[joglynne]

Originally Posted by Anonymouse

One thing: a taxi turns up, but it's not the one you ordered. To me it makes perfect sense just to swap the two fares around on the system; doing that might give a taxi company an edge in terms of a) saving a passenger's time, b) saving on fuel/electricity - after all, the driver's there. Far cheaper, surely, to swap them about?

Same with dropping someone off where you want to be picked up - why can't they just pick you up? In this case, you're there.

If you are talking about a private hire taxi then they can only take a passenger that has pre-booked them as only hackney cabs are allowed to accept passengers without prior booking – it is illegal for drivers of private hire vehicles to pick up passengers unless they have pre-booked. A driver would risk his licence and also could have problems with his insurance if a passenger who wasn't pre-booked needed to make a claim.