Don’t get ripped off by a taxi driver again
Why did that NYC cab driver charge you $50 to get to your hotel from the airport when your work associate was only charged $38?
Why did that NYC cab driver charge you $50 to get to your hotel from the airport when your work associate was only charged $38?
Now you can be sure what to expect before you step into the taxi with the free World Taximeter, available on your PC or mobile phone.
This clever "mashup" site combines directions from Google Maps with local cab fares to give you an estimate of the cost of a cab ride in cities worldwide. Currently, the site offers support for New York City, San Francisco, London, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid and Prague, with many more cities in the works (next up: Paris). Each city listing also provides two or more local cab numbers to call.
The site claims to have more than 85 percent accuracy "and growing."
Personally, I think this will be a very important device for those who like to travel without spending excessive amounts of money, however, to those driving cabs, it may be time for a wakeup call.
World Taximeter is a joke. It doesn't consider waiting time on the meter, or traffic conditions etc. Add at least 15% of the fare quoted for accuracy, especially during special events which cause traffic delays.
As a taxi owner\operator for thirteen years I can honestly say that I get my passangers to their destination 99.99# of the time. While this gimmick can only boast 85# accuracy. There are bad apples in any occupation, just ask the catholic church. Who would you trust your child with,a priest or a taxi driver…I thought so!!!
Thank goodness cab drivers in Vancouver, BC are not like those in Barcelona, Napoil, Marseilles or New York for that matter. Who needs this Taximeter in Canada where people are generally honest and decent? Then again having those cab numbers is an added bonus. Was stabbed by a cabbie in Marseilles for protesting, cheated in Chicago and threatened in Athens.
just wattch out for airport pirates. When you call the taxi o….ask them how much flate rate….thet all have them. Tip fairly or you willl be blackmarked.
Thank you Lylithe for your kind words.
Your Taxi Driver, it's not true that we don't consider waiting time, since we actually do. We also try to consider traffic conditions (on average) for each city. Depending on the time of the day, we calculate a different amount of time that you will be stuck in traffic, for example. Of course, this can not be 100% right all the times. But we try our best.
Also, we can not take into account special events or circumstances, but that's one of the reasons why we provide estimations, and we never claim to give accurate final prices.
As for the quote that you have to add 15% to the price, that's exactly what we say in our home page, that our accuracy is around 85%. We've come up with that figure from the tests that we have carried out, and from users' feedback.
Anyway, this application is not intended to go against anyone. It's just a nice tool to provide more information to users that have to take a cab. The more information that people have, the better, right?
Hey JW, I beg to differ on Vancouver taxi's, don't you remember recently all the people being stranded because cab driver's refuse to drive people to Surrey (ok, it's not Disney Land, but c'mon). Today, my wife, myself and our two year old waved a cab down on Georgia and Richards, I told the guy I was going to the Vogue theatre … he said something like he's going to North Van, but hey, get in! So we did, and he drives like (and I'm not kidding) 3 blocks up Georgia and says here you go … and I repeated we're going to the Vogue which is a few blocks down … this guy goes ballistic, yelling about how he has to get to North Van and he can't drive over the 3 blocks … finally he agrees, and drives a hundred miles an hour, endangering myself, my pregnant wife and my son … for the sake of making it to his next destination 2 minutes earlier! Hope it was worth it pal!
He truly thought I would pay for a cab ride to go 3 blocks, no detours no exceptions, had to be on the route … and then he endangers my family for his own stupidity. I was actually just glad we didn't get killed during his insane driving, I really didn't know how to react because I was so stunned (have you ever felt that way – speechless).
People just don't have any moral barometer anymore, to realize the difference between right and wrong (or when they're acting like complete jack-asses).
As Jack Johnson sings … "where have all the good people gone?"
Hi all,
Sorry if I offended honest cab drivers with this post — that wasn't my intention of course (despite the somewhat sensational headline). As a freelance journalist who travels — a lot — I've had very mixed experiences with taxi drivers (even in Toronto, where I live) but as one comment said there are bad apples in any industry. This taxi site seems neat to me but I haven't tried it out myself. If anyone has, let us know how it goes.
Cheers,
Marc Saltzman
I got off a plane in Vancouver from Russia with my wife and our newly adopted baby. After 24hrs of travel, I acciently left our passports(two Canadian, one Russian) in the taxi when we got to the ferry. I paid for the $30 Taxi ride with $40 American then worth $1.27 Cdn. The Cabbie says "So no tip, eh?" I pointed out that it was U.S. He said "I'm not the fricken currencey exchange" and drove off. When I realised that I had left the passports in the cab. He lied about having them. I neded the RCMP to get them back. He admitted that he was waiting for a reward to be offered. Now I am more aware when I take a cab. Anything that empowers people is good. Ignorance is expensive.
I got off a plane in Vancouver from Russia with my wife and our newly adopted baby. After 24hrs of travel, I accidently left our passports(two Canadian, one Russian) in the taxi when we got to the ferry. I paid for the $30 Taxi ride with $40 American then worth $1.27 Cdn. The Cabbie says "So no tip, eh?" I pointed out that it was U.S. He said "I'm not the fricken currencey exchange" and drove off. When I realised that I had left the passports in the cab I called the cab company. The driver lied about having them. I needed the R.C.M.P. to get them back. He admitted that he was waiting for a reward to be offered. Now I am more aware when I take a cab. Anything that empowers people is good. Ignorance is expensive.
I've used cabs all my life, and all around the world. Cabbies represent the communities they work in! Comments about European and American cities are fair game for that – the cabbies need to be tough, but if you present yourself as knowing what you are talking about then they are disarmed – a good concierge goes miles here, and a good doorman will steer you away from crap service. Lessons learned.
In this day and age of no drinking and driving, cabs are going to be that much more important, so the estimate provided by this service is that much more useful to new people in strange places. My personal story here was a cabbie in Halifax one trip. I'd been in town a few times over the years, and this guy charged an extra amount of money to go downtown. My coworkers and I did not notice him bulking up the fare. But when we arrived at the destination, I challenged the total. He argued and threatened to call the cops over – I told him to, as I wanted a ride along to take us back to the hotel. I challenged him to take us back there, by a route I chose, and if it was cheaper, he would charge us nothing or bring us back for that fare. He cut his fare in half and left. I could go into depth on cleanliness, race, language capabilities, etc., but that is not necessary, the bottom line is that knowing how far you are going is the key to not getting taken for a ride.
Like anything else we pay for, the buyer must beware because the warranty is crap.
There are both good and bad cabbies all over the world. I once mistakenly paid a cab driver in NY with a $50 instead of a $5 and he sped off before I could change the bill to that more appropriate ammount. Lesson learned. Be careful with US bills they aren't colour coded.
Recently on a trip to Toronto I left my camera on the seat of the cab while reaching for my wallet. As soon as I had paid the cabby, he was away. I chased him for nearly a block but he didn't stop. All efforts to trace the cab and get the camera back (it was an expensive SLR) were for nought. One wonders if the dispacher gets a percentage of "found items"?? Lesson learned. Ask for a receipt and write the cab plate number on it!
Ok so if the taximeter says 20$ but the meter says 40, what are you going to do…argue with a foreign cab driver that youre taximeter (which is only 85% accurate) is showing a different price? Good luck folks.
I see comments like "I forgot my camera on the seat and the cab didn't even stop for me!" and it makes me want to laugh… YOU forgot YOUR camera – why should the cabbie have to stop? If you left your camera on the subway, would you expect the subway to stop? Cab drivers are trying to earn a living, like everyone else. And when they try to 'rip you off' it's because they are trying to earn a little extra money.
Recently on a trip to Las Vegas I left my camera on the floor of the cab we were in because my shoe broke and I was trying to fix it. We got out at our destination and I accidently left it in the cab without knowing. After a crappy tear-filled breakfast we went back to the hotel and told the guy who put us in the cab about it and asked him if he remembered which driver it was. He did, so we gave him our room number and told him to call if he heard anything about it. I guess the cab driver checked inside the cab after we had gotten out and knew right away whose camera it was and took it right back to the guy at the hotel and it was put at the bell hop desk. I never thought I was going to get my camera back but when I did, I was shocked. The cab driver and the guy who put us in the cab sure got a big tip that time :)
I have also travelled in taxi cabs mostly all my life & in Canada where I live i haven't a problem at all with them. they are fair with their prices & very nice ppl. pls don't knock them too hard or those of you who depend on them might find yourself getting to your destination another way.
HEY BEWILDERED …. I see comments like … "When they try to rip you off it's because they are trying to earn a little money" …. you should be ashamed of yourself for that comment, you are the exact reason the world is deteriorating around us …. maybe you should get another job, cab driver, if you're so broke, you must rip people off, scam them, and steal their possessions (… somewhere, I can hear "What goes around comes around" … playing for u). STOP being PATHETIC … show some PRIDE!
…. Go watch the movies "Pursuit of Happyness" and "Crash" and think about your actions a little more carefully …. and think about what your saying before you open your mouth, next time!
latte ….. $4
cab fare …. $20
new Canon SLR camera …. $499
showing an ounce of decency ….. PRICELESS
…. There are some things money can't buy (like honor)
There is absolutely no program that can take into account all aspects of a taxi ride. Sure a 85% accuracy rating is a rough rough estimate but it allows for a 30% fluctuation. A 38.00 cab ride at 85% accuracy could be as high as 50.25 so it is quite easy to pay the 50.00 when your co-worker paid only 38.00
I have been in the taxi industry for over 37 years and have never seen a dispatcher or a driver that can give an exact quote on any trip unless there is a pre-determined rate applied to a trip after metering it 5 times and averaging it out. Don't ask me for a flat rate unless you work in a grocery store and can give me all my groceries every week for a flat rate of $210 per week. Then I might start talking. 98% of all taxi drivers are hardworking honest folks, but like any other industry we hear about the 2% that are the rotten apples.
Hey Guys
Out here in the west, these taxi drivers are "intellectual guys" without the so called "Canadian experience", who have degrees from their home countries, and are forced to make a living working as taxi drivers>>>they are not crooks<<<
Imagine what would you do without them, if you or your family member was stranded after the local government transport stopped
Ive never had a problem with Taxi's, even though I havnt used them that often. Glad they're around, great help when in a differnt country and just coming home from the airport.
Gotta say though, if you leave your phone/passport/camera/etc. in the cab, thats your own fault. There's a chance you might get it back, but it's slim. Wouldnt be any differnt then being on the bus.
Okay, so you might loose a few extra dollars from inaccurate/dishonest cab drivers, but there's always the honest ones that you should keep in mind as well. Popular remark seems to be here, every industry has its own bad apples.