who were messing about, and a couple of other times when young lads thought they was being smart by saying they had no money. I also remember a Bus Eireann driver pulling in outside a Garda station, well short of our destination and late in the evening, when a guy refused to pay, gave him what sounded like a standard speel about refusal to pay and told him he could either get off or the boys in blue would do it for him.


  • #46
    280special
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 386 ✭✭280special


    MagicMarker wrote: »
    Has a driver ever been fined for asking someone to use the taxi at the top of the rank?

    I imagine the driver could certainly ask, but cant refuse to take the fare themselves if their suggestion isnt taken up. Customer's have the right to choose whose services they use. After all if the lead driver was someone who you had a row with previously, wasnt a good driver, or who you felt overcharged you in the past you would hardly want to travel with them again ?


  • #47
    ilovesleep
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,619 ✭✭✭ilovesleep


    Some people who are less abled and require a wheelchair can very much indeed walk for brief periods and would be able to go for example from a car to a doorstep. So the person in Dublin in the OP could very well be capable of sitting into the back of a car unaided and wheelchairs can fold up. Dispicable carry on from the taxi drivers.


  • #48
    j8wk2feszrnpao
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,438 ✭✭✭j8wk2feszrnpao


    2qk4u wrote: »
    Malachi Dead Yearbook wrote: »
    Reading that, then the taxi asking the user to use the taxi at the top wouldn't be unreasonable.
    Its an offence and the driver will get a €250 fine .

    Not based on the above link.
    There was no definition of unreasonable, so doubt they'd be fined, tough to convict without witness/proof.

    But I've no knowledge of the legislation, nor of this case (circumstances have not been fully explained).


  • #49
    bijapos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,002 ✭✭✭bijapos


    There seems to be some confusion here:

    A "wheelchair accessible taxi" is one where you can physically get a wheelchair plus person into the taxi by means of a ramp or a lift. These are usually used by people in motorised wheelchairs as they are too heavy to lift into a boot or by people with such a disability as to make them get out of the wheelchair either very discomforting, dangerous or impossible. These are almost always some kind of converted MPV or van.

    A standard wheelchair like you would see in a hospital can be literally folded in 5 seconds and put into the boot of any car. A taxi driver is obliged to accept this fare payer if they are capable of entering and leaving the taxi on their own without any assistance. If its a case of the passenger having to be lifted into the taxi, the driver can refuse this on health and safety grounds.

    Presuming the woman was able to get out of the chair and into the taxi on her own the drivers were not allowed to refuse her.

    If they mistakenly believed she was badly disabled and needed a wheelchair taxi they should either have made the effort to inform her of this or shown something that wasn't ignorance and offered to get the radio operator to get a wheelchair accesible taxi for her.

    I was in a wheelchair for about 6 weeks some time ago (damaged leg and broken wrist) and the ignorance of taxi drivers here was probably the worst thing I had at the time. It was before mobile phones so it wasn't as if I could ring a certain driver in advance to come and pick me up.

    Either way in this case the taxi drivers should have accepted her and they are in the wrong.


  • #50
    LighterGuy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,243 ✭✭✭LighterGuy


    Hmmm,
    I dont know what to make of this story (as in whats at play) I'm picturing it in my head as I know the Connolly Station rank. Like where these taxis who refused 6 seaters or regular taxis?

    Was it the taxi drivers being dicks by refusing out of 'hassle' (hassle = them being lazy bastards fearing they might have to help) or was it because they were just following rank etiquette and refusing because they werent the first in the que?

    Or is it because there are disabled taxi rules? .. that a normal taxi cannot pick up a disabled person officially (while lets be honest, many a normal taxi probably would but in a rank they might not be so open to then because of the other taxis around?)


  • #51
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 99,624 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    When did Dublin get the first wheelchair accessible taxi's ?

    Point is that before that ALL wheelchairs would have to go in the boot anyway.

    While it a taxi can refuse on reasonable grounds, since it is illegal to discriminate based on disabilities you can't call that reasonable grounds.


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  • #52
    Mike 1972
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,017 ✭✭✭Mike 1972


    280special wrote: »
    It was the case in the late 80's as well as untill at least the late 90's.

    Not according to this it wasnt

    Its possible that Private coaches may have been a different matter given that back in the day many of them were operating in something of a legal grey area anyways ?


  • #53
    arybvtcw0eolkf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 24,608 ✭✭✭✭arybvtcw0eolkf


    Wow wait a cotton picking minute.. Its YEARS since I've seen a que for taxi's, and esp @ Connelly station where the que of taxi's go right around to Noctors pub in Sheriff St.


  • #54
    Agent Smith
    Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 21,505 Mod ✭✭✭✭Agent Smith


    Mike 1972 wrote: »
    Not according to this it wasnt

    Its possible that Private coaches may have been a different matter given that back in the day many of them were operating in something of a legal grey area anyways ?

    You'd be surprised, People coming off the belfast train, when the longford and Wexford trains all come in around the same time.


    I'll admit, its rare.

    you are perfectly entitled to get into any taxi on the rank. Most drivers will request you get into the first car at the top.


  • #55
    280special
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 386 ✭✭280special


    Mike 1972 wrote: »
    Not according to this it wasnt

    Its possible that Private coaches may have been a different matter given that back in the day many of them were operating in something of a legal grey area anyways ?

    Perhaps, but this also happened on Bus eireann, maybe they had/have different rules to those cited for Dublin Bus ?

    As far as i recall private buses operated by way of the service being provided to you as a member of a club. Membership of the club was available on a daily, weekly or monthly basis I presume ! So perhaps thats the way they were legally able to refuse carraige if a fare wasnt paid. Having said that this was on an operation were the fare wasnt collected untill the coach had been travelling for approx 30mins.This operators who took the fare as passengers boarded wouldnt have had that problem so perhaps that is why it wasnt seen that often.


  • #56
    280special
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 386 ✭✭280special


    Malakai Stocky Pauper wrote: »
    Wow wait a cotton picking minute.. Its YEARS since I've seen a que for taxi's, and esp @ Connelly station where the que of taxi's go right around to Noctors pub in Sheriff St.

    Try just after 9am or 12.15 ! I have had to stand about waiting several times.Usually its only for a few mins but once or twice I ended up walking to the rank on O'Connell St.


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