The Taxi Problem
For some reason in this country outside of big cities, like London, Edinburgh, Liverpool and others, taxis don’t seem to work very well.
Take where I am now and there are no local taxis, so you have to get one from either Cambridge, Newmarket or Bury St. Edmunds, which makes transport for people like me difficult. I can’t always book and this results in the sort of situation last Saturday in Bury St. Edmunds, where I couldn’t find one and had a very long walk in cold weather, which is probably not to be advised.
last night, I had to get back from Whittlesford and because I wasn’t sure about what would be happening, I hadn’t firmed it up with my usual driver at Sawston Taxis. He did know that I might be coming and I knew that he had a trip to London City Airport in the early evening. So after a couple of texts, he told me that he’d be at the station, but not before 7:30. So I took a train to arrive there about that time and texted him to say I wouldn’t mind waiting a bit. In the end, he was waiting for me as I arrived and it all worked out without pain. In fact, another of his regular clients had also contacted the taxi driver by text and he did a double trip.
The taxi driver used to be an AA repairman and they had a system, that automatically located the nearest guy and sent him to the breakdown.
So the technology is there with GPS, text messaging and computers to organise what we have now a lot better.
Perhaps, what is needed is a UK-wide number for taxis, which gets the nearest professional one to where you want to go. Surely, in this day and age something better can be done rather than what we have now. Unless, you pre-plan it and use someone you trust, you now have to take pot-luck and perhaps end up with a rather tatty one from the rank at the station or phone and say there is no taxi available.
A good system would also allow shared taxis. So say if four people were coming off a particular train, then they would be allocated to a sensible number of cabs in a monetarily and environmentally efficient way.
I’d be interesting to know whether other countries organise things better, so that you have a good value service. A good system, should lower the cost for passengers, but also get a lot more business for the drivers.
The Anonymous Widower 
Addison Lee in London has the tracking and despatch method you describe. I swear by them – excellent professional service. Just a shame that they’re not national. I doubt there’d be a market outside of the main cities though as the vast majority of people living in rural areas like you must drive or else they’d never move there. I agree that doesn’t help you much in your current predicament though. Things will be so much easier when you return to live in London!
Comment by Emma | September 2, 2010 |
Thanks Emma. According to my doctor everybody complains about the lack of a decent rural transport system. In my view, there is too much vested interest in keeping what we hsve that doesn’t work. After all, shared taxis wiuld be hated by the bus companies and the current breed of taxi drivers, who would all lose ridership. We must innovate and change to progress.
At a simple level every train at my local train station could be met by a shared taxi, that went to the villages all around.
Comment by AnonW | September 2, 2010 |
The taxi firm I use here when I need a cab certainly have some sort of GPS system. But I live on the outskirts of a large town, less than a mile from the railway station which serves London and several other major cities.
Although you cant drive right now, do you have a person fairly locally who could take you to and from the station in one of your own cars, I am assuming here that you have a “normal” car as well as the high performance “posh” ones.
Comment by Liz P | September 2, 2010 |
I do have ariver, but the problem is that she has a family and other responsibilities. She drives my Jaguar estate.
Comment by AnonW | September 2, 2010 |
Is there a sensible student or similar available at weekends occasionally – again whilst there are loads of those in a town, I guess there are fewer in the countryside. Plus insurance on a Jaguar may be rather higher than on my Honda Jazz.
In this area, Greater Manchester, it is possible to share taxis, there is a way in which the cost is organised, not sure how it works, but I am aware it exists
Comment by Liz P | September 2, 2010 |