CABBIE SAFETY CONCERNS: Taxi driver verbally abused in latest taxi chargepoint confrontation

A man incorrectly using a taxi chargepoint and asked to move on became aggressive towards a black cab driver in what marks the latest incident involving frustrated cabbies looking to charge their vehicles.

In a video shared online, a driver of a silver electric Nissan van was heard calling a taxi driver a ‘pri*k’ and a ‘mug’ after pointing out he was incorrectly using a rapid e-taxi charging point.

The man believed to be in his fifty’s removed the charging cable located on Tower Bridge Road before calling the cabbie a ‘f**king pri*k’.

In the video the taxi driver remained calm and could be heard thanking the man for his cooperation. The van driver, still munching on a mouthful of food, returned to the van to retrieve his phone.

The grey haired male wearing a blue hoodie then took photos of the electric taxi waiting to use the e-taxi charging bay before saying, “See you, you’re a rude man mate. I’ll be complaining to the police about you”.

The taxi driver called Tom, remained calm and simply said, “Thank you. Yeah do it. Thank you”.

The video of the incident was posted on social media and is the latest in a long line of encounters that has raised concerns over taxi driver safety and lack of chargepoint enforcement.

Just yesterday TaxiPoint reported that drivers of electric taxis are being increasingly forced to engage in heated discussions with licensed minicab drivers and other motorists incorrectly using designated licensed taxi chargepoints.

According to taxi drivers, the problem has become so bad they have called on the capital’s transport authority and chargepoint providers to sort out the issue before ‘it ends up in fights’.

In London alone over 4,000 electric taxi drivers have invested over £200million in Zero Emissions Capable (ZEC) vehicles since January 2018. The problem around designated taxi chargepoint access has escalated so much that a new channel to report private hire vehicles and other private cars using the bays has now been established.

Drivers on the social media platform Twitter are being urged to send in photos and details to @taxis_e who in turn will report to Transport for London (TfL) once a week.

A spokesperson from the @taxis_e group commented on today’s incident simply saying: “A ticking time bomb...”