Taxis in South Shields, my hometown, are brilliant. You call one, or arrange a pickup and they arrive quickly/punctually or they will let you know otherwise. So it was quite a surprise for me when I started uni in Stockton to find that things aren’t like that everywhere.

Here taxi companies seem to regard promptness or punctuality as an afterthought. When you call any firm you will get the same answer: “Five minutes”. Predictably, they don’t all take five minutes. I’ve been known to wait over 30 minutes. When you call to ask where they are, you get “Just around the corner”. It’s frustrating. It’s also bad business.

When that happens I move on to another taxi firm in the area (of which there are many). I also moan about my experience to anyone I can get the ear of. Consequently, they may be reluctant to use that firm.

It would cost the firm nothing to be honest on the phone and tell the customer they may be 10 minutes or even that they are fully booked. I’d call them back again in the future(well, assuming they aren’t always unavailable).

I expect the reason there are so many small companies in this area because no one company has been able to develop customer loyalty sufficient to generate good word of mouth.

A hundred lost fares are better than one bad performance.