Bargaining with Taxi drivers

[Bob_tg]

Well you see Bob I'm working in a rural town in the west of ireland. I have regular and I mean very regular punters. Some of them we could get twice a day. Its a bit of psychology really. Give them a euro or two off and bingo they become regular punters plus tell all their family, friends etc. People appreciate a euro or two off.

That makes sense if you can generate repeat business from the strategy.

 

[gillarosa]

Is it not the case though that the taxi driver will tell you to go back to the taxi at the top of the queue if you try and pick another car? Isn't it a kind of honour system with them??

I thought that also, up to the point that Eamonn Keane had a discussion late last year attempting to deal with what was introduced as malicious rumours about rape of passengers and other crime by foreign taxi drivers on their clients, during which the head of the NTDU encouraged prospective passengers to discard the queing system and take the next 'Irish' driver in line if they felt they may be in any way unsafe or if any inherent prejudice they had prohibited them from being driven by a non-Irish or non-white driver. He in fact lambasted the drivers who though next in line to collect a fare began to argue with their collegue behind them who ignored the system and took their anticipated fare.

 

[fitzg]

I was waiting for an aircoach on leeson street one afternoon recently when a taxi driver pulled up and offered myself and another girl that was waiting a fare of €5 each to the airport

 

[terrontress]

I was waiting for an aircoach on leeson street one afternoon recently when a taxi driver pulled up and offered myself and another girl that was waiting a fare of €5 each to the airport

He most likely was heading up that way himself to the airport taxi rank as it is where they get all the good fares.

Better to take the two of you up for a tenner, and possibly more if he can find anyone else en route, than to go up in an empty car.

 

[hizzy]

Hi All

Was out in Dublin city about 4 weeks ago on a saturday night, it was around 3am when a group of us were heading home, the queue for taxi's around stephens green was way too long, so I went up to a taxi driver and offerred him 30 euro extra to bring us home, he was waiting on a regular customer, total cost was 50 euro, but it meant I didn't have to freeze my little feet off for a couple of hours

Hizzy

 

[Complainer]

He most likely was heading up that way himself to the airport taxi rank as it is where they get all the good fares.

Or to be more specific, where they get all the good fares after waiting for several hours in a huge queue. I was amazed at the size of the queue which snaked right around the airport entrance, blocking access to the Radisson Hotel when I visited the hotel late last year.

 

[Bronte]

I always ask the fare in advance and I haggle when I know the fare. If it's 25 I'll say will you take me to x for 20. When I was younger waiting for a bus at Dublin airport I'd ask others to share a taxi with me. Where my relations live (rural) the taxis knock off some of the price (for the good name) and also everyone gets into the taxi together going in the same general direction. I used to like the other system where you had cabs that were not taxis with set prices to certain destinations but I haven't seen them in the last few years. If it's difficult to get a taxi I will try and bribe a taxi to take me (New Year's Eve type night) but I don't go out on those nights anymore. I don't always go to the top of the queue but the taxi drivers generally used to direct me to the top of the queue. I was not aware of the new racial element amongs taxi drivers. Interesting.

 

[parkmagic]

are taxi drivers already not having a hard enough time. 15000 taxis in dublin, guys trying to provide for their families. Pay the fair and save your haggling energy for another purchase.

 

[terrontress]

are taxi drivers already not having a hard enough time. 15000 taxis in dublin, guys trying to provide for their families. Pay the fair and save your haggling energy for another purchase.

It's dog eat dog, I'm afraid.

Everyone is trying to feed their own families and a penny saved is a penny earned.

 

[Bronte]

It's dog eat dog, I'm afraid.

Everyone is trying to feed their own families and a penny saved is a penny earned.

It's amazing how much money you can pick up off the floor in garage forecourts/the street/pubs in Ireland if my experince over xmas is anything to go by.

 

[terrontress]

It's amazing how much money you can pick up off the floor in garage forecourts/the street/pubs in Ireland if my experince over xmas is anything to go by.

I am wondering if you are being facetious but I used to work in a nightclub and later in life worked as local crew at concerts. It was amazing the number of nights that you'd find money after everyone went home. I wouldn't pick up pennies or the like but there was quite frequently banknotes.

 

[parkmagic]

It's dog eat dog, I'm afraid.

Everyone is trying to feed their own families and a penny saved is a penny earned.

You can feed your own family without trying to starve others. A bit of common decency and fairness is what I am talking about.

 

[terrontress]

You can feed your own family without trying to starve others. A bit of common decency and fairness is what I am talking about.

The taxi driver has the discretion choose whether to offer a reduction or not. Nobody is forcing them to.

If a taxi driver has half an ounce of wit, he'll offer a job at a discount instead of sitting round waiting for the business to come to him.

Just because he may not charge the fare on the meter, does not mean he will not make more money by offering discounts.

 

[parkmagic]

The taxi driver has the discretion choose whether to offer a reduction or not. Nobody is forcing them to.

If a taxi driver has half an ounce of wit, he'll offer a job at a discount instead of sitting round waiting for the business to come to him.

Just because he may not charge the fare on the meter, does not mean he will not make more money by offering discounts.

The fairs are set down by the taxi regulator, pay them. A fair price for a fair service.

 

[markpb]

The fairs are set down by the taxi regulator, pay them. A fair price for a fair service.

The regulator sets the maximum fare that can be charged, not the actual fare.

 

[Bronte]

The fairs are set down by the taxi regulator, pay them. A fair price for a fair service.

Do you haggle for anything at all in life, price of a hotel room, groceries in a market, clothing in a men's store? Some taxis are willing to reduce their fares particularly if they get regular business. And they are allowed to do so.

 

[terrontress]

Do you haggle for anything at all in life, price of a hotel room, groceries in a market, clothing in a men's store? Some taxis are willing to reduce their fares particularly if they get regular business. And they are allowed to do so.

The cleverer taxi drivers will reduce their fares. They love going on long runs. If you catch someone at the back of the rank at St. Stephen's Green and ask him to knock off a tenner for a trip out to Donabate he has the choice of sitting in a rank for another 15 minutes and may get a run up to Portobello or else drive out for a guaranteed €25 - €30 and call through Swords and Santry on the way into town and try to pick up a fare there.

The days of intransigence and insisting on following every arbritary rule laid down by unions to the letter belongs in the 80s with the English miners' strike.

Bronte lists an interesting one: Hotel rooms. It's well known that the price on the board at the reception is the highest rate there is and can always be bettered. Does Parkmagic think that someone should always pay the "rack rate" or look on the internet for a better deal? After all, the owners of the hotels and all the Hilton shareholders have to feed their families you know.

And does he think that the service provider would prefer an empty hotel as nobody finds the rack rate to be value for money or else a full hotel with people paying a discounted rate that they are still earning on?

 

[parkmagic]

there is a qualitive difference between say haggling with a taxi man over a 10 e fair and a 50 e fair. Problem is a lot of people are too scabby to pay a 10 e fair and think they are being thrifty by haggling. they ar enot they are being mean spirited. Nothing wrong with getting the best price for a fair over say 30e.

 

[truthseeker]

They love going on long runs.

I disagree with this. A family member was a taxi driver for a long time and the best money is made on the shorter runs, plus you dont waste time driving back from the drop off of a long run with an empty taxi.

There is already money on the meter as soon as someone sits into the taxi. Dropping them a mile up the road means you actually maximise the money you earn in a given time period, are not going too far out of the busy areas, plus you have a much better chance of picking someone up on the road and/or your base controller will be supplying work within your cachement area.

A long job means that you go out of your cachement area completely, may have to drive for miles empty with all jobs from base on the other side of the city, and have spent a long time driving for just the meter ticking over the miles.

 

[terrontress]

I disagree with this. A family member was a taxi driver for a long time and the best money is made on the shorter runs, plus you dont waste time driving back from the drop off of a long run with an empty taxi.

There is already money on the meter as soon as someone sits into the taxi. Dropping them a mile up the road means you actually maximise the money you earn in a given time period, are not going too far out of the busy areas, plus you have a much better chance of picking someone up on the road and/or your base controller will be supplying work within your cachement area.

A long job means that you go out of your cachement area completely, may have to drive for miles empty with all jobs from base on the other side of the city, and have spent a long time driving for just the meter ticking over the miles.

There is an Irish taxi drivers' bulletin board and they always say a good night has lots of long runs. That is what I have based that assertion on.

It comes down to earning for as long a period as possible. Sitting on ranks doesn't earn money. That's why they'd prefer it. Short runs may provide more money per km but at least on a 25 minute run, the meter is on for 25 minutes.