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This is like compensating purse snatchers because the promotion of mobile payments reduces their income. Sydney's taxi is a shame to this wonderful city. I sti

• tensor 3y ago
  Toronto is notorious for this too. Either the credit card machine is broken and you must pay too much cash, or the credit card machine steals your card number, or you are refused a ride because it’s not far enough. Even travelling through Europe I’ve been refused a ride because it was too short, and got overcharged by 2-3x once. I’d use Uber at this point even if it’s more expensive than a taxi.
  • papruapap 3y ago
    In 90% of all countries really, most common scam ever. That is why travelers use Uber more than natives.
  • alistairSH 3y ago
    Either the credit card machine is broken and you must pay too much cash... Wouldn't you just respond "Sorry, no cash!" and walk away? It's literally true for me - I rarely have more than $10 cash on hand, because I never need it.
    • jncfhnb 3y ago
      Because they’re threatening
      • alistairSH 3y ago
        I guess it depends on the location. I had a car service pull this on my at Denver International a few years ago. He wasn't asking for more than the flat-fee from downtown to the airport, so I hit the ATM and gave him the cash. But if I had been in a hurry, he would have been SOL, I would have gone straight to security and not given it a second thought.
        • jncfhnb 3y ago
          Damn, I guess you’re hypothetically really resilient to that sort of thing
      • rchaud 3y ago
        Threatening? Most taxicabs have cameras inside, and I've never heard of a driver getting violent with a passenger over an inability to pay (different from a refusal to pay), considering their picture and cab ID are prominently displayed inside the cab.
        • snapcaster 3y ago
          This and the sibling comment both show a pretty big lack of sympathy or empathy. Maybe you've never been in a situation where the line is blurry between dangerous/not-dangerous but maybe just assume everyone besides you isn't a moron and it's not as easy as you're saying
          • alistairSH 3y ago
            It's not a lack of empathy, I literally don't know how this would work in the driver's favor. I rarely carry cash. If we got to the destination and the driver demanded cash, what's he expecting will happen? Everywhere I've taken a cab in the last decade requires cabs to have CC readers.
            • gorbypark 3y ago
              Generally the idea is that they say the machine doesn’t work, and if you say you have no cash / won’t go to an ATM the machine magically starts working.
        • deleted 3y ago
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  • dmix 3y ago
    The city taxis are wayyy dirtier than Uber too, reviews were a godsend.
  • notyourwork 3y ago
    I’ve had good luck with broken credit card machines working when I declare I have no cash. Maybe it’s because of my stature and/or luck.
  • rchaud 3y ago
    I'm in Toronto and never experienced any of this. Even before Uber, if a drivers' credit card machine wasn't working, they'd tell me before I got in. 95% of the time there was no issue with their machine. I used legitimate taxicab companies - if one wasn't available on the street corner, you could call their dispatch and they'd send one over.
    • Scoundreller 3y ago
      > I used legitimate taxicab companies There really are no “legitimate taxicab companies” in Toronto. You have dispatching companies and companies that rent out cars with branding to drivers, but they’re all independent contractors. In theory a dispatching/car providing company could boot a contractor off of its system, but it’s a fine line for them where they’ve taken fewer risks on this than Uber, because they absolutely do not want to be considered employers. Even if you haven’t encountered the “card not working, cash only”, I’m surprised you never encountered the “right too short”/“don’t want to go there” refusal.
  • MattGaiser 3y ago
    This is also my experience with Toronto (and Athens and Barcelona and numerous other cities). I’ll stand for a half hour in the rain before I take another Toronto cab.
  • gentleman11 3y ago
    I have never had an experience like this with a taxi in any city
  • JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    Same in New York. Also fuck you if it’s shift change or you’re my former black roommate, who despite being a habitual suit wearer and Brown graduate would get passed by 90% of the cabs on Fifth Avenue. Since Uber, granted, they’ve massively improved. But take it away and, of course, the incentive structure guarantees one outcome.
  • a_random_canuck 3y ago
    I’ve taken many taxis in Montreal and London and other European cities, and in Taiwan, and have never had anything like this happen to me. Instead I get Uber drivers who refuse to come to my pickup spot and drive around in circles hoping I’ll cancel the trip first so they can still get paid something.
  • deleted 3y ago
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• Nursie 3y ago
  The taxi firms lost income because it wasn't a level playing field. They played by the rules where Uber's well-known modus operandi in many countries was to skirt the rules or downright ignore them, while using billions of dollars of investor money to undercut the market. I'm glad they exist to shake up the taxi market, and the rules changes were probably overdue. But I'm also glad uber got fined, because they behaved like pirates here and in many other countries. And I'm glad they didn't succeed in putting everyone else out of business, which seemed to be the play.
  • golergka 3y ago
    As a costumer, I'm glad they skirt the rules because they provide better service for cheaper, and I certainly hope that traditional taxi parks go out of business, because compared to Uber and other apps they're horrible.
  • dahdum 3y ago
    Did you take many taxis before Uber/Lyft? It was an adversarial relationship - your taxi driver would try their very best (they practice every day!) to rip you off any which way they can. Their lobby stopped any competition or reform, and they exploited the most vulnerable. I have no sympathy at all for the taxi cartels - only their victims.
    • Nursie 3y ago
      I did - this doesn't match my experience at all.
    • stevage 3y ago
      I did take taxis in Melbourne and Sydney before and after the arrival of Uber. I never had any issues with any taxi drivers, except one racist arsehole in Townsville.
      • FireBeyond 3y ago
        Hah. Australian ex-pat living in Seattle. Took my girlfriend and her daughter to Australia to catch up with my family, etc. We did Sydney, Cairns and Melbourne. Hell, even with Uber... multiple pretty openly racist drivers in Cairns (I am extremely left wing, but my partner and friends like to tease that I could pass for a 'good old boy', so too many people feel comfortable just erupting in tirades and assuming I'll be in agreement). Actually, in CNS, the most common problem was cancelations with Uber. Of maybe a dozen or more Uber trips I took in 4 days there, only one or two didn't have any cancelations. Usually it required one or even more cancelations before a driver would actually "commit".
• AndrewKemendo 3y ago
  How much “should” it cost? $90 is too much but $20 is just right? Why?
  • gruez 3y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_clearing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_clearing
  • muro 3y ago
    Taxis in Sydney are regulated and can't just decide what to charge. Travelers might not know, of course. If at all possible, take a picture.
• maccard 3y ago
  The single best thing that Uber did to taxi companies was it eliminated this bullshit in so many places. I live in Edinburgh, and prior to Uber this sort of stuff was rampant. Now, all the private hire and black companies have apps, accept card payments, are clean. I'm Irish, and on my last trip to Dublin, I ended up with a €70 taxi. The driver wouldn't take card, so he drove around until we found an ATM, by which time the meter was €75. I paid him the €70 and he left me at the ATM, without a receipt for me to claim reimbursement. I have absolutely no sympathy for this nonsense.
  • disgruntledphd2 3y ago
    > The driver wouldn't take card, For future visitors to Ireland, note that this has been illegal since last year. The taxis are required to accept card. If this does happen to you, ask what their number is and say you'll call ComReg and this problem will almost certainly disappear.
• tsujamin 3y ago
  Sydney taxis are extortionate and often operate illegally around the airport, but also taxi plates in Australia costed $100,000’s (on the market, not sure how much when released by the government) and that investment got trashed by ride-share entry. From that perspective I’ve got some sympathy.
  • willcipriano 3y ago
    Taxi companies lobby for very expensive taxi registration to raise barrier to entry and prevent competition. Someone finds a way around this malfeasance. "Hey you gotta pay us for lost income, we spent a lot on those taxi medallions!"
  • bigDinosaur 3y ago
    Why should we have sympathy because of an artificial constraint on the supply of taxi drivers? They're really nothing special except by being in an artificially protected market.
  • araes 3y ago
    The article said they cost $500,000 (each), which was probably the least believable part of the article. If they actually cost $100,000, that might be close to reasonable. Somebody can probably do 5-6 rides a day at $50 a ride for a $100,000 tag. That's pretty believable for an average over a year. Even $200,000 might be. I have difficultly believing they're all making money needing 30 rides at ~$50 every day all year long for a $500,000 tag. > value of his three taxi licence plates – worth about $500,000 each.
    • Atotalnoob 3y ago
      I would believe the 500k number. Taxi badges are ridiculously priced. I think NYC’s was over 1.5m. Keep in mind, they are able to lease the badge out, so you can have your cab running 24/7.
    • StackRanker3000 3y ago
      Why are you assuming it must necessarily be paid for in the first year? Are they not keeping these plates indefinitely, unless sold?
• somishere 3y ago
  Meh. Last time I got an uber from Sydney airport the guy made us get in at the entry to the multi store car park across from the rideshare pickup. I just assumed because he didn't want to pay a fee. He then couldn't reverse out because someone turned up behind him and so did a run through the car park. Had a strange chat with him on the drive into town where he tried to tell me he was a student and had only been in Sydney for a couple of months, but it was totally suspicious, he kept getting carried away and relaxing into a undeniable western Sydney accent. My wife was in the car next to me texting me like crazy that something was up but I was just playing along. No idea what the go was in the end. Unsettling but otherwise uneventful trip. I didn't tip. I avoid uber from the airport now and just get a cab or a train. Price is about the same. Edit: I should probably add that I don't avoid uber completely, still use it when travelling, esp. if I'm somewhere without a taxi rank. But I prefer a cab from the airport. It's genuinely less hassle.
• askl 3y ago
  Why would you even use a taxi for that? There seems to be a decent public transit connection. It costs $2.90 for that trip.
  • Staple_Diet 3y ago
    Depends when they made that trip. I lived in that area for a while. The train is a little bit exxy and only used to go to Greensquare. You'd need two buses otherwise and there is sfa room for bags, so if you have luggage etc a taxi is an easier option for the $20 it should cost.
  • someuser2345 3y ago
    If it's your first time in a new city, you probably just want to get to your hotel as fast as possible instead of learning the transit system.
    • askl 3y ago
      I've only traveled in Europe and Asia so far but this never looked like an issue to me. Also I'd also use the transit system for the following days in the city, so have to learn about it anyways. (Not that there's really anything to learn)
      • decafninja 3y ago
        Lugging around luggage through buses and transit, especially if there are stairs involved, is not pleasant. It’s not pleasant in cities with great transit like Tokyo or Seoul, and it’s downright miserable in most of the cities being discussed here in this thread.
    • aleku 3y ago
      +1 to this. I did Heathrow to Bermondsey for £110 (first time in London). Then next morning, found myself wondering why I didn't just use the train. On the way out, I did use the train, and lets just say, I still think about that £110.
  • hnick 3y ago
• DeusExMachina 3y ago
  Isn't a scam not an official taxi, though? I don't know the situation in Sydney, but where I usually travel, it's the unlicensed taxis that overcharge and scam people, i.e., not the real taxis. Licensed taxi companies charge standard fares.
  • earthling8118 3y ago
    That's wishful thinking but not true. I've directly called a legitimate taxi company before and been scammed and had to pay over triple the price. This was after specifically discussing the flat cost that this particular trip had. Due to circumstances I'm not going to discuss here I had no choice but to pay it, but if I'd been in a different situation I would have left.
  • hnick 3y ago
    Regulation is very lax here. Plenty of stories. The most basic being they won't unlock the door when you flag them until hearing where you are going - legally they have to take ALL rides unless they are in a shift changeover. If it's really far, like to a farm, I think they can ask for the return fee too. Also, a booking isn't. It's like that Seinfeld skit. A booking is just an agreement to put your job out at the agreed time. Doesn't mean anyone has to take it. I live too close to the airport for anyone to want to take it, apparently.
• dorkwood 3y ago
  The last taxi I ever took in Sydney drove twice the distance he needed to so he could charge me a higher fee. And that wasn't the first time something like that had happened. I've now been using Uber for years and I'm yet to be so blatantly scammed.
• hilbert42 3y ago
  "I still remember when I first just arrived in Sydney, I took a taxi from the airport to Waterloo and was charged $95..." What, $95, do t you mean $9.50? (The last time I paid around that amount for taxi fares was from Disneyland to Bel Air along the longest 'carpark' in the world, and from Tokyo to Narita International Airport.) I've taken taxis from Mascot Airport to my place in the same direction along Botany Rd but further (about double the distance to Waterloo) for at least one third that price. Were you parked in a traffic jam for hours? I'll grant you the taxi business was already in a bloody shambles before Uber and has needed reform for many years but I've never experienced charges that high. The root of the problem is that governments have learned to charge hundreds of thousands of dollars and sometimes a half million or more for taxi plates. Such huge amounts put taxi owners in a very difficult financial bind, they can be on the verge of bankruptcy for years paying for them, and or they hang onto them with grim determination fearing they could never afford or obtain another set. Moreover, increasing the number of plates available devalues them—little wonder taxi owners object strongly at any such move. Thus, it's long been just about impossible to reverse the maddening situation.