Why I Don’t Use Taxis
Coming back from Ipswich yesterday, the 141 and 21 buses had gone walkabout and the stop was missing. So I took a black cab.
But the driver was well past his best and got rather lost, so the fare cost me £4 more than it should. And I still had to walk about a kilometre at the end.
Is there a retirement age for taxi drivers? If there isn’t there should be!
The Anonymous Widower 
not only should there be a retirement age, there should be a limit on the length of shifts, some work far too long in one shift.
Comment by Liz P | September 2, 2012 |
He certainly wasn’t the best. But at least the taxi was in good nick!
In the last few years, I’ve never seen a bus driver, that I might think was a bit suspect.
Comment by AnonW | September 2, 2012 |
I gave up Taxis . . . now all Sub Continent Drivers {Can’t Drive & Don’t Know where to go } . . .
PLUS VERY DISHONEST Fares . . . One episode, wanted to drive me an extra 10 kms to catch a local daily train {how dumb . . . I needed a single trip & didn’t want to use my car that day}
Comment by Steam Lover | September 2, 2012 |
We get that sort of problem with mini-cabs, which I never use. But generally, the black cabs are straight and fair. Drivers are nearly always born and educated in the UK. I suspect because they have to do the Knowledge, that it weeds out the rubbish.
Comment by AnonW | September 2, 2012 |
The Knowldedge in Oz, has been replaced GPS talking Screens . . .
Problem is the Sub Continent Drivers cannot Speak or Spell to a Standard, or even Understand {deliberate or otherwise] instructions PLUS keeping driving in the wrong direction for many minutes {while arguing with passengers}.
This happens all to often to Oldies or Young Women. Many Passengers get charged bashing Drivers . . . they claim the Driver bashed them first {they tried to rob the Passenger, and leave them in the wrong adress}.
Some years ago when many Oz people were killed in Bali . . . the Taxi Drivers at Melbourne Airport, left their taxis & were doing Victory Dancing in the Taxi Rank.
Comment by Steam Lover | September 2, 2012 |
Taxi drivers in London may have GPS, but don’t use it normally.
In London there are few altercations between drivers and passengers, except with unlicensed mini-cabs, which people are told to avoid. And generally do!
Taxi drivers know, that if there’s trouble and it’s their fault, they get struck off.
But the biggest change in the forty years since I last lived in London, is that people just don’t use taxis, black or otherwise, that much. I don’t, but I use the buses every day. When I go to the angel to do my shopping, there are buses every two minutes and I can text to see how long I’ll have to wait. Buses in London are just computers that carry large numbers of people.
Comment by AnonW | September 3, 2012 |