Taxi driver emotionally blackmailing me

[AmberAndAlexsMum]

Sounds drastic I know, but my ds (17) goes to an SEN college, which is 25 miles away. He gets a taxi, paid for by the council, to take him and bring him back.

Now ds has severe sleep issues, he's had all his life, and sometimes he simply cannot sleep at night and ends up too exhausted to go in. If this happens I always text the driver as early as possible.

Over the last 6 months or so, every time I've texted him to say ds isn't going in, he's responded by complaining that he's losing money as he only gets paid when the kids go in.

I appreciate that, but surely he doesn't have the right to emotionally blackmail me? He knows I'm empathic and don't like causing problems, but I'm beginning to think that he is deliberately doing this.

AIBU to expect him to accept that ds can't always go to college? I've had no problems with previous drivers and I always make sure to let them know before they leave home.

My DH used to be a passenger assistant for SEN children on the school runs (it's how we met 😁). He said that if there is 1 child in the taxi then he will still get paid. So if the other boy was going on the days your son had off, the driver would have still been paid for the run. If not, DH said he could have just gone on the taxi ranks anyway and earned money.

I used to work in the call centre for a taxi company and I can empathise with the driver.

Based on my own experiences, the driver is taken out of service for the time it takes to get to you and collect the passenger, drive to the destination and return back to 'home area'. The pay rate for these jobs are fixed and are also undervalued for what would be a 'normal' booking. This means that when you cancel, jobs at the full rate that could have been assigned to the driver but weren't as he was allocated you are either given elsewhere or told their journey can't be done.

Most of the drivers at my work ended up refusing to do 'school account' runs for this very reason. They would lose out on a substantial amount of money weekly because of absences and the lower rate.

I sympathise with you and think it's difficult from both sides to be honest. I wouldn't say he's emotionally blackmailing you though, probably just venting his frustration.

Finally some sense!

what "emotional blackmail"?? He's not demanding anyhting from you, just pointing out a fact of life.

He has no right to vent at OP, she has no control over the situation. He could vent to thr council and try and negotiate being paid if the job is cancelled last minute.

It's not accurate to say that the taxi firm will get paid anyway. The contract is for the firm to provide taxis, not a set fee for this. The taxi firm then invoices the council for the requested lifts. Yes in some councils there will be a late cancellation clause but not all.
Not to add more fuel to the fire but the same taxi firms will also have contracts to ferry nurses and doctors to hospitals that are not their usual place of work. Again invoiced after the event as it is an unknown quantity/ distance in advance.
Another inaccuracy here is to assume the 'emotionally blackmailing' taxi driver is employed by a firm. There are thousands of individuals who are set up as Private Hire Operators and the only person driving is themselves. Most Uber drivers are also Private Hire Operators.

Previous posters have said that their driver does indeed get paid if they are a no show. It seems to vary between councils.

Glad it's being sorted OP x

(I realised I'd missed out some of what I wanted to say in my previous comment)

It was wrong of the driver to message you regardless of x amount of previous absences or frustration on his part. Drivers would have been disciplined at my work for that behaviour, more so of it being an account booking.

All councils are different with their contracted account clauses. Some jobs will be paid only if completed, others will only have payment if there is a collection, some will be paid once the driver has began his journey even if cancelled on the way e.t.c. It really does vary council to council and contract to contract.

The frustration for the account bookings comes from time doing them in comparison to the pay.
As an example, let's say a journey from A to B that takes 30 minutes of a drivers time to fully complete. A normal job with the usual rates would be, let's say £25. However, if it were an account job it could be as little as £17 in comparison. This also doesn't factor in that on an account job there are no extra charges for getting stuck in traffic e.t.c so time is money unless it's an account. This is why there is such a frustration with account bookings in my experience.

That being said, I would maybe mention this situation to the taxi company or the council. His frustrations is not your problem.

So they should

Right, so he's saying it just because it's true? Why? Why bother if it isn't to imply that OP should make sure her child gets into that taxi come hell or high water. Sounds a bit like ... oh I dunno, emotional blackmail perhaps? At the very least, he's taking out his frustrations on the wrong person.

No, you need to cop the hell on. That's the nature of taxi work, and the nature of self-employment. Who the hell do you imagine guarantees a minimum level of work to taxi drivers in the normal course of things?

Yanbu. This goes with the territory of SEN . And too many people in the SEN system think it's OK to speak to Mums as if they are s hit on their shoe.

But it's highly unlikely that a private hire operator has a contract with a local authority to provide school transport. LAs have to go through a tendering process and have to impose various requirements, e.g. that there is a stand-in with the appropriate DBS checks if any individual driver isn't available.

As someone who has a young nephew with Autism, I am absolutely disgusted and bewildered with some of the attitudes on this thread.

Even if you don’t have much understanding of SEN, the OP’s initial post was perfectly clear in terms of the struggles her DS has because of it.

Some real ignorant thicko’s on here.

@SnowlayRoundabout

I'm afraid you don't know what you're talking about. They are mostly Private Hire taxis that do school runs. Also all licensed drivers must be DBS checked and most LA's require them to be signed up to the update service for easy checking.

On the contrary, I know exactly what I'm talking about. If private hire taxis do school runs, it is almost always on a sub-contract arrangement with taxi firms.

Lots of people here who don't seem to understand how LA-funded SEN transport works! (or should do)

Surely OP, the LA/council have a contract with this guy or his firm because it's a daily booking, not a matter of someone ringing him up every morning? And if so, he's retained by them and ought to get paid regardless. DS is in a minibus from a taxi firm to his special school and shares it with others - if they were all ill, I have no doubt that his driver and escort would still get paid. So if the council are being slapdash or shoddy, he should take it up with them, but I can't imagine how a council would have a long-term booking with a taxi firm that falls through every time the client (your son) is unable to travel.

At any rate, it's NOT your problem and not your son's fault. The driver may well be out of pocket if the council's being crap but clearly that's where he needs to take any complaints. These sorts of setbacks are just part of the territory of transporting people with SEN.

No, you need to cop the hell on. That's the nature of taxi work, and the nature of self-employment. Who the hell do you imagine guarantees a minimum level of work to taxi drivers in the normal course of things

Most taxi drivers work from a base and are sent as jobs come in. Or they work for themselves and work from an app. This man has been commissioned for work that he cannot do. Cannot pick up someone else or make up the money. Like booking a beautician’s time and cancelling 15 mins before your arrival. So your argument doesn’t stand. Bet you would feel differently if it were your other half coming home short changed from work he was booked in for you were struggling with bills. COP ON!

The contract is between him and the local authority not with you and your son. Contact your LA and let them know what he is saying

where in the country is so over supplied with taxis that this driver can't get assigned an alternative fare within 4 minutes of having the regular job cancelled? around school run time if you try to call for a private hire car of any kind you'll be told it's a half hour or 45 minute wait if you haven't prebooked as all drivers are out on school contract work. any car becoming unexpectedly available will be snapped up in moments

Oh Op! Breaks my heart to see parents internalize that blame...

Both me and my D'S are autistic my D'S in specialist school too. I haven't slept more than 2 hours at a time in my life. Nothing can be done its just how I am! It's nothing to do with your parenting..

Well no he can’t take another job because it turns out there’s another child.

which begs far more questions about the not getting paid part

When my DD doesn’t go to school her driver hits “job cancelled” on his app and the system has him as available for other work instantly. So can get on with the next job available

@amyneedssleep

would you care to c&p the part where I said he was correct to bent his frustration to the OP?

you won't be able to because I didn't.

also I dispute the Quite Happily!! It's necessity not joy.

on our area at least (& I expect most others) there's not much work, lots of jobs that actually cost to do, but drivers do to help people out.

councils (at least in our area & I assume all throughout England at least) deal with the school runs. Often drivers don't generally work for companies, because that's even more shit than working for yourself. It's a long & complicated tale how certain companies companies got allowed to bid for school runs & for several years no new ones have been allowed to bid. So the old companies have them all and allocate them to drivers (they don't have enough drivers, so they give them to self employed taxi drivers for a cut. Drivers then invoice them for runs completed.

If a driver can't do a run one day (illness, or car problem), they have to find another driver, that driver has to have a taxi licence, a DBS, and be available. It's fucking hard to find anyone (it's a bit of a dog eat dog industry and so if you find one, they want the netted rate, which is usually at least twice as much, if not more, than the school run rate, so they're well out of pocket too. If the can't find someone, they lose the contract.

they take the contracts because at least it's money coming in. But Sod's law means they then turn down more valuable work.

councils won't budge
companies that get these runs aren't in it for love
& the driver gets the worst if it.

yes it's their choice, but with things how they are, it's not much of a bloody choice, just a necessity & a gamble.)

@SpicyFoodRocks

I'm well versed (sadly) with the issues of teenagers (and now young adults & adults) with SEN of varying degrees) but I don't expect other people to understand & what they hear is 'didn't sleep, tired, not going in'.

I haven't said the OP can or should' deal with it'. I've simply pointed out the issues from the drivers point of view to counter act all of the posts against the driver and tried to explain why 'get a different driver' isn't as easy as all that.

It's not blackmailing, not in any way. He's just stating facts (and you'd be surprised at how personal some parents get about things & how much they complain about personal things) & having a whinge (admittedly to the wrong set of ears) but to accuse him of blackmailing is beyond the pale/pail.