November 8, 2009
Where did taxi drivers enhance or ruin your vacation experience?
This article got me thinking about taxi drivers and how they impact your vacations. The article talks about Malaysia's tourism marketing efforts in Denmark, which are made harder because taxi drivers often refuse to use the meter in Malaysia.
I encountered this problem personally both times I visited Malaysia. In KL, we had to wait a while but generally we found drivers who were willing to use the meter. Sometimes it was the 2nd or 3rd or 4th taxi we tried though. In Penang, no taxi would use the meter. It was really frustrating (though looking back I wonder why I cared so much that they wanted 10 ringgit when the meter would have said 2 - 8 ringgit was a little more than $2 at the time and I shouldn't have let the money cause so much vacation stress).
Just wondering where else taxis hurt the tourism industry. The bigger stories recently aren't directly related to travel: the gay couple kicked out of a NYC cab for hugging, Australia requiring an English test for taxis, courts recently ruled that Korean taxi drivers can watch TV while driving (how crazy / scary is that?), and so on.
And just for the record, I think Malaysia should simply increase the meter rate so taxi drivers can live with it. I think NYC's proposed law to ban taxi drivers from wearing earpieces while the motor is running is silly (no restriction is suggested for people who don't drive for a living). I guess drivers in Cebu have it bad with low metered fares and few customers. I generally sympathize with cabbies who work hard (who wants to drive in traffic all day?), are subject to abuse, and are not usually compensated well.
I did think that Japan and Singapore had excellent taxis (although expensive).
Posted by James Trotta at November 8, 2009 8:13 AM
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.travel-plan-idea.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1175
My worst experience was in Lisbon, when the taxi driver overcharged us by a large amount as we didnt undestand the currency. I have never seen a taxi drive away so quickly after dropping us off...
London taxi drivers are all good and are rquired to know the city well.
I second (third) Malaysia. They are without a doubt, the worst taxi drivers I have encountered. Not only do they not want to use the meter, they often won't take you where you want to go and offer an alternative which is usually not terribly close to the original destination. Moscow taxis are terrible too.
On the good side, Singapore taxi drivers are great, I've never had a problem, they are right up there with London taxis.
Posted by: Bob at November 9, 2009 6:01 PMThe worst I had was in San Franciso. Instead of going up the street we were standing on for two miles he took us on a long detour. When we said something, he began to drive like a madman, slamming on the brakes and making unnessary turns at high speed. I was thrown to the floor at one point. No tip for him.
The best was in Chicago. When the taxi driver realized that I had never been there before he turned off the meter and took us on an impromptu sight seeing trip. He got a huge tip.
Posted by: Sheri at November 10, 2009 1:42 AMThe best taxis are in western Europe. English taxis are beyond compare if you take the black ones. I also have had good experiences in Paris, Florence, and Rome.
Posted by: Sheri at November 10, 2009 1:46 AMIn Sweden taxis are reliable but fairly expensive, In Bangkok taxis with taxameters are very affordable, however take a trip to Phuket and a taxi without taxameter will be very expensive.
Posted by: Daniel at November 18, 2009 1:58 PM