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For Dial-a-Cab driver
Bernard Doyle (B37), it had been the shortest trip of his
shift. It was just before Christmas when a woman hailed his cab
from the kerbside. Bernard recalled it with his hands widening
in an ever-growing circle as he described the amount of freight
she had next to her!
"The lady went from Sloane Street to Harrods," he told Call
Sign, "and as she loaded the numerous bags and other
assorted luggage into my cab, she confessed she was worn out
from all that shopping! With that she flopped onto the back seat
of my taxi."
Bernie spun the cab around and £2.40 later, they were outside the
famous Knightsbridge store where the passenger offloaded her
packages. With so much pre-Christmas traffic around, there was
no time to check the back of his cab, so off Bernie went.
"I had a cab service booked at the Ascott Cab Co, so I
thought I’d start to make my way towards Evelyn Street. At
Vauxhall Bridge Road a hand went up. I was still quite early so
I took a chance and stopped. He was going to the City and I
figured I could get him there, shoot over London Bridge and
still be at Ascott’s in good time," Bernie continued.
"But as the man entered my taxi, he called out that someone had
left a bag on the cab floor. He immediately handed it to me for
safekeeping. I dropped him off and made my way to Ascotts. Then
while waiting for the cab to be serviced, I looked into the bag
– it was a Mulberry - to see if there was any
identification and that’s when my heart skipped a beat. There
was the usual flotsam that ladies tend to carry around with
them, including a purse, an obviously very expensively wrapped
gift box and £1200 cash in assorted notes, all stuffed into
the Mulberry bag in no apparent order," he said with something
of |
It’s in the bag
for Bernie! |
A happy outcome for Bernie
a gasp as he recalled
the sight of so much money!
"I also found her Harrods credit card and they offered to
email her at her residence in Eire, but bearing in mind she was
here in the UK, that didn’t seem a particularly practical
suggestion. So I telephoned my wife Carol, to see if she had any
ideas of how I could try to contact a female passenger whom I
assumed would be pulling her hair out by now at the loss of so
much money and everything else in the bag, including a huge
bunch of keys!"
So Bernie and Carol began phoning around all the usual credit card
contacts but nobody seemed to be particularly interested or
helpful, no doubt due in part to the Data Protection Act
and client confidentiality.
Bernie continued his story. "Eventually, someone from the Allied
Irish Bank in Eire saw sense and offered to call her at her
London home. The passenger called me back within a short time
and agreed to meet me the following morning, while her husband
was visiting his dentist in Wimpole Street. I couldn’t begin to
describe the sound of relief in the ladies voice," Bernard
exclaimed, his face breaking into a broad and satisfied smile!
It turned out that the lady passenger and her husband were
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racehorse owners with equine
interests both in the UK and Emerald Isle.
"Carol suggested that the Mulberryy bag itself that all the
stuff was stuffed into was probably worth about £2000 just by
itself, so getting everything back intact was obviously
particularly pleasing for my lady passenger. Then when I met her
the following day and handed back the bag, she all but kissed me
in gratitude - but don’t tell my wife, it might not go down too
well," he said with a huge grin.
To say that the passenger was impressed with Bernard’s honesty and
determination to return her property would be a huge
understatement. She telephoned Dial-a-Cab House and a
fleet message was sent out proclaiming Bernie’s efforts.
While speaking to Call Sign, Bernie recounted an
earlier incident where a passenger had left a child’s Ralph
Lauren coat in the cab - still with the £250 price tag
attached.
"I took it back to The Boltons in South Ken where I’d set the lady
passenger down and she too was naturally delighted at its
return, but it’s just so amazing how people can spend a fortune
on something and then just leave it in the cab," he mused.
This magazine’s reporter referred to the honesty and reputation of
London’s taxi drivers that makes us the envy of taxi services
around the world. Bernie’s modest comment was simple:
"Old driver, old values," he stated modestly! That can also no
doubt be said of our younger colleagues as well – this being the
most honest taxi driving service in the world in addition to
being the best…
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