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Cabbies’ livelihoods put under scrutiny following ‘frivolous’ passenger complaints to TfL involving three course meals and tube map geography
- Perry Richardson
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
London taxi drivers are being required to respond to licensing concerns after passengers submitted complaints about disputed routes and drivers asking customers to stop eating inside their vehicles, according to the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association (LTDA).
Steve McNamara, General Secretary of the LTDA, said the organisation’s licensing team had recorded a recent increase in complaints and associated Fitness to Be Licensed letters received by its members.
Writing in the LTDA’s TAXI newspaper, McNamara described the cases as a “surge of frivolous complaints and Fitness to be Licensed Letters (FTBLs) received by our members”.
The letter sent to drivers can signal that a complaint has moved beyond an ordinary customer service dispute and into the licensing process. For a working taxi driver, any examination of fitness to remain licensed can require a formal response and place their ability to continue earning under scrutiny.
McNamara said: “Some of them would be hilariously funny if they did not arrive with a warning of a ‘Review of your fitness to determine if it is appropriate for you to continue to be licensed’.”
The LTDA highlighted one complaint from a passenger travelling between King’s Cross and Highbury Corner. According to McNamara, the passenger alleged that the taxi driver had taken a “devious route” during the journey.
McNamara challenged the basis of that allegation when the passenger described Highbury Corner as “virtually next to King’s Cross”adding: “Just look at the Tube map!”
A second complaint involved a driver who was accused of being rude after asking passengers to stop eating inside his taxi. The LTDA said it spoke to the member concerned to establish what had happened during the journey.
McNamara said the food was “not a bar of chocolate or packet of crisps”, but a larger meal being shared by three passengers sitting in the rear of the cab.
He said the passengers were using paper plates and plastic cutlery while distributing food from several takeaway cartons. McNamara described it as “what amounted to a three-course meal, all washed down with an open bottle of wine out of plastic beakers”.
According to the LTDA account, the passengers said eating during the taxi journey was necessary because they were busy and had used the trip as an opportunity to have lunch.
McNamara said the passengers nevertheless complained about the driver, despite reportedly accepting that the member had been polite and reasonable when asking them to stop.
He wrote: “The fact that they complained about the polite and reasonable member, and actually thought their behaviour was acceptable and normal, says more about them than anything else.”
The examples point to some of the difficulties faced by drivers when disagreements over conduct inside a taxi are later presented as licensing matters. Drivers are responsible for maintaining their vehicles and managing passenger behaviour, but complaints can require them to explain and defend decisions made during a live journey.
For London taxi drivers, the potential consequences are more serious than those associated with a standard customer complaint. Licensing action can affect a driver’s ability to work, meaning even allegations which appear minor may require careful handling and supporting evidence.
The LTDA did not provide figures showing the number of complaints received by TfL, how many FTBL letters had recently been issued or how the total compared with previous periods. It also did not state whether either of the highlighted cases resulted in formal sanctions.
