London Cabbies

[martint235]

A friend showed me a forum for London cabbies today. They really, really, really don't like us cyclists!!! In fact from what I could see the only thing they dislike more is other cabbies that nick their fares.....

They do have a cool smiley of face eating popcorn though but it wouldn't copy over unforunately!!!

 

[gary r]

i work at Heathrow and sometimes use the black cab drivers canteen,its where they queue up before being called into the Terminals.They are such a bunch of To**ers.,im sure some of them are OK but most of them are just scumbags.There are some pictures of motorcycle despatch riders on the walls with targets drawn on them.and they have a wall dedicated to all the dead cabbies with their photos.i always get the skunk eye when i go in there,perhaps we should arrange a ride to meet at the black cab drivers cafe for a cake stop!!!!!!

 

[Dan B]

A friend showed me a forum for London cabbies today. They really, really, really don't like us cyclists!!! In fact from what I could see the only thing they dislike more is other cabbies that nick their fares.....

Ask them about roller skaters ...

 

[martint235]

They are so bad that they're funny. Anything that jeopardises their trade is just slagged off. They never wonder whether they overcharge for the service hence letting minicabs have a market to work in. And as for pedicabs........

There's a lot on there about the guy who was attacked by a cabbie on Oxford St. The cabbies reckon he strangled himself when he got home so that he could say the cabbie choked him unconscious with a scarf!!

 

[Globalti]

Huh! You should try Paris cabbies! We took a taxi from the Air France terminus at Porte Maillot a short distance to our friend's flat in Neuilly and the driver went absolutely fecking mad! He couldn't refuse the fare and I suppose he was annoyed at losing his place in the queue for such a short trip, he swore and abused us in French then slammed the car boot violently. Merde alors!

 

[Alan Whicker]

I'm still waiting for a cabbie to do something nice to make up for the one who 'encouraged' me out a junction with his front bumper last year. No tips for 'em until then.

 

[tjsc1]

I'm a London cab driver!!

gary 4.......tossers/scumbags.......thats a bit strong, were not all like that. Dont forget there are approx 23000 taxi's in London.
I cycle as well.
I suppose there are tossers/scumbags even in your work. You have to be a 'face' up at the heathrow rank otherwise you will get 'looked' at.
I have been a cab driver for 23 years and never been in there.

martint235......we are all in the same boat now, we all have to have the expensive 'overhauls' they have to charge just as much as us!! Maybe a bit cheaper on a loooooong run!!
TC

 

[martint235]

I'm a London cab driver!!



martint235......we are all in the same boat now, we all have to have the expensive 'overhauls' they have to charge just as much as us!! Maybe a bit cheaper on a loooooong run!!
TC

TC, thanks for the clarification. I didn't know that. Whenever I see black cab drivers on TV though eg defending a protest, it always seems to be "These people are stealing our livelihoods" rather than "How can we make our service better so that people don't use these other services?". I'm afraid that just loses any sympathy I may have had. We're all facing tough times and all markets will become competitive. I don't think it's fair for cabbies to blockade London "Cos I've done the knowledge guv'nor"

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

Huh! You should try Paris cabbies! We took a taxi from the Air France terminus at Porte Maillot a short distance to our friend's flat in Neuilly and the driver went absolutely fecking mad! He couldn't refuse the fare and I suppose he was annoyed at losing his place in the queue for such a short trip, he swore and abused us in French then slammed the car boot violently. Merde alors!

Same thing happens at Heathrow. I used to fly very frequently, and have had verbal abuse, cabbies pretending not knowing how to get there, etc. on numerous occasions.


Until a more thoughtful one told me the reason.

For those of you who have taken a cab from Heathrow, do you recall and did it strike you as strange that a warden will always ask you where you are going before waving you to the next cab in the queue? You see if the destination is within the boundary, the driver gets the "chit"; if your destination is just beyond, you better be prepared for the wrath that is sure to follow.

Lying to the warden about the destination works. The warden will tell the cabbie what you said, once the cab gets going you tell the cabbie you have changed your mind where you want to go, sit back, receive the thanks, and feel the love.

But of course this is important only to people who live just outside the boundary. I don't know the boundary exactly, but in the past it crossed Kew Bridge, and any address in West Ealing would do.

 

[gary r]

I'm a London cab driver!!

gary 4.......tossers/scumbags.......thats a bit strong, were not all like that. Dont forget there are approx 23000 taxi's in London.
I cycle as well.
I suppose there are tossers/scumbags even in your work. You have to be a 'face' up at the heathrow rank otherwise you will get 'looked' at.
I have been a cab driver for 23 years and never been in there.

martint235......we are all in the same boat now, we all have to have the expensive 'overhauls' they have to charge just as much as us!! Maybe a bit cheaper on a loooooong run!!
TC

I did cover myself by saying "im sure some of them are ok"

 

[slowmotion]

I don't ride in the City, just in west and south-west London. Maybe things are worse further east. Cabbies in my neck of the woods are pretty good when I'm out on the bike. I have had no reason to complain at all for the last year and a half. If there are 23 thousand of them, a good few must have passed my shoulders recently.

 

[tjsc1]

This is where I can feel a bit 'Holy'.
Anyone riden along 'Marylebone Road' in the rush hour (or 2 or 3!!)?? Loads and loads of cyclists, It must be my age, I just let them go on their merry way, undertaking/overtaking, four/five deep at lights........life is too short!!

 

[dellzeqq]

London cab drivers have improved in the last ten years, but there's still plenty of neanderthals about. There was a time when a sizeable proportion were out and out racists, but you no longer listen to rants about immigrants. If my handing it back in a really big way had something to do with that, then I'm happy.

I'm afraid, tjsc1, I've got limited sympathy for them in what I understand are hard times. I have the misfortune to take black cabs on decent sized journeys, and I still have the misfortune to listen to crap - and the cabbie still has the misfortune to listen to me telling him that he's an arse. A lot of them don't have a clue where they're going (St. Pancras/Islington to Streatham Hill through Brixton or Heathrow to Streatham Hill through Earls Court - I don't think so!) and they run red lights as if it was a sacred right (for which they get told off, by the way). I can't wait for them to be squeezed out of bus lanes like the A23 and the A501, which they use as if they have a snowplough fitted to the front.

 

[subaqua]

This is where I can feel a bit 'Holy'.
Anyone riden along 'Marylebone Road' in the rush hour (or 2 or 3!!)?? Loads and loads of cyclists, It must be my age, I just let them go on their merry way, undertaking/overtaking, filtering safely as peanut drivers can't use mirrors and have the memory of a goldfish ( QI buzzer sounds as it obblocks but used for illustrating a point) as they passed you less than 2 seconds previously
four/five deep at lights in the ASL as thay are allowed to........life is great when you ride properly !!

FTFY

 

[tjsc1]

dellzegg.........I can usually size someone up within 10 seconds as to if they are amiable or not, so if I had you in my cab, I would'nt say a word!!as for 'Longer journeys' and the way they go........

Alot of people would just prefer to 'keep moving', if I know of a hold up or big road works (of which there are loads in London) I always explain and ask what they would like me to do. Radio cabs especially have computer terminals that gives out information on road works/hold up's, its nothing for me to be going down a road and doing a quick 'u turn' and go the complete opposite way just to avoid it. Saying that, I would never go anywhere near Earls Court, bl**dy traffic jams all day long. BUT, you go along the road a bit further and you are in a hold up outside the History museum!!, if you go right and go through South Ken, now that the junction has changed.....you get hold ups as well!! thats why I always ask the passenger/or advise them.......(am I good, or wot!!). On the other journey through Brixton.....I always miss out Brixton and go further down to North Clapham and turn left!!
Never run a red light, but did get done for doing 23mph going over Tower Bridge (20mph limit!!).
Re bus lanes.......if we dont have the bus lanes to use then you will be getting home a little later!!

Hope to meet up with you one day!!
Terry

Never