This letter is in response to the letter from Roy West on April 17. I was the dispatcher who was working on the day Roy claims to have left $65 worth of alcohol in the back seat of one of our cabs.
When Roy contacted me he told me he had left $25 worth of alcohol on the floor in the back seat of a cab, six beer and a mickey of rum. I immediately contacted all of my drivers and no alcohol was found. Roy described the driver as over six feet tall with greyish hair. I told him I had only one driver close to that description driving a van but Roy insisted it was a car. I gave Roy my manager’s phone number and told him we would try our best to rectify the situation.
Unfortunately when items are left in the back seats, on the floor, quite often one of the next customers will “help themselves”. Even though Roy contacted us within a few minutes, the drivers had already taken other fares. I spoke with Roy no less than three times that day and was present when the manager talked to him on two other occasions. We have a computerized dispatch system that tracks all fares and could find no record of this trip. When Roy spoke with the manager, somehow the amount increased to $45 worth of alcohol.
Even with this discrepancy and no record of the trip, the manager told Roy we would pay him $45 and that the money was at our office. I placed the money in an envelope and put it away for Roy to pick up. Roy never came to pick up the money and we have heard nothing from him until reading his letter this morning in which he now claims he left $65 worth of alcohol in a cab.
We return dozens of items every month to our customers. Anything found in our cars is brought to the office and placed in the lost and found and every effort is made to contact the owner if at all possible.
It is unfortunate the Western did not contact us before printing the letter as I do not believe it would have been published if they were aware of all the facts.
Fay Terry
Penticton
