ASA Adjudication on K2 Contract Hire

Ad

A radio ad, for K2 Contract Hire, a private car hire company, stated “ … need a four-, six- or eight-seater taxi in a hurry? … want to save 20% off the metered fare … “.

Issue

A listener objected that the use of the term "taxi" misleadingly implied that the company operated a hackney cab service.

BCAP Radio Code

Response

Radio Forth explained that the campaign had lasted for four weeks and that the station had received a couple of phone calls expressing the view that the use of the word "taxi" was misleading. They believed the word "taxi" was not misleading and provided a photocopy of a page out of Edinburgh's Yellow Pages that showed the use of word "taxi" for private car hire firms was common.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted the ad stated "... need a four-, six- or eight-seater taxi in a hurry?" and considered that it was generally known that hackney cabs could accept a maximum of five passengers only. We understood, from an Office of Fair Trading report, that the licensed taxi and private hire vehicle market was highly regulated at local level and that licensed taxis were allowed to ply for hire on the street, or at ranks, whereas private hire vehicles were not. We concluded that the word "taxi" was considered by the general public to be a generic term for a hired vehicle and that, because the ad made no reference to the specific licensed taxi privilege of ply for hire, the ad did not mislead.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) Radio Advertising Standards Code section 2 rule 3 (Misleadingness) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)