A pedicab driver in London who swindled two feminine passengers out of 180 pounds has been pressured to return the money, after the Westminster City Council requested a crackdown on the city’s bicycle rickshaw “nuisance.”
The driver originally charged 18 pounds for a three minutes trip, but then increased the price by a factor of 10 at the last minute, including a zero on the end, the ladies reported.
For expats in Thailand, it seems like a page minimize from the Thailand tuk tuk playbook.
Fortunately, local police tracked down the motive force and made him return the ill-gotten money throughout a weekend crackdown that lasted from the Saturday night into the early hours of Sunday morning.
Heather Acton, a communities and regeneration cabinet member, said it was time for the government to take motion and guarantee pedicab drivers would take safety checks and pay street tax in the West End, which is beginning to recuperate from a 12 months and a half of pandemic associated disruptions and restrictions.
Remote happened in China Town, Oxford Street, Covent Garden, Leicester Center, Mayfair and Soho the BBC reported.
Police moved some 70 pedicabs — or bicycle rickshaws — found blocking pavements, whereas 9 others had been reported for blasting loud music from their speakers, deemed “likely to be an annoyance, underneath the Control of Pollution Act 1974.
An extra 4 pedicab drivers performed music softly, despite carrying huge speakers, as they peddled gingerly alongside the lamplit streets of the West End.
The story sounds all too familiar to Bangkok locals and longtime expats in Thailand, who’re accustomed to seeing colorful tuk tuks on the roadside, especially alongside well-liked strolling streets and metro stations at evening.
Tuk tuk drivers in the Big Mango are infamous for disobeying visitors rules and cheating vacationers, either by charging exorbitant prices, or for tricking them into common scams.
SOURCE: BBC