Comments on: Don’t let them take you for a ride!

By: Cris

Cris — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:33:09 +0000

My best taxi experience is in Baguio. They will give exact change. In Manila, I always call MGE, RENO, R&E or DOLLAR taxi for cab services

By: udo gangl

udo gangl — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:01:23 +0000

depending on my time and mood and destination…

when the guy is not starting the meter, i tell him 3 times – then i either want to go out of the car without paying or let him continue the ride and pay him about the amount which it should have been.
means if you stop in front of greenbelt, a hotel or any other “official” building they wont argue with anyway.

but my most loved ones are if you check the gasoline tank meter and see its already nearly empty – ask the driver if he really thinks thats enough – he tell “yes sir of course” and after a while you have to park sideways somewhere because of course the gasoline was not enough…

By: Meg

Meg — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:09:13 +0000

But what about the very stinky taxi seat covers? This is one of my major pet peeves. Me and my son would bet on the degree of seat cover smell everytime we hail a taxi cab during my Philippine vacation 3 months ago. Stinky taxi seats ruins my day more than the taxi fare tug o wars.

By: kit

kit — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 15:52:20 +0000

I ride the taxi with my son everyday.our city officials finally had their nuerons working to scrap the old taxi terminal beside the city dump and organize an accessibl. e and functional taxi terminal manned by the city traffic enforcers specifically designated to assist taxi riding public. The enforcers logs every taxi in a book and also give the commuter a sheet of paper with all the info of the taxi. They are also very helpful in filing complaints against abusive drivers and ban the taxi in the terminal. commuters are not allowed to flag the taxi along the road near the terminal. This totally eliminates abusive taxi drivers in our area. But, I am still not that satisfied. I can be patient and give tips, but I can not stand smelly drivers and dirty cabs.

By: giancarlo (Quezon City)

giancarlo (Quezon City) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 12:12:23 +0000

Thank you for this.

I wish the LGUs in Metro Manila are as vigilant as the LGU of Cebu.

By: Joven

Joven — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:03:43 +0000

Thanks for this post. I usually slam the door for those taxi drivers who refuse and / or asking for additional fare. I have to try not closing the door yet. This is my take on Cebu taxi service. Maybe you can solicit from your Cebu readers what TAXI companies are deserving for our patronage: mine is KEN, Richielda, and Juscar, to name a few, for consistency in their fare/meters.

I try to avoid CTC, EC and CITRASCO/VUDTRASCO. Before the 30 pesos flagdown rate EC (and Spider) was infamous of their tampered meter. I was expecting too much from CITRASCO/VUDTRASCO since they are a Cooperative type but was disappointed that their fare is also not par with KEN & Richielda (SM -Consolacion is 131-138 but for a tampered meter the fare will reach 160 or more). We also tried to avoid Taxis with old drivers, they tend to be maru (silent but scheming) remnant from the 80s where the practice is haggling for price avoiding the use of meters in the process.

Be wary also of taxi drivers who are overly friendly/engaging in talk. It may be their scheme to erase their guilt of having a tampered meter.

Common reasons of taxi drivers when I complained of an over charging in fare is that they are only an EXTRA and the original driver is on Day-Off thus they are not keen on the difference/aware of the fast meter; or they just have it fixed and may go back to LTO to have it fixed again. One CITRASCO/VUDTRASCO driver have the gall to insist on their meter to be ok since the owner is from LTO? That’s a pretty good reason they (the owners w/ LTO connection) are doing the tampering since they are in authority (as they are insiders) and could think they could do away with the tampering.

Cebu taxi drivers are generally honest with the sukli, they tend to give you the right change while Manila taxi drivers would not care.

My impression for Cagayan de Oro taxi meter reading/fare is it’s more fast/expensive than Cebu/Manila. Their local LTO would have tolerated this? or they have a different meter/fare calibration standard? E.g. NAIA2-Quezon Ave meter reading would be 230-250 while CdO Airport to downtown is 200-250? I have to check on google map but my guts is that the distance is not the same thus the impression.

By: Ging

Ging — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:29:53 +0000

Same thing happened to me and one of my staff the other day. We arrived at the NAIA airport and took a yellow metered cab to Century Park Hotel in Vito Cruz, just across the CCP. We were busy talking and it wasn’t till we were at Roxas Blvd that I noticed that the meter was not ticking. I pointed this out to the driver and he said it was on but the display was busted. When we got to the hotel, the driver wanted to drop us off across the hotel and did not want to go up to the entrance. I insisted to be dropped off at the lobby entrance because we had heavy bags. When we got there, he told us the fare was 350. I point blank told him I would not pay him 350 because I had taken the same route many times before and the fate was usually between 140 to 160. He reluctantly accepted the 150 I gave him and we got out of the cab. I told the security personnel of the hotel to get the cab’s plate number. When the driver noticed that the security was taking down the plate number, he hurriedly got out of the cab and offered the 150 back to me saying he forgot to turn on his meter. Anyway, that cab driver is going to get what he deserves when I go to the airport for my return flight home to Cebu tomorrow and I will lodge a complaint with the airport taxi services.

By: Dragon

Dragon — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 06:18:21 +0000

Re queues and line-cutting: interesting that during the Love Bus era, everyone (including me) would patiently fall in line, wait and not dare cut!

By: Melanie

Melanie — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:51:43 +0000

My impulse is to “Like” this (so I can share this with everyone.), but I don’t see any Facebook buttons on here….

By: Jody

Jody — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:16:15 +0000

Mart, it would seem that is the solution. Mind you,it is easier said than done. LOL

As an aside, I really like taxi blogs and I often delve through them for stories, insights and absolutely wonderful photos.There are some wonderful bloggers driving cabs in NYC and they are worth reading for deep stomach giggles and gurgles.