How One of Our Minicab Drivers Received a £135 Tip
It was in early May and a London airport transfer was booked online. A pickup from Heathrow airport for a young Australian couple going to a family house in central London. The pickup went smoothly, our driver was waiting at the gate with a LRC airports board with the lead passenger's name on it.
It seemed that the couple were pretty tired so not much banter in the car, but that all changed when they reached their destination.
The woman in the party realised upon having the luggage offloaded from the car that her suitcase wasn't there. She had in fact picked up someone else's suitcase at the baggage reclaim which was similar to hers. Normally in these circumstances, the LRC driver would offer a return journey to the airport and back again at a reduced return journey rate, but in this instance, our driver (who lived very near to Heathrow himself) offered to take them back to the terminal free of charge.
On the way back, the passengers asked if the driver would accompany them inside the terminal and then drive them back to central London as they didn't want to wait around for another taxi to the city. He agreed after checking with the office who advised that the normal fare would be payable plus any waiting time and parking fares which was quite reasonable.
Our LRC driver took it upon himself to take charge of the conversations with airport staff and after talking to several staff members and some ID checks, they were led to an area to inspect the lost baggage. Fortunately, the female passenger's bag was there. They swapped it out with the mistaken one and within a short space of time were back in the back of the LRC cab on their way back to central London.
At the destination, the LRC driver once again off loaded the bags and collected the fares and parking charges that were due. The couple thanked the driver immensley for all of his help, taking them back and for also helping at the airport. The couple just about had the amounts due but assured the driver that they would call Leading Route Cars again as they were going to be in London for a while and were going to be travelling to and from various other London airports over the next month or so.
That very weekend, this couple booked a number of taxi journeys in advance for the forthcoming month. It seemed that they were part of a larger part of seven passengers as they had booked a large 8-seater MPV vehicle. Their original driver had one of the many 8-seasters in the LRC fleet so when he was specifically requested by the passengers, we were able to accommodate.
Over the next four weeks, this LRC driver did six more trips. Two were airport transfers: one was a Gatwick airport transfer and the other a Stansted airport transfer. The other journey was a taxi for an evening event in Hertfordshire and back later the same night. The standard fare for each journey was paid to our driver including a £5-£10 tip each time.
About a week later, the LRC driver was called again to take a group of seven people with plenty of luggage to Heathrow. When our driver received this job, he was told that he had once again been specifically requested and the pickup address was one he now knew quite well, the family home of the Australian couple in central London!
The couple had been the last to arrive in the UK, and were due to be touring the country and parts of Europe with their family, some also from Australia who had arrived early and others who had been settled in the UK for some time. This journey to Heathrow was all of them flying to Australia, some going back home and two from the UK going on holiday.
When they got to Heathrow, our driver 65 opened the doors to let the family out, off loaded their luggage and wished them a good flight. He was about to get back into his car after receiving the fare, when the male passenger from the very first trip handed him something. There in his hand the LRC driver found an extra few notes. Not wanting to count in front of the travellers, he thanked them for their generosity to which the Australian passenger replied "You deserve it mate, you helped us out a lot. I will be giving your manager a call when I get back to ensure your management are aware that we really appreciated how helpful the LRC drivers are and we will be recommending the company to everyone we know coming to London". With that they parted ways, and the driver got back in the car and counted through his tip. To his astonishment, it was a whopping £135! A big smile filled his face as he started his engine.
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