London dial a ride

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.

As I said DAR is funded by TFL, it consists of Hundreds of community transport buses based at various depots throughout London, the drivers are all salaried members of staff, there are also a number of local community transport buses that can also be used for DAR bookings I do believe that they are all accessible for wheelchair users. Anyone over the age of 85 can sign up to the DAR service but they can also be used by younger passengers who need them due to a long term or permanent disability and who cannot use conventional public transport.

Most DAR buses are red but the other community transport buses are other colours.

when you join you are given a personal 6 digit membership number that you quote every time you contact them, trips are limited to 5 miles from your home and the further away you travel the more likely that you will be sharing part of your journey with other passengers. This means that sometimes even going a couple of miles away can take an hour or more.

They don’t cover hospital appointments but can cover other types of trips, religious, social, medical, shopping or personal care appointments for example.

The booking system that is currently in use only allows you to book up to 7 days in advance and was introduced about a 18 months ago with the intention that it would allow passengers same day bookings but as I’m struggling to get bookings even 7 days in advance it’s obvious it’s not fit for purpose!

When I used to book on the phone I always found that it was absolutely fine if you didn’t have a fixed time of arrival or if you were happy to wait for your return so it was great for social occasions especially if you’re going to someone’s home and you didn’t have to wait in the street for your return home. But recently I’ve only been out to medical appointments so time is important and DAR has repeatedly let me down.

TAXI CARD.

Is funded by the various London Councils. It’s run by TFL but managed by com cab, your doctor has to fill in your application, if you’re accepted you will also be signed up to DAR.

It’s a subsidised taxi service and the taxis are supplied by Comcab and can be either black cabs or mini cabs depending on your needs I’ve told them repeatedly that I cannot use people carriers but normal saloon cars are fine but they still occasionally send me people carriers!

you are given a limited number of “rides” each year but can only use a maximum of two per ride for example I had to go to one of the big London hospitals and used taxi card to get home there was about £60 on the meter but I only paid £10.

Like DAR your given a customer number you but your account is also linked to your mobile phone number so you don’t always need to quote your number.

When you make a booking, even days before they only put your booking on the system 30 minutes before the time of your booking so if no taxi drivers take your booking you get no ride! Also if a better paid booking comes in the driver can spit yours back, so once again you get no ride! This has happened to me a number of times and means that I can’t rely on it for appointments.

they also don’t have enough drivers so when you ring for an as soon as possible collection you can wait for a very long time. My partner and I got stranded at one of the big London hospitals and gave up waiting after nearly two hours last summer. We spent over £75 on taxi fares that day, partly because of this my OH won’t consider having a bone marrow transplant that could cure his blood cancer because it might cost a fortune for me to visit him in hospital.(there are other reasons but this is one of them)