Taxi drivers

[Soups]

Last night caught a taxi home from a party with a couple of mates. We got in and he was talking on his phone and then he drove off. After about 5 minutes we realised that he had not started the meter and he was still talking on his mobile phone. Anyway, we got home and we are like what do we owe you seeing as you didn't start the meter. He says "just give us what you got". So my mate offered 10 dollars. He doesn't except it and wants $20. This was a short cab ride and not worth $20. My mate ended up giving him $15 but was not very happy and went off a bit at him. The guy sped off up the street and then came back obviously looking at the street name and number.

My question is, what can this guy do? IMO we shouldn't of paid him. He didn't start the meter and he was on the phone. Has anyone else had a situation like this?

 

[Kahuna]

Keep the shottie under your pillow for the next few nights.

 

[justthedukes]

Dunno what he can do, not much I spose. I think you could have given him nothing and you wouldnt be in the wrong due to him not starting the meter.

I always get dropped of about 50 meters away from my house if its early morning, cause you get some w***ers. Bloke drove us home last night was the worst driver or he was pissed, kept accidently changing lanes, and had to remind him to stay in the other lane, then went over about 4 or 5 curbs. I was happy to get out just quietly.

 

[fryingpan]

If he didn't start the meter then he can't charge you .. happened to me a couple of weeks ago .. cabbie was too busy chatting to me that he forgot to put it on. Got to my place and I asked what I owed him and he said nothing buddy forgot the meter but I just gave him 5 bucks cos he was so friendly.

Unfortuantely not all cabbies are like that .. last year a cab stopped on the side of the road and said "where u goin" we said mile end. He said "give 10 dollar to me first" and we said yeah thats fine but can you please open the door first (he was leaning over the passenger seat and talking to us thru the passenger window which was 5cms down) and he said no, money first and we're like OK!!! but open the door first!!! and he said no and drove off!!

As if we're gonna hand him money thru the window when the doors are locked, he could have just driven off with it. Not to mention we only had a 50 so we'd need $40 change.

I think he has a right to ask for about $10 if he thinks he cant trust the people or something and we had no problem with that but how can he expect us to hand over a 50 dollar note thru a window that was down only 5 cms??

On the same night as well a cab stopped and said "where u goin" we said "mile end" and he didn't say a word and just drove off. Absolute spanner.

Not meaning to be racist but all the prick cab drivers are foreigners , they shit me to tears every time I get one of them in a cab. Don't get me wrong some are okay blokes but more than 50% either don't say a word to you, don't speak very good english or are just complete and utter arseholes.

 

[Soups]

If he didn't start the meter then he can't charge you .. happened to me a couple of weeks ago .. cabbie was too busy chatting to me that he forgot to put it on. Got to my place and I asked what I owed him and he said nothing buddy forgot the meter but I just gave him 5 bucks cos he was so friendly.

Unfortuantely not all cabbies are like that .. last year a cab stopped on the side of the road and said "where u goin" we said mile end. He said "give 10 dollar to me first" and we said yeah thats fine but can you please open the door first (he was leaning over the passenger seat and talking to us thru the passenger window which was 5cms down) and he said no, money first and we're like OK!!! but open the door first!!! and he said no and drove off!!

As if we're gonna hand him money thru the window when the doors are locked, he could have just driven off with it. Not to mention we only had a 50 so we'd need $40 change.

I think he has a right to ask for about $10 if he thinks he cant trust the people or something and we had no problem with that but how can he expect us to hand over a 50 dollar note thru a window that was down only 5 cms??

On the same night as well a cab stopped and said "where u goin" we said "mile end" and he didn't say a word and just drove off. Absolute spanner.

Not meaning to be racist but all the prick cab drivers are foreigners , they shit me to tears every time I get one of them in a cab. Don't get me wrong some are okay blokes but more than 50% either don't say a word to you, don't speak very good english or are just complete and utter arseholes.

I know what you mean. This guy was a deadset prick. I think i am going to ring up and complain about it. The cab service here is pretty horrible! Not long ago a girl at my school was attacked by one. Was not good to hear at all.

 

[Dont be a lemon]

"That bloody [insert Prime Minister/Premier of the day] mate, he's ruining the whole bloody economy/country mate."

 

[justthedukes]

They are some w***ers, but they would have to go through smashed blokes being idiots and a fair few doing runners on cabs so I reckon theyd be abit paranoid with the cash.

One thing I always wondered is, you know how some clubs have an id scanner these days. Why doesnt the cab service put them in cabs? So you get in, they scan your id and it would prevent having to hand over money before the cab starts and all that crap.

 

[lifelike_]

Not meaning to be racist but all the prick cab drivers are foreigners , they shit me to tears every time I get one of them in a cab. Don't get me wrong some are okay blokes but more than 50% either don't say a word to you, don't speak very good english or are just complete and utter arseholes.

You're not the only one.

The arrogance of some of them is unbelievable.

 

[lifelike_]

I've had so many dodgy cab drivers its not funny.

I was in the city one night when I hailed one from Flinders Street. I was smashed at the time so I wasn't really capable of thinking for myself, so I just told him I wanted to go home, which is a 20-25 minute ride at the most, which costs no more than $30.

So I tell him where I want to go, and he asks me for directions, because he naturally has no idea where to go. He then asks me to pay up front, because he's scared I'm going to do a runner.

Anyway, I ask him how much, and he says $70.

**** that.

As I said in the post above, some are unbelievably bad and love to take advantage of people.

 

[fryingpan]

I know what you mean. This guy was a deadset prick. I think i am going to ring up and complain about it. The cab service here is pretty horrible! Not long ago a girl at my school was attacked by one. Was not good to hear at all.

Yeah ring & complain. I was going to ring up and complain but didn't get a good enough look at which company it was or what number cab he was because he drove off so damn quick. Which again would have proved a problem if I actually did hand my money thru the window & he sped off - would have had no idea who to call.

 

[raskolnikov]

A couple of years ago I was doing relief teaching. My car was in getting fixed so I had to catch a taxi to the school. I called for a taxi at 8.15 thinking I had heaps of time to be there by 9. He didn't arrive til 8.45 and said that he had trouble finding the way. He had no idea how to get to the school. At one stage he had to stop the car and I had to look at the Melways to show him how to get there. It took him about twice as long as it should have. We didn't arrive at school til 9.30, meaning I got docked half an hour pay. He wanted to charge me the amount on the meter, which was about forty bucks. I just threw twenty dollars at him got out, slammed the door and walked into the school with him yelling abuse at me.

 

[marto9000]

we had a cabbie go through langwarrin to run up a fare from frankston to cranbourne, wed done it few times so we gave him 40 when it sid 60 and he hada go at us, ending up in a fight with him and it wasnt too pleasent, he got the sack for doing it


also got one from the city to narre warren, he didnt even know where narre warren was, stunk and we found empty beer bottles in the back

 

[Traces of Nuts]

Generally they are the scum of the earth whever you go on this fair planet(with occsaional good exceptions).

I find the taxi mafia at Chaweng Beach in Koh Samui to be particularly predatory, all trying to eke 250 baht out of you to go 1km. Fk you arseh*le, I'll walk.

Ditto for the ones at Khoa San Rd. Sukhumvit Rd very far, 300 baht? Fk you too, I'll walk across the street away from tourist land and get one to use the meter for 60 baht.

Scumbags.

 

[Niximus]

If a taxi driver doesn't set the meter I would pay them nothing.

I'm not a prick I just know why most of them do it.

You see, when they don't set the meter it doesn't register a fare and then when you give them cash there is no record of it. It goes straight in their pocket.

I found this out from a taxi driver while working in a servo. i asked him why sometimes some cabbies didn't want a receipt for their fuel. They do a few sneaky ones under the table and fix up the fuel so it's like they never did it.

If you refuse to pay and they argue just let them know you know what they're doing and tell them you'll call their company.

 

[Soups]

If a taxi driver doesn't set the meter I would pay them nothing.

I'm not a prick I just know why most of them do it.

You see, when they don't set the meter it doesn't register a fare and then when you give them cash there is no record of it. It goes straight in their pocket.

I found this out from a taxi driver while working in a servo. i asked him why sometimes some cabbies didn't want a receipt for their fuel. They do a few sneaky ones under the table and fix up the fuel so it's like they never did it.

If you refuse to pay and they argue just let them know you know what they're doing and tell them you'll call their company.

Yeah i have been telling my mate that we shouldn't oh paid him cause he wants some money off me lol. I guess we didn't really want any trouble at the time seeing as we were pissed, it was early in the morning and we just wanted to get home. I doubt the guy is going to do anything cause he is going to get in trouble anyway for what he did. See how things plan out.

 

[Tim the Toolman]

also got one from the city to narre warren, he didnt even know where narre warren was, stunk and we found empty beer bottles in the back

Must have gone through Galloway Drive!

 

[Lyyynnnchy]

Well I pissed in the back seat of a cab while my mate was turkey slapping the driver. My mate flipped open the boot and i ran around the car opening all of the doors while he drove off haha

Quite funny, cant rememeber why we did it though

Mustve been a real ******** or we were just real bad blokes.

Maybe there the sort of things that make taxi driver sa bit more cautious???

 

[sear]

Call me a princess but whenever i get a taxi i call my dad with the license number thing of the driver and tell him where we are so he knows how long - it really seems to annoy some drivers but i dont care because they always take me the fastest way home and they know someone knows where i am so they dont try anything. i also always get dropped off in the street next to mine and make sure they drive off before i walk home because you can never be too safe - i went to an all girls school and have heard some pretty bad stories.

Pretty much every driver ive had has been rude or smelt bad or been a horrible driver, however, as i really only ever get taxis early sunday morning i cant really say that ive been exposed to the best of the industry.

Although i did have a really nice one a couple of years who helped me with a project i was doing on india lol, cant say i remembered too much of what he told me though

 

[sear]

Just as i posted my last post i remembered something i cant believe i had forgotten about - a couple of years ago i was in a cab going home from a house party - about 20 mins from mine and the moron cut across lanes in a roundabout and hit another car - so they both pulled into a side street and he told us to wait there while they swapped numbers and stuff. but anyway i was with two guys and they wanted to do a runner but i couldnt because i was still too far from home and would have to call another cab and chances are it would have been him again... anyway he dropped us off eventually and still had the nerve to charge us! not only had he been rude, a horrible driver then gotten into an accident - but he expected us to pay him!! and he hadnt even bothered to check if we were ok - the guy in the other car did - but he couldnt care less... all i can say is that i was glad i wasnt alone

 

[LondonCalling]

The ones on the Peninsula are excellent. All elderly men who are honest, trustworthy, up for a chat and usually just want to show you photos of their grandkids. Often feel guilty that I can't tip them enough after a big night out down there. Pity there's so few.

Then you get the ones from Frankston, who seemingly all the time without fail have just gotten out of prison and want to tell you everything about it. Probably a decent tactic to deter you from doing a runner.

In the city, just dodgy Indian blokes who have their music up full blast and talk on their phone too much.

I remember getting into a cab from Lygon st going home to Richmond one time, was completely out of it, these 2 blokes jump in the back, I'm too tired to do anything about it. They offer to pay 1/2 and are going the same way. Whatever. They pass out in the back, as do I about 5 minutes later. Came to about 15 minutes later to find the bloke going around the closed Hungry Jacks carpark on Hoddle st.

Look at him, who's got the caught red handed look about him, and tell him, look, here's $10, get me home, there's a McDonalds carpark near mine. You can **** them over how much you want I don't care. Just take me home.

He couldn't oblige me quick enough strangely...

 

[DemonErrol1964 - dees]

I asked a taxi driver if he could take me from Melbourne to Geelong and he diden't know where it was !! Was like a 200 fare for him.

Bet he knew his way around downtown Beuit. This industry truly sucks. Get a Navman.

 

[Uhumagoo]

I got in one outside the casino about 2 days before Christmas about 4 years ago. The cab absolutely reeked of scotch. I thought it may have been linegring adour from previous revelers, It soon became obvious that the cabbie was wasted, especially when he tried to enter an off-ramp on city link and wound up on the curb. I got out, told him he is not getting any money and waved down another cab. I told the new driver about him, but he did not give a shit. Regret having not reported him.

 

[Kingpin]

I generally find most cabbies are ok - you do have to watch out for freakshows though.
True story, one of my best friends who lives in Launceston had a big night out one night and she got a cab back home and after she got out of the cab and went inside found that the slimy looking driver was sitting outside her home still watching her.
And did that just about every night for about 8-10 nights after that.
She took his number and reported him to the cops and the company he drove for. He still drives for them too, was seen this past Friday night up there driving a different coloured cab.

One of my ex's ordered a cab from Kingston to her home on the Eastern Shore last year and the driver was a well known slimy **** that we both knew through when I used to bowl.
He was apparently very sexually suggestive towards her the whole trip, telling her what he wanted to do with her, how big his old fella was, how all the girls that get in the cab want to sleep with him etc etc etc (in reality he's an ugly, smelly, fat 40 year old with buck teeth and a haircut like a badger) - she apparently got that frightened she got out at the bus mall in the city at 2am and grabbed another cab to go home in so he wouldn't know where her home was.
Saw him parked outside work about a month back and had strong words with him over it, denied all knowledge of course.
The look on his face as soon as I mentioned it suggested he knew exactly what I was talking about. Filthy creep

Anyone ever got the constantly whingeing 'Mr Negative Cabby'?
They seriously shit me with their endless moan-moan-moan-moan antics.

 

[PHX]

I generally find most cabbies are ok - you do have to watch out for freakshows though.
True story, one of my best friends who lives in Launceston had a big night out one night and she got a cab back home and after she got out of the cab and went inside found that the slimy looking driver was sitting outside her home still watching her.
And did that just about every night for about 8-10 nights after that.
She took his number and reported him to the cops and the company he drove for. He still drives for them too, was seen this past Friday night up there driving a different coloured cab.

One of my ex's ordered a cab from Kingston to her home on the Eastern Shore last year and the driver was a well known slimy **** that we both knew through when I used to bowl.
He was apparently very sexually suggestive towards her the whole trip, telling her what he wanted to do with her, how big his old fella was, how all the girls that get in the cab want to sleep with him etc etc etc (in reality he's an ugly, smelly, fat 40 year old with buck teeth and a haircut like a badger) - she apparently got that frightened she got out at the bus mall in the city at 2am and grabbed another cab to go home in so he wouldn't know where her home was.
Saw him parked outside work about a month back and had strong words with him over it, denied all knowledge of course.
The look on his face as soon as I mentioned it suggested he knew exactly what I was talking about. Filthy creep

Anyone ever got the constantly whingeing 'Mr Negative Cabby'?
They seriously shit me with their endless moan-moan-moan-moan antics.

Smaller the town, better the cabbies.

Around my area, NW Tas, I havent had a bad run in yet. Of course Im always pretty sloshed when I call one so I drum up convos pretty easy but never had a bastard and mostly get good blokes who clearly dont earn enough to justify but enjoy having a chat with different people.

However when I went to Melbourne it was a nightmare.

Had just been to the Skyline tower thing, and wandered out to the street and was so knackered from the day we decided to catch a taxi back. Thought we found the front of the line of about 30 cabs, went to get in this African **** on his phone started yelling at us and it turns out about 50 metre up the road the 2 parked up there were the front, said well how the hell were we supposed to know, not from around here and went ballistic before going back to his phone. So went to walk up to the next cabs and they drove off as we were half way there. So then thought **** this and went to find another line. Walked a block or two and found some Indian dude whose friends were in the car eating burritos, they got out eventually, he took us to his hotel, as expected no licence on the dash and the cab smelt pretty bad but he went the quickest way there so couldnt complain. But geez just to get a cab shouldnt be that hard. Was pleased when I got home caught a cab again. Nice guy, clean cabs again.

 

[sydney eagle]

A couple of years ago I was doing relief teaching. My car was in getting fixed so I had to catch a taxi to the school. I called for a taxi at 8.15 thinking I had heaps of time to be there by 9. He didn't arrive til 8.45 and said that he had trouble finding the way. He had no idea how to get to the school. At one stage he had to stop the car and I had to look at the Melways to show him how to get there. It took him about twice as long as it should have. We didn't arrive at school til 9.30, meaning I got docked half an hour pay. He wanted to charge me the amount on the meter, which was about forty bucks. I just threw twenty dollars at him got out, slammed the door and walked into the school with him yelling abuse at me.

Whatever happened to cab drivers having to know their way around a city ? I can remember that once I was running late for a meeting at the Sydney Cricket Ground (off to see test cricket with friends) so I jumped in a cab at central station (about five minutes away by cab from the SCG, if that) . The cab driver didn't know the way and asked for directions ! I got out and got another cab where the driver DID know where he was going !