Posted by
fortunek
16 yrs ago
Recently had an experience where the fare for a taxi ride was 50% over what was usual. If you happen to experience this, ask for a receipt, take down the drivers details off his displayed ID and file a report at:
http://www.info.gov.hk/tcu/taxi/index.htm
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All taxis have a receipt printer on the dashboard. Even better if you can get a picture of the driver/cab as well. Some of them have false number plates.
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I can remember years ago, some taxis from Kai Tak had their meter linked to the volume of their radio so the louder the radio the faster the meter.
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I find this less and less an issue. Did you get caught in traffic? Did the taxi driver take a different route (eg used western tunnel instead of central tunnel which is much cheaper)? Did you have luggage in the trunk? Each of these reasons can explain the overage.
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i am in hk for more than 10 years and have never encountered a doctored meter in a regular red or green taxi. . .
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In the seven years that we've been here, my wife and I have often had taxi drivers try to take unnecessarily long, circuitous routes to our destinations.
We frequently ride to and from the same places, over and over again, and know the fastest ways to get where we're going, even taking traffic into consideration -- so we just keep our eyes open and challenge the driver when he tries to take us the long way to our destination.
More recently, we've run into a new type of scam. This has happened to us twice in the last week -- including once, outside of a hospital.
You get into the taxi, tell the driver where you want to go, and he nods and pulls away from the taxi stand. Thirty seconds or a minute later, he casually mentions that he won't go to your destination because, if you're in Kowloon, he doesn't go to HK Island (or vice versa). He'll gladly take you to X (some other place that is not en route to your destination) where some other taxi driver will take you on to wherever it is that you want to go. Yeah right.
We had these guys stop and let us out. When it happened at the hospital, we were close enough to the taxi stand that we just walked back and got a different taxi. The other time, we just hailed a different taxi that was passing by.
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Yepp, had the same thing happen with the pulling out.
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To be fair I find that the taxis here are generally excellent. The pulling out thing only happened the one time.
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The cross harbour thing - If you are in Kowloon and want to go to HK, if the taxi driver says he does not want to go to HK then just tell him to drive you to the gas station just before the central tunnel or even the train station. You can easily catch a cross harbour taxi there and not have to pay two way fare. This will save you money and the taxi driver time - win-win.
If you are in HK and want to go to Kowloon, tell him to take you to Wan Chai North where you can easily catch a cross harbour taxi there. That way you get the most from your $18 fixed fare.
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5 years in HK, experience in 54 countries, lived on 3 continents. i take taxis weekly here. in my view, HK taxis are more often trying to cheat than not, especially by taking a longer route. also, often unghelpful, and despite the sign inviting you to suggest a route, they are openly hostile iof you do. until they get real revioew and oversight, this will not change.
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My wife used to take taxis daily. This was not her experience.
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I have come across this only once in 10 years. I take taxis to and from the airport a lot, so know with some precision how much it costs. Always HK$300 (inc tolls), give or take no more than HK$5 either way. One time I pulled up at home and noticed the fare was HK$350, beforethe HK$90 in add ons for tolls. I told the driver I thought he had a dodgy meter. He was immediately on the back foot, telling me he was driving for a friend, and I should pay whatever I normally pay.
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Taxis here are great compared to most places on the mainland. At least they don't drive you out to some hidden place where 5 guys with baseball bats are waiting to take all your stuff.
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