Taxis

[mannej]

3am + weekend = taxi's hunting for fares around Northbridge.

I would imagine that to be the case each weekend morning in Perth

 

[DrA]

3am + weekend = taxi's hunting for fares around Northbridge.

I would imagine that to be the case each weekend morning in Perth

Yes, this is true. Yet the taxi drivers seem to be constantly complaining about said drunkards in Northbridge.

What would you rather? A simple Shenton Park-Intl Airport trip with a totally sober passenger? Or a bunch of drunkards in Northbridge?

Maybe applying logic to this situation is a mistake?

 

[docjames]

DrA - you need a limo service. Sure, each trip might be an extra $10-$20, but you'll save time (not having to ring an hour before you really want) as you can book in advance. My sleep time between 1-3am is sure wortht he extra $10-$20!

Presume you're not flying J to Dubai as dont EK provide a limo service for J class?

 

[DrA]

DrA - you need a limo service. Sure, each trip might be an extra $10-$20, but you'll save time (not having to ring an hour before you really want) as you can book in advance. My sleep time between 1-3am is sure wortht he extra $10-$20!

Presume you're not flying J to Dubai as dont EK provide a limo service for J class?

No, sadly not. Work will only pay for Y/Y+ (unless you're TPTB). That's life, but at least I get the miles.

I'll look into the limo service though. Work covers our airport transfers, so if another $10-20 gets us there on time, they won't care.

 

[medhead]

I live in Perth. I'm not calling from the Sheraton. I often have to leave for the airport at 2-3am to catch the 6am flight to Dubai. That doesn't leave me with the option to go wake my neighbours up and beg them to drive me to the airport. I'm a regular customer, but for whatever reason, taxis don't show up. I'll give them 15-20 minutes before I ring back

Re the sheraton comments - yeah sorry i got confused with another post. But basically i outlined the reason you don't get a pick up. because the taxis are too busy or they don't want to go to (get stuck at) the airport just before shift change over or the few that are interested in the airport are nowhere near your suburb. it was like this 15 years ago and obviously it still is.

Best bet is to get a regular driver. I'd suggest even just cruising a rank that is full of cabs and asking the ones that look ok to you if they do private bookings. Also, definitely do not wait 15-20 minutes before calling back. 10 minutes max, that was the service level that i was expected to provide and i stand by that 10 minute rule. besides if you are not constant on them they are liable to think you haven't waited.

 

[JohnK]

This thread illustrates why the major capitals of Australia need fixed fares for Airport-CBD.

eg. MEL to any CBD destination = $fixed.

Not quite sure I agree with this idea.

In Tampa the fare from airport to city centre was/is fixed both ways at USD22. The trip takes less than 10 minutes mainly on a freeway/motorway. When they fix fares they seem to fix at the higher end of the scale.

I also encountered this in a small(ish) town in Greece (~17,000 people) where we stayed for most of the trip. Does not matter if you go 500m or 3kms the fare is 4 Euros. And in the village where I was born the cab fare now is 8 Euros down to the main road which is around 2-3 kms away.

 

[oz_mark]

This thread illustrates why the major capitals of Australia need fixed fares for Airport-CBD.

At some hotels on the Gold Coast you can prepay taxis to the airport. Pretty much a fixed rate. (Actually I think you ca prepay to other destinations as well, but I only ever did the airport prepay)

 

[anat0l]

This thread illustrates why the major capitals of Australia need fixed fares for Airport-CBD.

eg. MEL to any CBD destination = $fixed.

Works well in NYC where fare is fixed to any location on manhattan island.

Minicabs in London will tell you over then phone a fixed price for service to LHR/LGW etc (varies pending time/day etc).

I'd imagine a limo service works on a fixed price schedule, e.g. Qantas Drive (and whatever they subcontract out to).

As JohnK said, I'd imagine they'd more than likely just fix the price on the high end of the scale; the argument would be that you're paying an amount which you know will be the price rather than gambling with the potential for traffic, but your fare in reality may be more or less. (But most of us take that gamble a lot of the time, period).

Here's my imagining of a schedule (I know this is going O/T a bit....); all are CBD to airport or vv., cash (c/c surcharge not inclusive)

• Brisbane: Peak $60, Off-Peak $50
• Sydney, not inclusive of Eastern Distributor toll: Peak $45, Off-Peak $35 -
• Melbourne (to/from Tulla), includes tolls: Peak $70, Off-Peak $60
• Perth: Peak $40, Off-Peak $30
• Hobart: Peak $50, Off-Peak $40
• Adelaide: Peak $30, Off-Peak $20
• Canberra (CBR CBD, not Queanbeyan): Peak $40, Off-Peak $30
• Cairns: Peak $30, Off-Peak $20

Anyone disagree with those?

 

[docjames]

Here's my imagining of a schedule (I know this is going O/T a bit....); all are CBD to airport or vv., cash (c/c surcharge not inclusive)

• Brisbane: Peak $60, Off-Peak $50
• Sydney, not inclusive of Eastern Distributor toll: Peak $45, Off-Peak $35 -
• Melbourne (to/from Tulla), includes tolls: Peak $70, Off-Peak $60
• Perth: Peak $40, Off-Peak $30
• Hobart: Peak $50, Off-Peak $40
• Adelaide: Peak $30, Off-Peak $20
• Canberra (CBR CBD, not Queanbeyan): Peak $40, Off-Peak $30
• Cairns: Peak $30, Off-Peak $20

Anyone disagree with those?

Well, BNE was around the $40 (incl a tip) to the Valley where we lived so should be more like $50 (ignore peak/off peak - I think just make it the same - so it'sslightly better value for the cabs when it's off peak, and fair value for peak).

MEL looks about right at $60-70 (incl tolls and tip).

SYD looks right.

Cant help with the others.

For reference/comparison, NYC is ~US$45 for JFK --> Manhattan but doesnt include tip (which being the LOTFAP is compulsory!).
A minicab from Wimbledon --> LHR was 28quid at 6am thursday morning. I dread to think the price in a black cab:shock:

 

[Batesy]

For those based in or travelling to/from Perth I can put you in touch with a great corporate car guy that I used in my two years based there (05/06). Reasonable rates and 100% reliable.
Send me a PM if you want his details.

 

[serfty]

...
Here's my imagining of a schedule (I know this is going O/T a bit....); all are CBD to airport or vv., cash (c/c surcharge not inclusive)

• ...
• Melbourne (to/from Tulla), includes tolls: Peak $70, Off-Peak $60
• ...

Anyone disagree with those?

Yep,

MEL is about $45-$50 to the city and $42-$47 City to airport (all up).

 

[anat0l]

Yep,

MEL is about $45-$50 to the city and $42-$47 City to airport (all up).

I wish!

I haven't taken a trip from city to airport in various conditions that hasn't cost me less than $55 base (then add 11% for the c/c charge).

I want to know who you use or who you ride to get such a fare.

The rather large taxi fare required in MEL is one reason why I've sworn off taxis to and from the airport unless I was backed into a corner.

 

[serfty]

I abhore taxi's at the best of times, but have NEVER paid as much $50 or more between the CBD and MEL airport. (Although I have not used one on the last 18 months ...)

Looking at fares to the Airport:

From Melbourne Central it is <24km: @$1.62 per Km that's ~$39. Flag Fall is $3.20. Use of Citylink adds another $4, so it is up to $46. From the Airport there's a $2 fee, so that way is from $48.

There is a fee of 58¢/minute when speed is less than 21kph.

 

[djfuzz]

I abhore taxi's at the best of times, but have NEVER paid as much $50 or more between the CBD and MEL airport. (Although I have not used one on the last 18 months ...)

Looking at fares to the Airport:

From Melbourne Central it is <24km: @$1.62 per Km that's ~$39. Flag Fall is $3.20. Use of Citylink adds another $4, so it is up to $46. From the Airport there's a $2 fee, so that way is from $48.

There is a fee of 58¢/minute when speed is less than 21kph.

Agree with your costs for getting to Melbourne Central on the north side of the CBD (+/- a little for the west side), but for getting to the south or south-west side of the CBD during peak, it may be quicker to take Citylink/WGF all the way to Lorimer or Power St - which may be up to 28 km, bringing the total closer to $55 without factoring idle time. Not quite $70, but closer.

 

[Skyring]

I'd imagine a limo service works on a fixed price schedule, e.g. Qantas Drive (and whatever they subcontract out to).

As JohnK said, I'd imagine they'd more than likely just fix the price on the high end of the scale; the argument would be that you're paying an amount which you know will be the price rather than gambling with the potential for traffic, but your fare in reality may be more or less. (But most of us take that gamble a lot of the time, period).

Here's my imagining of a schedule (I know this is going O/T a bit....); all are CBD to airport or vv., cash (c/c surcharge not inclusive)

• Canberra (CBR CBD, not Queanbeyan): Peak $40, Off-Peak $30
  
  Anyone disagree with those?

• 
  
  Speaking as a Canberra cabbie - on the night shift - it's rarely more than $20 city to CIA or v/v even in peak hour.
  
  $30 would get you a Silver Service pickup in my beautiful Fairlane. And likely change, because I always turn on the meter.

 

[Skyring]

Before I say too much, this refers to the 5% of scumbag taxi drivers out there who damage the reputation of the other 95%.

Last night a taxi took my friend and myself back home, and they started driving down a road which there is no way he could have honestly thought it was the quickest way. I picked up on it straight away as I have lived in Canberra all my life, but had I simply been visiting here I wouldn't have picked up on it. (I've caught a taxi driver in Perth try a similar stunt on me once before as well, unfortuantly for him I knew the way to the place we where going quite well)

Do you guys have any stratagies you use to ensure that your not taken for a ride if your in a city you don't really know?

Canberra cabbie on the night shift here. OneMoreFare.com is my blog, not to mention HogJowls.com and the others.

From other things you've said, I get the impression the ride was from Civic to Tuggeranong. There are basically three ways to get there.
1. Straight down past Parliament House, Adelaide Avenue, Athlon Drive from Woden. This is pretty much the shortest way, though you get some lights around Woden Town Centre, and there's that strip of 60 km/h through Phillip. There's also the option to take Yamba Drive if you are heading to somewhere like Gowrie.
2. The Tuggeranong Parkway. The quickest route, though it can be the longest. A lot of it is 90 or 100 km/h.
3. Parkes Way to the Monaro Highway. Big dogleg out to the side, a nice stretch of 100 km/h and the rest is 80. Good for places like Calwell or banks - right down the bottom end.

There are various wrinkles, such as Long Gully Road, infamous for kangaroos, or the Hindmarsh Drive cross with it's huge hill and many lights.

For most trips, if it isn't blindingly obvious which way is the best, I generally ask the passenger which is their preferred route. Two reasons:
1. If that is the way they are comfortable with, then that is the best way.
2. Their preferred route is often longer (but sometimes quicker) than the shortest route.

For passengers new to Canberra, I'll often take them a slightly longer and more scenic route than the optimum. Say from the airport to ****son, I'll go along Parkes Way and up Anzac Parade. Some stunning views and it's only a couple of hundred metres longer than the alternate route around the back of Duntroon and Campbell.

Have maps out and challenge the driver if you think he's going a longer way than he needs to. Sometimes there is a good reason for not going what appears to be the best way. Accidents, congestion, roadworks...

If the driver is fair dinkum, he'll tell you what route he's going and why.

And use your phone's video function if you begin to suspect you are being ripped off. Ask him to explain to the camera.

Get details of the cab, including the taxi number. Even if you are treated right, you may have left something in the car and it makes it so much easier if you know which cab it was.

Get a receipt.

There are various fare calculation utilities around. Aerial Taxis has one for Canberra. Generally gives fares on the high end of the scale, but you can get an idea of how much a trip will cost you.

Me, I'm not really in it for the money, strange as it may seem. I occasionally make a real boner in route selection, and if my passengers seem really upset, I'll tell them I'll knock off a few dollars, or whatever is on the meter right now is their fare, or they can pay me the cheapest fare it's ever been on that run, or they can pay me whatever they think the trip is worth, including nothing.

My aim is to have a happy passenger at the end of the trip. Happy passenger == happy cabbie.

 

[Hvr]

Actually, I have a bit of empathy at the moment for CBR cabbies and the shambles that is CBR AP. An absolute dogs breakfast and totally unintuitive. The inability to drop off and easily join the queue must be very frustrating.

And to the poor cabbie who took me home last Sunday, well with floods everywhere and heaps of road closures he did very well to only have a couple of extra dollars on the meter. He earnt his money and the tip. To his credit as soon as I pulled out the notes he started counting out the change. Told him not to bother.

I suspect that of all the capital city cabbies the CBR driver would handle the least cash with all the public service credit cards. CBR is the only city where I have never had a "faulty" credit card/EFTPOS machine excuse pulled on me.

Hope to catch up with you one night here Skyring.

 

[mm472]

Great to hear from you Skyring,
Was wondering if you were still around,
Its been a while since i have seen a post from you.

 

[Skyring]

Actually, I have a bit of empathy at the moment for CBR cabbies and the shambles that is CBR AP. An absolute dogs breakfast and totally unintuitive. The inability to drop off and easily join the queue must be very frustrating.

And to the poor cabbie who took me home last Sunday, well with floods everywhere and heaps of road closures he did very well to only have a couple of extra dollars on the meter. He earnt his money and the tip. To his credit as soon as I pulled out the notes he started counting out the change. Told him not to bother.

I suspect that of all the capital city cabbies the CBR driver would handle the least cash with all the public service credit cards. CBR is the only city where I have never had a "faulty" credit card/EFTPOS machine excuse pulled on me.

Hope to catch up with you one night here Skyring.

Thanks, Hvr (and mm472)!

I don't drive on the weekends and was very glad not to when it was raining. Local flooding, slippery roundabouts, all the other idiots on the road who drive at their usual speed. Hats off to any cabbies out there getting people to where they need to be.

Weekends are my family time. Five thirteen hour night shifts Monday to Friday and on Saturday I get out there and give 1.10%. I wind down and recharge and get out again on Mondays.

"Every day's a new adventure out here," I say to my passengers, especially when confronted with a whole new set of temporary roads by surprise. This sort of rubbish has been going on at the airport for THREE YEARS. You might get a month without changes, and just when you've gotten the exact best speed and line to take through the speed bumps and bollards into muscle memory, they bloody go and change it.

One of my brother cabbies has recently noted that the final speedbump on the way out of the airport is so high that he can't get his Statesman cab over it without "scrapping the bottom". I've advised him to try it at a range of speeds, because sometimes if you get the speed just right the car just soaks up the bumps. Advance commiserations to whoever is in the car with him when he tries it at 70 km/h!

I'll usually round the fare down. If it's (say) $13.35, I'll say "Ah, just make that thirteen dollars." Mostly blokes will give me fifteen and say "keep the change."

Seriously, I'm not going to stress over a few cents. Tips are nice, but what I really want is a smile at the end of the trip.

Having said that, I'm a heavy tipper when I take a cab myself, as I do from time to time. Trying to get the cabbie to smile, you see!

We've had a recent influx of Indian drivers from Melbourne and standards seem to have slipt a little. I hear horror stories of cabbies who don't know where Northbourne Avenue is, or have pulled the "faulty card machine" line.

I normally do the airport rank of an evening, because that lets me get a bit of computer time in while waiting, there's always the chance of a long fare, and (may God help me, I'm a sad case) I like to see the planes coming in and out. Sometimes I lean on the roof of the cab and let my thoughts go with the winking diminishing lights in the sky, off to San Francisco or Kyoto or Istanbul. Looking forward to April already.

I drive TX 18, a Silver Service Fairlane. There's a little teddy bear mascot sitting in a corner of the dash, and he's got platinum luggage tags, just in case I lose him during a precarious photo-op somewhere. Lost him at the Washington Monument last July, but some kind soul found him and sat him beside the path. Now he's got a safety lanyard as well, so I can tie the little beggar down.

Now, passengers can select any cab out of a rank, but usually if someone chooses me, I'll indicate the cabs ahead, because those cabbies have been waiting longer. Fair's fare. Or if I get the idea that someone has chosen my cab because it's a Silver Service one, I'll tell them i'm going to charge the silver fee on top.

But if someone hops in and says, "You must be Skyring!", that's ok. Tell me about your recent flights and car hires and hotels and adventures...

 

[greenfrog86]

Based in MEL here, and have a mixed bag of taxi experiences...

Nights are usually when I get 'regular' cabs - to/from bars and home this service is usually fine. Most drivers seem to know major roads around me (southside)

Taxis from work into the CBD for meetings - I've learned my lesson regarding cabcharge...never let a driver see it before you pay, and its probably worth checking the machine is working by asking if you can pay on card. I hate having to argue at the end of a trip about there seemingly being nothing wrong with the machine and the driver insisting on doing a manual receipt for my cabcharge card... then pulling a dodgy and writing one copy for me to sign, and then trying to write out a new one for my copy (ie two slips of paper with different receipt numbers as they don't use the carbon paper). I really dont have time to be stuffing around arguing about them needing to use the ONE set of receipts... :evil:

As far as the airport goes, since I'm on the south side of the river, it is a more expensive trip... Last time I got a cab to the airport I used a booked Silver Service cab and had a lovely driver who was ontime and the whole experience was very pleasant.

The only reason I dont use them as a matter of course now is that with all the booking etc fees, they are very similarly priced to a corporate car.

I prefer these for the same price - you know they will turn up on time, you have their number, they are large and fit all your luggage, and if they are picking you up from the airport its nice not having to open your mouth to ensure you arrive at the correct location...

To the OP's original point, I think it would be a great thing to have a(perhaps new) thread listing private car companies and/or drivers that people have used and would recommend.

Even amongst the private cars there are a number of operators that I wouldn't use again (like the one who complained that I was slow getting through customs and then filled up the car with petrol on my way home ).