Customer Doesn't Pay - Here's What I Did! 

Get 45% OFF your at-home Testosterone Replacement Treatment kit (TRT) here: www.manual.co/testosterone-replacement-therapy/initial-testosterone-blood-test?coupon=TOMH45&TomHutley Use code: TOMH45

I see people not paying often on the Fake Taxi episodes, it however always ends up well i feel.

Black cab driver once returned my phone to the shop I was visiting by calling them first. Even refused a tip. What a gent and one of the reasons I continue to use them ❤

Ive had a bloke dive out of the window, ripping the arm out of his suit... couldnt chase him for laughing

I make a point of using a cab at least once whenever I go to London, and that's purely because of this channel. The insight I've got into the taxi ecosystem and cabbies like Tom makes the act of taking a cab feel like a critical London experience.

1 hour 12 min driving to travel 7.5 miles is crazy😂😂😂

I had a customer once go to me "what would you do if I got out at these red lights and ran?" I responded with "I am in a vehicle, love to see you try.", end of the fare he never ran, and he tipped me for bantering back. 😊

The last time I was down in London, got a taxi from City airport to a hotel just round the corner from Euston station...stupidly dropped my phone out of my pocket getting out the taxi and the driver didn't spot it...weirdly, because of watching your videos, I knew where the rank was and that he'd probably be heading there - and the fastest way to get there, so sprinted to the rank with my case in tow and managed to knock on the guys window as he was pulling out with another fare...so, thanks in a way?

Always got a great buzz when re-uniting lost property, left on trains (When i worked for BR) with its owner. Usually via the (mum no. on phones), we've had people in tears as we return their property.

If I find a phone in the back and it rings I will inform the passenger that I will have to put the meter on and charge them for the fare . Never had a problem that way

I had a few phones left in my taxi when I was a taxi driver in Dublin. Not doing it now. After returning a few with no tip I decided they pay the taxi fare for me to return it to their location.

I'm a former taxi driver in Canberra, Australia, and one story I have was that I was working one Saturday night in the CBD, a load of bars and nightclubs. It's approaching 2 am, I have a little more than an hour before I have to return the taxi for the next driver (I didn't own the taxi, I was just a hired driver for the owner.) While I was in the rank, waiting for a fare, three people approach the taxi, two supporting the third. One of the people supporting taps on my window and I roll it down. Asking me to take their friend who looked like they didn't even know what planet they were on, home. I said yes, expecting one of them to come with the friend to make sure they got home safe, but once the friend was loaded into the cab, the other two vanished. I guess they went back to the bar. So, I turn to the person they loaded into the taxi, and I ask for an address to take them. They look at me, and said "I'm not telling you where I live!" I was momentarily stunned by this response, but I decided on a compromise, and I asked them to tell me the suburb they lived in. And this seemed to mollify them. So, I start the meter and pull out, heading to a local set of shops in the suburb they said. The ride went pretty uneventful until I pull into the carpark of the small shopping plaza. They look around and say simply "This isn't my house" I explained to the passenger that I need their address to take them to their home. It took a little more back and forth before they finally agreed and told me the address. I drove them home, which was only about 3 streets away from the shopping plaza I took them to initially. I was a taxi driver for only 2 years, but that, thankfully, is the worst intoxicated passenger story I have.

Being self-employed is awesome. If I have an nhs worker who needs to learn to drive an adapted vehicle through illness or injury, their lesson is free. NHS folk look after each other.

Spoke to a customer a little while ago she told me she had £10,000 in cash returned to her by a black cabbie , she never knew where she had lost it there was her sons phone number on a bit of paper amongst the money so the cabbie traced her through that , fair play to the guy plenty of people out there would of kept that

@<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="900">15:00</a> I needed to go to Great Ormond Street Hospital as a Child, the cheeky bugger charged my mum, fantastically informative video as per usual the bit about lost property was my favourite bit!

Love the videos Tom. Havent been in England for years. But really looking forward to going to London soon because of your videos!

Editing on point on this one Tom! Love it

A taxi driver once told me that he had locked the doors and taken a non-payer to a police station. If you fancy a colab, how about asking the Blackbelt Barrister who's also on YT if he has a legal view on whether that's the right thing to do. A friend's dad used to only do taxi ranks and pre-booked work on Dial-a-Cab because he got fed up with people running off without paying. Qualified in 1969, had to give up a few years ago

Hiya Tom! Love these vids, hopefully will see tku in person one fay around London!

Can't believe you mentioned my area, Never knew you've been near sunbury

Lovely video today tom! Funny to have the stereotypical runner have a bit of a sectoon

After a few years driving, you tend to learn many of the tricks that potential bilkers try. One of my favourites was someone pretending to be on their phone to someone at the other end agreeing to come out and pay, usually their "mother". You just know they have no intention of paying and kick them out at the first opportunity. Satisfying if they're going out of town somewhere..

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="967">16:07</a> Having been on that very trip back in 2016, I can say that it was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Karl (or Carl..) if you’re still out there as a cabby, you were a legend.

Had a cousin who was a taxi driver. Kept a crowbar by his seat, never once had a customor who didnt pay up eventually. He was a bit of a head case though. RIP Alan.

Love the videos, Tom. That 100k is in sight!! 👍👍

I like you mate. Subscribed. Gonna catch black cabs more often now!

Iam PHV dog car I had a fare where a couple were taking thier dog to the vets for PTS. The couple were devastated poor lady sobbing in the back comforting her dog, we arrived I said "on me" I knew exactly how they were feeling after losing my staff a couple of years ago!

In the abstract of Laws, i cant remember the page but you can lock people in. Its along the lines of ´you can hold the passenger until an officer arrives to obtain correct details for the cabman to lodge a complaint with the courts´. I always have the law book with me just in case this situation arises.

Tom - I accidentally left my phone in a Taxi in Barcelona last week - spent an hour trying to track him down (on a Sunday) via the receipt to no avail and was needing to be at a hotel 250 miles away so had to call it quits... then I heard the sound of a car horn and he had driven round the location repeatedly and seen me. He not only returned it but declined 50% of the "reward" I offered him. Noble people cabbies!

i've known drivers who "forget" to turn on the meter in order to charge more than the metered rate for the job, and because regular passengers know this, they ALWAYS prompt us. A handful of times I've forgotten to start the meter myself, but I then only charge from the point I start the meter.

Great video tom as always

Saw your video with Here Be Barr. Good stuff.

So odd about Lison Grove! I know a lot of musicians who will go there because of the string shop there! Also the only place I’ve had a cabbie say they don’t know about by name

In high school I heard of groups of kids going together in a cab, then they all run off in different directions to meet up later.

I went from public to private hire some time ago, I largely stick to known customers or referrals in order to make my life easier but when I do take a booking for a random customer I fall back on experience, vocabulary tends to correlate with behavior so when I am talking to a stranger on the phone who wishes to arrange a journey I use that to decide if I will do it or not. I've had people aggressively yell abuse at me the second I answer the phone, demanding I pick them up immediately, not sure where they thought that would get them but it certainly wasn't my car. Its all about learning which customers to look after and which ones to avoid like the plague.

Great video Sir

Love these videos, keep up the good work! Gotta leave a comment for the algorithm gods :)

I salute you and All cabbies and taxi drivers.

Sorry…why was Lissan Grove a no-go zone?

Good one mate. So many scenarios in that job. You just have to trust most people these days but as we know it can all go wrong. What I hated was someone knowingly was never intending to pay. I had 2, one after the other. A waste of 90mins of my times and fuel.

I knew a taxi driver whose passenger left a fish supper in the back. He duly posted it through their letter box.

If only companies had your attitude, Tom!

You're one of the good ones. All my experiences with black cab drivers are either them taking cash payments off the meter or refusing service because it's in the wrong direction. Uber is an awful company, but it's popular because it is actually better for the customer in many ways.

My uncle who had been a London cabbie for over 40 years used to tell the story of when he got into a cab himself late at night & noticed the meter wasn't running. When he got to his destination the driver claimed his meter was broken & suggested a fare that he knew was excessive. My uncle struck a match under the meter display saying "there's nothing on the meter & it is nothing that you are going to get. And i will check with the Carriage Office on Monday that it has been 'fixed'.". He was a big bloke so noone would argue with him.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="427">7:07</a> In our case, if there is a serial one, we can block their phone numbers (so long as the number doesn't belong to a business), or directly ask for money upfront. However: If an account holder (especially through ACC or a staff from a business account) picks up a street hail, then we can cancel the current cash job, check the account and reassign the job to the driver.

Up north with private hire taxis operated by certain people, whenever a customer has left their mobile phone behind, it mysteriously vanishes and can’t be found by the taxi driver 🤔

Brilliant. Thank you.

@<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="170">2:50</a> West Ham, the funny thing about that place is, tfl shares building with Stagecoach and customers often go to stagecoach instead 🤣.

Btw love the videos tom!

Another cracking video!

Have you thought of doing a colaboration with Geography Challenges? He's the guy who beat your Geoguessr London record :)

4am and I’m watching a random taxi driver giving tips on being a taxi driver in London (I’m from the north)

Love ur vids Tom...

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="355">5:55</a> While I have no idea how this works in the UK, in the Netherlands taxi drivers are absolutely allowed to lock non-payers in the cab and drive them to a nearby police station. I don't think many taxi drivers would go to those lengths though, as just like in the UK it's usually more lucrative for the driver to just get another job going as soon as possible.

Howdy Tom!

Tom, there's ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with the TFL lost property place being in West Ham. I live within walking distance from the place.

Hey bud, Re the £60 fair, doesn’t the card machine approve before they leave the taxi, like in shops etc. Great video, love them ❤

Who did the thumbnaill? Pretty good

Please tell me your pulling my leg the Lost Propety in West Ham 😭

What an amazing video.

Ah, London cabbies have no backups as you have to radio system or a dispatch call centre. In my company: <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="57">0:57</a> If the driver doesn't call my supervisor to say they've found anything, they should go straight to the nearest police station and hand them in there (<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="212">3:32</a>). They can't really hand them into our office. Trouble for me is: They often don't report them until after the weekend or days later. So if I took a cab with a driver at night and I report them in the afternoon, he/she may well be off-duty in the afternoon, so I'd have to wait until they return to work to get the email (our email and meter are both on the tablet).

Several years since somebody ran away without paying. I have had several times people forgot something in my cab. The worst was when I was almost home at 3 AM and the last passengers rang and said they had forgotten av bottle of wine. I had to drive back aprox 25 miles. :-(

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="982">16:22</a> My old mate Alf standing next to the taxi

did you get your steering wheel retrimmed in the cab or did you buy a new one that is leather trimmed, rather than plastic. been meaning to ask for a while now

Nearly at 100k 👌👏

If I would become a Dutch cab driver, I would love a London cab with the steering wheel on the left side. Only I don't think they do it or is there a demand for.

Hello Tom I have been a cab driver for over 48 years. I once picked up two young ladies when I was a lot younger and after the usual chit chat from them, out of the blue one them asked how tall I was. I remember thinking before I answered, ‘what a strange question’ I replied ‘5 foot eight inches why. Well the reply knocked me for six. I was for once lost for words. I cannot here tell you what the reply was.

Is there was a road in London that would benefit being pedestrianised, what would it be 😊

I agree with the get them to confirm. I was taking a cab from the airport with parents in the US and my mom just said an ambiguous large hotel chain name and I tried very hard to make it clear suspecting there were multiple in the city. The driver wasn’t having it and insisted he knew which one we wanted. Turned out it was of course the wrong one and we wanted one called like village not hotel or something that way. Driver was very nice about and got tipped for both journeys but could have saved us all so much trouble to just confirm the correct place and not just assume that because I was a kid i wasn’t worth interacting with.

King Reg is a cool cool man

Any idea on arriving to your destination and the meter said £10.00. It suddenly adds £2.50 when the driver press another button when he stops?

As a tube user, someone wanting to go from Paddington to Canada Water via taxi is suspicious. 😂 Paddington is on the Bakerloo line/Circle Line Paddington to Baker Street (2 stops) Change to the Jubilee Line (which literally, I kid you not, takes about 5 seconds of walking.) Baker Street to Canada Water

Also if you have a new cab does the first passenger get the fair free of charge?

Nice Harrington.

Taxi driver here, I just dash the phone out on the road or hope the next customers who get in steal it.

I'm American so I have to just ask it coming for taxi drivers if for example someone is having a medical emergency and they call a cab because well they don't want to risk waiting for a ambulance how would that work

i donno how ya taxi drivers drive in london, it's so hard just to drive, i really wanna learn how to drive really good

Why is Lisson Grove a no-go zone?

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="393">6:33</a> DK Metcalfe (1.93 m, 107 kg), we are not.

Hi how are you doing

You should ask @Blackbeltbarrister where you would stand on the citizens arrest thing Tom, I'm sure he would give you some great advice.

Nice Baracuta

tom i had to go to great ormand street and you driven me there from my hotel and you gave me the cab for free

I'm pretty sure citizens' arrest can't be used for not paying a taxi fare. There are only certain offences that it can be used for. And we don't have that power in Scotland either, I believe. Better to not try and use it unless you know for sure you can. Otherwise, you could leave yourself open to prosecution yourself.

How didn’t you see the payment decline when they made the £60 payment with you?

What's that watch you are wearing? Thanks

Speak to John the Taxi Driver mate, he normally just comes to another sort of ‘agreement’

Why were cabbies not going to Lisson Grove?

Why was Lisson grove a no go area I used to work around there

It's always the people that don't look like they will pay, them are the ones that pay the bills, i work with gas my day usually involves boiler services, I've been in some complete shit holes and they tend to pay the same day, the "better off" people tend to take 2-3 weeks to pay a £100 bill, almost make it hard to get paid for doing work they asked me to do, i feel bad for anyone that has to wait or looses out on money due to fake notes or people that generally don't appreciate our time

You can't make a citizens arrest for summary offences:- - The passenger is committing theft under the Fraud Act 2006 (a summary offence). - The driver may be committing false imprisonment (an indictable offence), even if claiming it's a citizen's arrest (only allowed for indictable offences).

TL;DR I wouldn't recommend using force against someone who is attempting to commit low value theft; by all means try and detain them verbally but the use of force affecting a citizens arrest for a minor offence could land the 'arrestor' in hot water. The details... Reasonable force to detain someone via citizens arrest should only be used for an indictable offence, if it is used for a summary offence it is not a lawful citizens arrest; resulting in potential legal issues for the person performing it if they used force. Indictable offences are those serious enough to be heard in Crown Court, the alternative is a summary offence which is heard in Magistrates Court. Common sense can often point to which of these applies based on severity of the offence - if a reasonable person would consider it a serious offence, you're likely correct in assuming it is indictable. However.... When it comes to theft, it is classed as an either way offence, meaning if the circumstances are serious enough (high value) it is indictable, otherwise it is summary...think stealing a bar of chocolate from a supermarket vs stealing expensive jewellery. However, if someone uses force on a person to commit the theft; this is robbery and is indictable, or if someone damages property or forces entry in order to commit the theft; this is burglary, which is, like theft, an either way offence. Anyone who feels like they may, under the right circumstances, make a citizens' arrest, should familiarise themselves with what an indictable offence is, and the use of force that can be deemed reasonable. I would suggest that learning the basics should take only a few minutes, but with the increase in knife crime and willingness to use violence, I would urge anyone to think carefully before making a citizens arrest where they are not protecting life or limb.

7.2 miles, £60, thats cheap, I was charged £125.00 4 years ago in a black cab, oh, £10 tip too.

At the end story........ People give you an information to go somewhere or do something and if they give you the wrong information then they are to blame...... It is a really nice to ask people to get out of confused situation.... but somebody will NOT tell the truth at all time..... LET them pay for it.

Tom with the Rolex come on Tom

Never gave to lost property always returned to customer as he called his phone spoke to them and returned plus never asked for money but paid for returning it. Had few runners over yrs

When I see that title. I have only one conclusion .... Fake taxi...

Go with your first instincts Tom , over time you will get a feeling about somebody and just don’t take them

I used to be a taxi driver ten yrs ago for ten yrs in Christchurch nzl one time I got a runner who owed me $20 on meter one Saturday night outside the Hillmorton shops on lincoln Rd well hee said he needed a wee which usually worked out fine but he ditched so i took chase but he was to fast so I gave up went pack to my taxi passenger back door wide open so I walk up swearing like a sailor to shut door and there on the floor was his wallet with about $1300 in 50s so I went to bosses place woke him up see what he thinks I should do he said fkn keep it so we burnt the wallet in furnace kept cash it I gave him $100 I that's the only time in ten yrs I had a runner in 2005

It would be an any person arrest if you kept them in a taxi to take them to a police station. Section 24A of PACE allows a person other than a constable to arrest without warrant any other person they suspect has committed an indictable offence, is committing an indictable offence or where an indictable offence has been committed and you know they've done it or have reasonable grounds to suspect they have done it - as long as that arrest is to prevent them causing harm to themselves or others, suffering an injury, causing loss or damage to property or a constable cannot assume responsibility for the arrested person. Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act allows any person to use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances to effect the lawful arrest of that person, prevent crime or arrest a person unlawfully at large. All of the making off without payment/fraud/theft offences are indictable in law (as in it can be tried at crown court, this includes things which have a default mode of trial like Shoplifting, because it's still the offence of theft). So there's your layman's any person arrest lesson for future fare dodgers.