London dial a ride

gussiefinknottle1

Hello, can I call out to any other London Dial a Ride users who might want to discuss this service with me or any other users.

I have no access to any private transport and cannot access public transport services near me. Unfortunately this service has become significantly less reliable for me as I’ve found recently that if I don’t book 7 days ahead I can’t rely on it for health appointments, and even then it’s not guaranteed. The alternative is taxi card but they’ve got a very limited number of drivers and because of their booking system even advanced bookings can’t be relied on.

Whilst I’m grateful for the fact that these services exist. I’ve become increasingly frustrated with them and have had to cancel appointments and have also been late.

I’ve got plenty to say but this’ll do for now.

apples

I found this service terrible - I booked my trip to go shopping, I was picked up from home early, then left stranded at the shops as although on my app it showed my bus and the driver, the driver told me I wasn’t on his pick up list and to call dial a ride to rebook, when I did I was told it would be 2 hours, ended up getting an uber

when I’ve tried to book a ride to take me shopping I always get no seats available, or your journey is pending, then it gets cancelled

ive Gave up so only got to use the once

gussiefinknottle1

hello apples, I’ve been left stranded on multiple occasions by both dial a ride and taxi card. I’ve had numerous long waits as well. Last year when my OH was in hospital I booked taxi card in advance to bring me home at 5.30pm at 5.45 I got an voice message asking if I still needed a taxi then others at 6, 6.15, 6.30 6.45 at 7 I booked a mini cab through the hospital freephone.(incidentally it was bucketing down)

The most recent dial a ride mess was a couple of months ago. I had an appointment at 3pm with a collection time between 2.20 and 2.50 I thought that was enough time and and took what was offered, at 2.50 I rang dial a ride and they said they’d be another 30 minutes ITS AN ACTUAL APPOINTMENT AT 3 that was only 10 minutes ride from home, I had no choice but to cancel everything and reschedule for a month later.

I’ve got a long list of times things have gone badly wrong, but what can we do? This is the services that we’ve got. Yes I a normal taxi is an option but I only get the standard rate mobility component of PIP which doesn’t cover anything like a normal life I recently paid £16.50 to get to the doctors one way which is very local and only a 10 minute drive.

Giving me more money isn’t the answer though a better answer is running the services more efficiently, and some joined up thinking would be even better. I talk to the drivers and have court them lying, this is the worst one, on one occasion I finished at the dentist earlier than expected so I rang dial a ride and they said they didn’t have anything available and I’d have to wait, I could see the bus parked further down the street, when he collected me he said he’d been on another job but the bus didn’t move for 45 minutes. So he’d dropped me and parked up for over an hour during this time he could have done at least one other job so the lie was believable but he didn’t know I could see the bus further down the street and it only moved to come and pick me up. How is this efficient? The trackers on these buses are pointless. So a better tracking system would be better for a start!

How about taxi vouchers and making all taxi services accept them. So I could go from “Wembley to Wimbledon” or “Havering to Hillingdon” occasionally and use loads or just go regularly 2 miles or less up the road to the supermarket and still get some subsidy, and the taxi drivers wouldn’t be out of pocket.

apples

Hi @gussiefinknottle1 sorry to hear of your dilemma this is meant to be a service to help us with mobility issues, I’m also on the standard rate for mobility pip so getting an uber is expensive

i Don’t know about your area but when I see a dial a ride bus while I’m out and about, the bus has only one person on board or no one, he could have dropped a passenger off or on way to pick up a passenger but it’s too much a coincidence for me to frequently see the buses empty

As you have caught them lying I wouldn’t put anything past them

A few months ago i received a call from someone doing a survey for the dial a ride and I told them about the shockingly bad service, but it seems nothing has changed