Collision course: Complaints about taxi drivers

ARE taxi drivers getting crankier? What causes some of them to give customers grounds for so many complaints? 

In these hard times, it is perhaps not surprising that customers gripe about the prices taxi drivers charge, but what is surprising is the increase in the volume of complaints (up by almost 14%, so far, this year) and particularly the fact that roughly half of the complaints relate to driver behaviour. That’s just not good enough.

According to the National Transport Authority, the number of complaints against drivers this year has reached 562, compared with 494 over the same period last year. In the past two years, customers have made the highest ever number of complaints against them — 952 in 2014 and 928 last year.

There has been a 20% increase in disputes over fares, which now account for a third of all formal complaints to the NTA.

Taxi drivers should not forget that they are providing a service to the public.