Losing

Late last night a bloke flicked me two ten dollar notes, or so he thought. In the dim light (left) he had actually passed a tenner and a hundred. It was only when I hit the courtesy light that we realised the mistake, much to his relief.

Passing the wrong notes is a rare occurrence and happens to me approximately once a year in the cab. On two previous occasions I've failed to double-check and driven off. Once I received a fifty and a five, instead of two five dollar notes; another time two new twenty dollar notes were passed instead of one. Bonus, though I also have lost money.

Indeed, I once gave a service station panel operator two new fifty dollar notes, stuck together, instead of one fifty. Much later at the end of the shift, I realised the tally was fifty dollars short. Then I recalled that the operator had hesitated, before he shrugged and quickly 'tilled' the notes.

That's the price of tiredness; snooze, you lose.

Comments

[CanberraCabbie]

I always whack the light on when accepting payment. If I don't, half the time I'll be asked to by the passenger, so it's a matter of habit now. Occasionally there'll be a mistake, but rarely do I get anything out of it. Usually, it's something like "Just take fifteen dollars out of this, mate." as the passenger passes over a tenner.

But yeah, mistakes happen, and though I usually sort things out, I'll bet a lot of cabbies keep quiet and let the hungover customer survey his empty wallet the next morning.

[Stu]

Having been on the wrong end of losing personal belongings in a cab, it's harsh that more don't understand that all lost and found goods needed to be handed in to police. That includes money. It's the law.

[fred]

happens a lot in bars, no surprise. In Japan, we have 3 notes, 2 of them brown. Then you get tourists, trying to pay for 2 drinks with equivilant of $200!

[Anthony]

I once paid $80 for a $60 jacket many moons ago when I was a teenager. Two new $20 notes had stuck together. When I later realised what had happened I was mortified as this was nearly my week's take-home pay. But I rang the shop and when they did the till they found they were $20 over. I got my money back the next day.

[adrian]

Stu, that's easily not considered during the late night bustle of cab driving, once the passenger has disappeared into a unit block or nightclub. As happened in these cases.

However you've right, both technically and ethically, and I should have handed the bucks to the police. But given it's now too late for that, I've just slotted $65 to the St Vincent de Paul Disaster Relief Fund, Newcastle area.

[TimH]

Well done Adrian re the Relief fund.
A couple of weeks ago I was buying lunch in my local deli' during work, the food came to about five dollars, I handed over a $20 note and the lady at the counter gave me change of $75, I'll have to admit I hesitated for a nano-second but then I said she had given me much too much change, so we sorted it out. She gave me a big smile as I left!

[Roy]

That would have to be handed in to the Carriage office here, printed receipts are given to all customers detailing license number of the taxi, we'd be hauled in to explain why we hadn't left it in, and asked tricky questions if we denied it happened.

[Stu]

Can't argue with that Adrian.

I had a taxi driver knock on my door about three weeks back to hand me back a notepad I'd left in his taxi three days earlier. I was massively impressed.

[alanbond]

lifes tough take your eye of the ball and you lose,extra $20=shift bonus

[Becker]

Stu I hear your point but consider this in Adrians case the money was neat, presented properly and easily identified so yes I would always return the money to the pax as I did one night when an elderly gent passed a $100 note as a $10 .... BUT if the pax has the money stuffed scrunched up in their pocket and hands it to me the same way without bothering to open it out or check what they are handing me well then I drop it in my lap (provided the note I can see covers the fare) and I check it later. Why should I care if they've given me too much when they haven't cared enough to check it themselves ???