28% rise in complaints about taxi services

The ease with which complaints can be made is behind the rise in taxi-related complaints lodged with the National Transport Authority (NTA), the Irish Taxi Drivers’ Federation has claimed.

Mon, 30 Mar, 2015 - 01:00

Gordon Deegan

President Joe Heron was responding to figures which show the number of complaints lodged with the NTA against taxis by the public last year soared by over 28%.

Mr Heron said the main factor behind the increase in complaints “is that it is now so easy for members of the public to make complaints by going online”. He said a “huge numbers of the complaints are spurious”.

Figures released by the NTA in response to a Freedom of Information request show complaints increased by 210 from 742 in 2013 to 952 last year.

The 952 complaints lodged in 2014 compares to 377 in 2012 and the almost tripling of complaints in three years followed the NTA introducing online complaints in early 2013.

The largest proportion of complaints centred around ‘driver behaviour’, accounting for 465 complaints in 2014.

There was an additional 327 complaints made in relation to ‘fare matters’ with an additional 113 complaints made under the heading of ‘hiring and booking’.

No action was taken in 58.5% of cases. Reasons for no further action included anonymous complaints, insufficient evidence, no ID of driver or vehicle licence, no offence committed and complainant unwilling to participate in a prosecution case.

The busiest time for complaints was December when 113 were lodged, followed by the June to September tourist season with 100 complaints lodged in September.

Last year, the NRA referred 208 complaints to the gardaí. The complaints referred to gardaí are not based on the gravity of the offence but the nature of the complaint and the existing powers of the NTA to deal with them. In 2014, the NTA took 80 prosecutions against drivers for breaching the regulations.