London pedicab driver charged man £500 for 10-minute trip

14 comments
  1. These things are an utter blight on Central London and lots are run by criminal gangs. The fact that they’re unregulated is incredible and I’m amazed it’s been allowed to go on as long as it has.

    They lurk around waiting to pounce on drunk tourists and scam them for as much as they can.

    There should be a handful allowed in some tourist areas with regulated fares, so any tourists who fancy a ride can use one.

  2. One of the best moments of my life was in a pedicab in Edinburgh. Mate’s stag do, work wouldn’t give me the time off so I pulled a sickie and basically expected to get fired at the end.

    Several pints in, we were heading from a takeaway to the strippers and made 3 cabs race. Leaning out and slapping my mate on the back of his head as we overtook his cab and him being unable to retaliate as his driver didn’t have the thighs for it.

    Think each cab had 3 of us and we paid £30 for each cab, bonus £20 to the winner. Very over priced but we agreed the price in advance.

  3. I was once hassled by one of these pedicab drivers in Central London.

    I politely declined because I was already aware of the prices they like to charge, the driver kept insisting it was free and my absolute idiot of a friend jumped in, not wanting my friend to be driven to a back alley and mugged I got onboard as well and mentally prepared myself for some drama.

    I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the “angle” was to drive men to a nearby stripclub and then earn a commission from the venue for bringing them in. We didn’t go inside and the driver was kind of annoyed but we didn’t care and just left the area.

  4. I remember seeing a video of one of these drivers asking his passengers for like 50 quid for a 5 minute ride.

    Seem like an absolute scam and im glas ive only ever seen like 1 or 2 in my city.

  5. Be aware that most of these guys charge £5/minute if you’re a local. If you’re from the Middle East, it’s more like £20/min. Most tourist don’t complain as they’re threatened that the Police will be called and more often than not pay up because they don’t know the local laws and probably don’t want any trouble.

    SMH.

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