Those weird taxi drivers...

[EFPWR]

Originally Posted by AdzT3-146

Haven't had too many bad stories myself, have regularly caught taxis home from the city in the early hours of the morning over the past 5 years or so, most of them are good blokes who are up for a chat.

One qualm I do have is there refusal to take a short fare. A mate and myself wanted to go from Albert Park to the CBD and not one of the seven cabs sitting there would take us.
Resulted in us walking in the rain which I didn't care about too much, but the fact we were willing to offer upfront payment etc and not one would take us.

Technically they aren't allowed to refuse it. Alot don't like going into the city late at night due to the risk involved, however they still shouldn't have refused..

[robboxr8]

thats why you say somewhere else then go "were stopping to pick up me mate" bout 2 mins before hand you do the old "ill ring him to make sure" then say plans changed were going to .... instead then pay the meter and nothing else

[merlin]

Don't usually catch cabs but had to one night going into the Sydney CBD. As usual heaps of traffic on the freeway and Harbour Bridge - no worries I thought as taxi's are allowed to use bus lanes. So imagine my surprise when mine starts sitting there in gridlock with the metre running.

Me: "Mate can you please use the bus lane"
He just muttered something incoherent (pretending he had bad English). Asked him again then opened my door and he's like "OK OK OK" so off he goes down the freeway in the bus lane. Get to the bridge and he's in the right lane, bus lane coming up on the left, I'm about to say something but he puts his left indicator on so I shutup - big mistake - he zooms past the bus lane entrance and then gets stuck in the gridlock on the bridge. I was fuming but couldn't do much as you can't get out on the bridge - as soon as we were off I made him pull over (even though I wanted to go to the Quay) and got out.

That's probably my biggest gripe with cabbies, as far as personality goes 99% of them are great its just some of the routes they take (on purpose) that peeve you.

[Paddyboy]

I was in the city (melbourne) and me and a few mates caught a cab home and the cabbie was jamiacan or something and he had the reggae music pumping! everytime we would pass a club he was stop at the entrance and bunny hop the taxi (brake, accelerator, brake, accelerator, brake etc) it was bloody hilarious, then we get on the eastern freeway and he was doing about 130-140 in the fast lane and flashing everyone who wouldnt let us pass! it was the best taxi ride ever!

[Auslandau]

No racist comments or warnings/bans will be issued ....... keep it clean.



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[Polyal]

auslandua I hear ya and hope this is ok, not being a racist at all just telling a story.

My wife went to SYD not long ago for a work thing with her friend, had to catch a cab from the city to parramatta. The guy I guess was Muslim and on the way apparently he asked thew girls if it was ok if he stopped at home so he could pray (some time in the late arvo?). Of course they both where a little shocked and said ok.

Anyway, he runs inside, does his thing and comes out. Thanks them and continues on.

WTF..LOL...That would have freaked me out. No harm done but perhaps not the thing to be doing during work hours? He didn't say anything before picking them up.

Other than that I have never had a drama and it usually caps off a good night.

[Auslandau]

Originally Posted by Polyal

auslandua I hear ya and hope this is ok, not being a racist at all just telling a story.

No worries ... as I see it, there is a difference between saying someones nationality as that is the reality than saying something that can be construed as a racist slur .....



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[Skotty]

I've only had one bad cabby...

One night I was kinda parro in the city, cached a cab to my mates place, was fair obvious for those in Adelaide "just drop me at macca's on magill road please mate"... yeh he went right past it because he saw the red and blues up the road and wanted to have a look and was trying to sign launage or some with the cabbie next to us... and what should a been $13 turned out to be $19...

other than that, I've only had good ones..

[Fev]

I would have only given him $15. Told him to stuff it, he purposely drove past the destination you chose.

[Nappa]

Originally Posted by Polyal

auslandua I hear ya and hope this is ok, not being a racist at all just telling a story.

My wife went to SYD not long ago for a work thing with her friend, had to catch a cab from the city to parramatta. The guy I guess was Muslim and on the way apparently he asked thew girls if it was ok if he stopped at home so he could pray (some time in the late arvo?). Of course they both where a little shocked and said ok.

Anyway, he runs inside, does his thing and comes out. Thanks them and continues on.

WTF..LOL...That would have freaked me out. No harm done but perhaps not the thing to be doing during work hours? He didn't say anything before picking them up.

Other than that I have never had a drama and it usually caps off a good night.

Its not uncommon for the more devout muslims to take the time, no matter what they are doing to pray. However i have used taxi's in many Islamic countries and never had that happen.

[XR6_661]

Went to the Cox Plate here in Cairns with my boss a few weekends ago.

Got a taxi there from my place...$9ish. Had a good yarn.

Got picked up from the race track...Cab was using same tarrif etc as the previous cab...This cabbie starts taking me the longest possible way...I kept saying, turn down here it's quicker, rah rah...'No it's not, I'm a cab driver, I know the quickest routes.'

Okkk.

Get to my place...fare was $18+...I fired up bigtime...alcohol fueled anger. Handed the driver $10 and said that should do the trick...'You can't do that rah rah.'

Told them why is it that I can get a cab for $9 to and from the same locations, on roads that you could have easily driven on.

I then said besides, $10 cash is all I have on me, take it or leave it. 'Use you card.'
No sorry, not using my card for a taxi fare...

'Don't catch a cab if you can't afford it.'

I gave them a flash of my winnings for the day, smirked, put the $10 note on the centre console and cheesed it.

[Fev]

Originally Posted by XR6_661

Went to the Cox Plate here in Cairns with my boss a few weekends ago.

Got a taxi there from my place...$9ish. Had a good yarn.

Got picked up from the race track...Cab was using same tarrif etc as the previous cab...This cabbie starts taking me the longest possible way...I kept saying, turn down here it's quicker, rah rah...'No it's not, I'm a cab driver, I know the quickest routes.'

Okkk.

Get to my place...fare was $18+...I fired up bigtime...alcohol fueled anger. Handed the driver $10 and said that should do the trick...'You can't do that rah rah.'

Told them why is it that I can get a cab for $9 to and from the same locations, on roads that you could have easily driven on.

I then said besides, $10 cash is all I have on me, take it or leave it. 'Use you card.'
No sorry, not using my card for a taxi fare...

'Don't catch a cab if you can't afford it.'

I gave them a flash of my winnings for the day, smirked, put the $10 note on the centre console and cheesed it.

hahaha "CHEESE IT!!"

I'm usually way too fargone to argue about prices. Although one of my mates - We call him Jew - sits in the back and watches the meter and every now and then goes "Hey! wtf, it just jumped! maaan we've been in the car 5 mins and its $7 already! oh man what a rippppp lol"

[BA GT-HO]

Hrmmmmmmmmm where to begin?

Going home New Years Day at night in the pouring rain, cabbie was speeding, swerved to avoid debris on the road, spun across the road 360 degrees into the guard rail. Amazingly the only mechanical damage was a buckled rim. He didn't know how to change the tyre (car fell off the jack when he tried to use it!) so me and my mate did it for him (in the rain while he sat in the cab on the phone!) The car seemed to drive ok so he dropped us home (was only a few more km up the road) then he had the cheek to ask us for the full fare ($40 odd) after we had helped him!

An Indian cabbie rocked up to pick me up a month ago, I told him where I was going and he says to me 'This is an easy fare for me, I live in the units next door to you!' Ha! What are the odds of that!? Great bloke! I thought I had seem him before!

The biggest problem I have is the speeding. Having been in an accident already because of it I am now hyper aware of it. One guy was going 110km/h in a 60 zone before I asked him what the **** he was doing. Usually there is no problem but you get the 10% that drive in a reckless manner. I don't care who you are, drive to the speed limit.

[Quicksand]

I almost never catch a cab. It's a complete rip and as i dont drink alcohol, there are very few reasons for me to catch one.

In Beijing and Mongolia, the taxi driving was VERY interesting. These guys are the masters of using any and all road while narrowly avoiding collisions. It was freaky at first, but you get used to it as you realise there is a kind of 'organised chaos' to driving over there. Road rules are guidelines ONLY it seems and as everyone is doing it, everyone understands and doesn't get upset about it.

Sure we got shafted with the fare every now and again; we were in a group of 20 people filling up 4 different taxi's and we still managed to get 4 different fares lol. However with the OZ dollar being so strong at the time it didn't really matter too much as in general catching a taxi was MUCH, MUCH cheaper than in Australia. Travelling for almost an hour only cost about 40 Yuan which at the time was approx $8AU.

I was charged $20 to do about 10 minutes driving in Perth. Very inflated prices, but then i dont understand the ins and outs of whats required to be a taxi driver so i dunno maybe its more expensive over here to get certified, fuel, cars, taxes etc...

[Dave_Obsession]

Originally Posted by BPXR6T

Didn't happen to me but a friend who lives in St Kilda called for a taxi. He heard the toot and went out the front and jumped in the back seat. The driver started yelling at him then a head popped up from his lap. He was getting a BJ from a hooker. My mate jumped out the taxi to see another taxi parked a couple of cars back with the driver p!ssing himself laughing. Wrong cab...

LMFAO

[5L]

i have a couple of decent cabbies over the years, had some shockers aswell.

coming back from a club had a cab that was the worst car i have riden in yet (it was a ba) had a miss,shocks were gone, brake shudder, every noise you could think. driver sat on 100 in a 60 zone i asked him if he nomally sits above the limit to which he replied yes, i then asked is he going to fix his car to which he replied i dunno not mine i dont care.

i tried the "will you take me home for $20" a few times in town when i was legless, worked twice. you should see there facial expression when you dont tell them your final destination but instead keep directing them to your house. i did this one night and we got to pt adelaide where the cabby said how much further? i said yeah just donw the road a bit mate. pt adelaide is about the half way mark from town to north haven.

had an awesome cabbie new years last year, we were only going a short distance but he was an aussie guy that lived local. he gave us his silver service business card and said when we want to get picked up to give him a call.

[X000BOSS]

Originally Posted by Adrenaline

I was just cruising on my way home when this ***** taxi driver coming the other direction blasts his high beams at me out of nowhere (he didn't flash, he held them down practically blinding me) for absolutely no reason at all. Irritated, I turned around, he crapped himself and pulled into a petrol station.

five bucks says you didnt have your lights on. :
also i doubt he "crapped himself" because he did pull over and didnt try to get away from you. unless he pulled over at the servo to clean him self up after :crapping himself" :

[ynot57]

dont take cabs in sa it is cheaper to go by hire car.

[Nappa]

my most interesting taxi ride was in the mouintain town known as Mt Abu in India. We caught a taxi from our hotel to another to have dinner in a nice resturant, on the way the driver gave me his phone number to call him when we wanted to go home. After dinner i called him and we waited out side the hotel for him to arrive. After a few minutes his car came screeching round the corner and came to a rapid halt. We jumped in, he turned to me and apologised to me for taking so long to get there. He explained that he had been at home with some family and friends and he had had a few drinks.

As he said it i was swamped by the smell of brandy on his breath, i soon realised that he was off his face but by that time we had already roared out of the hotel driveway, for the first time in a overseas taxi i actually buckled my seat belt. In a 5 min drive we nearly hit two cows and he used the car to slowly ploug through the crowds of people on the road. I was glad to make it back to our hotel intact.

[Fev]

Originally Posted by Nappa

my most interesting taxi ride was in the mouintain town known as Mt Abu in India. We caught a taxi from our hotel to another to have dinner in a nice resturant, on the way the driver gave me his phone number to call him when we wanted to go home. After dinner i called him and we waited out side the hotel for him to arrive. After a few minutes his car came screeching round the corner and came to a rapid halt. We jumped in, he turned to me and apologised to me for taking so long to get there. He explained that he had been at home with some family and friends and he had had a few drinks.

As he said it i was swamped by the smell of brandy on his breath, i soon realised that he was off his face but by that time we had already roared out of the hotel driveway, for the first time in a overseas taxi i actually buckled my seat belt. In a 5 min drive we nearly hit two cows and he used the car to slowly ploug through the crowds of people on the road. I was glad to make it back to our hotel intact.

It's not often you hear "In a 5 min drive we nearly hit 2 cows" hahaha

[Lynch'd]

Regularly catching cabs to and from the airport I generally find most of them are good blokes. I do have a couple of stories.

One that really got on my nerves was catching a cab from Chapel St in Melbs back to the N/E suburbs late on sat night. Cabbie asks for a down payment on the fare of $50 which I had no issue with and jumped in. Asks which way to go and I said just head out to the Eastern Freeway and i'll direct you from there. He just looks at me blankly before telling me he doesn't know where the Eastern Freeway is and begins pulling out his street directly. Needless to say I demanded my money back and got out. Any cabbie who doesn't know such a major freeway should not be on the road!

Second story was with a few of the boys in Adelaide on the Saturday night of Clipsal. Getting a cab back to the hotel after a long night at the pub I jump in the front to be confronted with a windscreen full of stickers. Not just one or two of the usual cab charge stickers but literally 1/3 of the windscreen was full of all sorts of things. Having had a few, I was reading the stickers out loud as we're driving along when I start reading a yellow one titled "defect notice".. The guy had got it just 2 hours earlier and was still taking fares :togo: We all got a massive laugh out of it at the time and the driver didn't say a single thing the rest of the way home but it's a little concerning looking back on it.

[Dave R]

Originally Posted by X000BOSS

five bucks says you didnt have your lights on. :
also i doubt he "crapped himself" because he did pull over and didnt try to get away from you. unless he pulled over at the servo to clean him self up after :crapping himself" :

Funny, he took two completely unnecessary side streets to get to the petrol station taking us around the world at well over the speed limit, thinking I don't know the area. I've lived here 20 years, you can't lose me in twisty streets. He didn't get any petrol; he sat there in his car, window down a fraction when i approached, didn't get out then took off. The police station is across the road from the petrol station. Makes sense. My lights were on champ :

Probably the closest I have ever come to road rage.

[GasoLane]

Sorry no horror stories here.

I've only caught cabs here in the bush where they...

#Have clean cabs.
#Dont smell (driver or cab)
#Know where they're going.
#Are born in Oz
#Speak excellent Orstralian.
#Are friendly (most of the time)

[Scott]

I catch a lot of cabs.. heaps infact. Most of them are in reasonable condition and the drivers are generally friendly enough. I find the imported drivers to be of a lesser standard in safety (had two fall asleep on me), knowledge (seriously... how can you not know where the airport is??) and hygene (yep, if you sit in a cab long enough to fall asleep, you haven't showered in a while either).

I only ever use Silver Cabs on the way to appointments as they are always early and the drivers are "fresh". I use any old cab on the way home as I can't be bothered calling one, I just want to be on the road.

Typically, the worst cabbies are the newest cabbies. Amongst blokes that have been driving here for years the quality is pretty even across the races, not so in the less experienced.

[SE Ute]

Originally Posted by X000BOSS

five bucks says you didnt have your lights on.

Originally Posted by Adrenaline

My lights were on champ :

Ten bucks you had your fog lights on then (and it wasn't foggy) :

[Riksta]

Originally Posted by ynot57

dont take cabs in sa it is cheaper to go by hire car.

They can be.

I know Executive Passenger Service is about $50 from town to my place, but that's early in the morning (its who the insurance company used to drop me home after I'd dropped my car off to have it repaired).

However, the cars are usually immaculate inside, and usually LWB vehicles. I've used them a few times and the drivers are all a fun bunch, willing to have a good chat and laugh with you about anything.

Originally Posted by 5L

i tried the "will you take me home for $20" a few times in town when i was legless, worked twice. you should see there facial expression when you dont tell them your final destination but instead keep directing them to your house. i did this one night and we got to pt adelaide where the cabby said how much further? i said yeah just donw the road a bit mate. pt adelaide is about the half way mark from town to north haven.

Haha that's classic. How angry was he when you eventually did get to North Haven?

[Dave R]

Originally Posted by SE Ute

Ten bucks you had your fog lights on then (and it wasn't foggy) :

Haha, that's what I would have thought too, but they weren't. That's half the reason I turned around (which is totally out of character for me) and confronted him, I was genuinely interested in what made him blind me in case there was something wrong with my car. But the only thing he mumbled was that I should not be driving so late at night. He could hardly speak english. I am still baffled, he had no reason to do it and it was bloody dangerous. I have his plates, I still might report him.

[TC200six]

Don't catch cabs much, but when I was in Sydney back in '07 we caught them and was in a weird situation when heading back to the airport from the hotel.

A hotel receptionist stopped a BA Falcon taxi for us when it was dropping a group of people off at the hotel when the the taxi's fuel was running low and the driver was going to rush off to the servo. I got in and the driver (obviously foreign) said he was worried that he was "going to run out of gas!".

The fuel warning light was on, so he constantly kept revving the motor when trying to save fuel and I was getting worried thinking the car's going to stop half way there when he kept saying "Oh Noooooh, we're going to run out of gassss!". There were a number of sets of lights where he floored it as they changed to red and went straight through. I was thinking if he wanted to save fuel, he should be driving softer.

When heading down the main road to the airport, there was a traffic jam, the driver was very anxious. By then I thought I was walking the rest of the way. But no, he turned off at the airport and got us off successfully with a fuel station just down the road for him to race off to.

[fordOwner]

I had a taxi driver that played the bongo drums he had mounted between the front seats. I was telling him to stop but my mate was egging him on just as we got on the freeway. scary stuff.

[Lion Slayer]

Originally Posted by fordOwner

I had a taxi driver that played the bongo drums he had mounted between the front seats. I was telling him to stop but my mate was egging him on just as we got on the freeway. scary stuff.

lol, that would of been hilarious.