Posted by
camdenhk
15 yrs ago
i saw a recent article rating taxis worldwide. Tokyo and Bangkok are in the top ten, Hong Kong is not. From my experience, this fits. Any advice on handling rude taxi drivers? esp for single women, people carrying lots of heavy bags?
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If you complain they'll just pretend not to understand your English. My advice is to ignore it. You'll never find that guy again. If you haven't started the ride, get out and get the next taxi.
Apart from rudeness, which I don't really think is THAT common, there are the abysmal driving skills. Having taken one form of driving license in HK, it is obvious that the examination system is a farce and certainly not focused on either driving skills or traffic skills.
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if HK taxis are not in the top ten, then it must be pretty common. what do people carrying kids do? pregnant women? old folks? sick people? i've lived here 5 years, and the HK police website suggests it is getting worse. article in SCMP last year - 17% increase in complaints.
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Never had a problem with kids, but that's only anecdotal evidence of course. We used to put carseats in the taxis too. Never a problem.
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Even with the occasional rudeness and the appallingly jerky driving style I still reckon HK taxis beat UK ones (except the brilliant London cabbies, of course!). HK taxis are relatively cheap; they're ubiquitous and clean and any unpleasant 'aroma' encountered upon entering the car fades pretty soon, unlike the vomit and curry odours that waft out of the worn upholstery of so many cabs in many British towns...
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I have had only had a handful of problems with taxi drivers in 15 years here. I take taxis on regular basis including cross harbour routes. Most the problems were before the handover, ie I was new here so perhaps it was a misunderstanding on my part.
Some drivers will not help with luggage to trunk but still charge the $5. This I find irritating but have learned to live with it. Some drivers may take a more circuitous route - but this is rare as I will steer them accordingly. Actual overcharge is quite small. Some drivers may not acknowledge instructions but will most not get offended if you suggest another route.
Generally, I find taxis in HK to be cheap, convenient and quite efficient. Some Kowloon drivers may not know HK and vice versa, but they provide a good service nonetheless.
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hmm ... your comments assume I am expdcting something i am not.
I have lived here 5 years. I don't at all mind paying 5$ for luggage. I live in a village which has no minibus, so must take a taxi routinely. Most of my problems are things like my purse, often stuffed with books. or grocery bags, but in all cases I put in and take these out myself. I have had taxi drivers close the door on my leg, grab my purse, and start the car moving when I have been trying to get my grocery bags. Perhaps your experiences do not represent the full range of what is out there.
Friends who are also single women report the same thing. They also note that the SCMP report on a 17% rise in complaints may reflect more mainlanders as taxi drivers. when I ask taxi drivers if there are more mainlanders, they say yes, and they agree that these drivers are not as good. i also note that women drivers, while few, never do theser things.
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"Perhaps your experiences do not represent the full range of what is out there."
Perhaps not, but honestly when someone takes a taxi twice every weekday for over two years I think the range of what is experienced is quite comprehensive.
BTW are you talking city taxis, Lantau or NT?
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:) you don't have to take my word for it. try the SCMP articvle. it was quoting the HK police website statistics. 17% rise in complaints indicates a lot of unhappiness. when you consider how many private cars there are in HK, that's a high incidence of complaints to taxi rides. making it a fit topic to be considered by the many people who have complained, at least.
btw, i take taxis daily, because i live in a village without a minibus. NT.
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To mrssmith - what is the difference between putting my small knapsack in the trunk and putting it in the empty seat beside me? Yet I get charged an extra $5 for the former. I don't expect the driver to put my bags in the trunk for me I expect him to help me with them - eg to grab a handle, to even get out of his car to open the trunk, or get me a trolley from the airport express while I get the bags out, you know simple things like that. Else what is the point of the $5 charge?
In any case as I have stated, it is irritating and something that we all have to live with.
NT taxis are more "local" - can't really generalise. Maybe you've just had bad luck. In my experience a sunny disposition tends to engender a sunny response in kind despite the language differences.
If I had to guess - with more mainland visitors, they think that any circuitous route is a rip off. But they fail to realise that HK roads are never direct and there are areas of congestion - jut try going through Causeway Bay. Plus thye expect drivers to converse in Mandarin which many speak only entry level Mandarin, and with the different Mandarin accents it is tough to understand sometimes.
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The ones who fall asleep at the wheel are the most fun....
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i've taken taxis in KLN, NT and HK island and i gathered that:
1. if you ask a KLN cabbie to go to HK island, they get a bit annoyed coz it is not "their" area and i've to call my chinese friends to translate the address to him over my phone. cabbie still manages to get a bit lost but with my broken canto, he manages to get me home.
2. HK island cabbies understands more english than the KLN and NT ones so it's easier to travel around HK island and even to KLN with them with a bit of help with directions.
3. NT cabbies are the ones whom i find a bit rude and most of them are mainlanders down that way.
the ones you find might be opposite to what i have found but it depends on the cabbies, ofcourse.
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Get a car....if you live in NT- bliss!Everone on Sth Lantau seems to be doing this... For necessary taxi trips to airport, etc, I have memorised the Canto for" I would like to go to "-and my usual haunts...really helps. Bear in mind that taxi drivers here get terrible pay so do tip the good ones .. and I agree being pleasant usually works too. however the jerky driving thing annoyed me so much once I offered to take the wheel and drive myself....so funny ; you should have seen the look on his face.Of course I have no idea why they do it, the'' dit dit dah dah ''driving, apart from perhaps some completely loony idea that it saves gas...a lot of stuff like this goes on in here, some things HK just doesn't 'get"really ; which reminds me, always remember that taxis on Lantau are variable and if they don't have one for you when you ring ,the gal on the phone will just hang up on you! Hilarious. Hence buying a car...If I keep my sense of humour it helps...
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".Of course I have no idea why they do it, the'' dit dit dah dah ''driving, apart from perhaps some completely loony idea that it saves gas..."
The reason is much more simple: they were never taught how to drive. Having taken one driving test in HK I can attest to the fact that driving school here is about learning to pass the test, not learning to drive. The examiner (and thus the instructor) cares about going through the correct steps to do a maneuver. Smoothness is not important. Learning to drive at more than 20 km/h is not important (just look at the driving school students going like snails).
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the whole education system here works on the same principle as driving lessons it seems ...pass the test not learn to think and learn to do...
however my understanding is that passing the test is very difficult these days -like the academic and school exams -with built in failure so those old guys driving taxis will not easily be replaced by young snail pace drivers...out on Lantau we either have F1 drivers screaming around the mountain roads or snails...not much in between..
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2 extreme problems I have experienced:
one driver grabbed my purse and dragged it into the front seat (before he stopped, before I could take out my wallet to pay). i said i'll call the police, and got out. i bluffed him, and he threw it into the street and drove off.
one taxi didn't want to take the central tunnel, wanted to take the east tunnel (more expensive). when I said no central tunnel he said he'd tell his red-taxi driver friends and they would not pick me up, i'd never get a drive. i think this is probably sthg that should go to the ICAC, and he looked pretty scared when i said so. his surname was Fung. if i had reported this to the police, he simply would have denied it.
friends say it's because i'm a woman travelling alone. i lived in the middle east for 15 years, took taxis routinely, was never treated poorly because of their version of male-female differential, which in taxis requires the man to "protect" the woman. funny - never was anything to "protect" me against. but it works to create a positive social interface.
any thoughts on dealing with extreme driver behaviour? i can't go around recording things in case...
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that is awful re dragging your bag -and also the bullying re the tunnel issue -frankly tho I would have started shouting back at them -I find that Chinese trying it on are afraid of angry loud gweipos etc threatening police ...and usually back down bigtime - sissy la las in fact...but then if you are the gentle sort it may not come easily to you to act like this..much more danger in other countries for women alone in taxis I would have thought.? Western countires have some awful statisitcs re this kind of thing.
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thanks. :)) i'll try that. practise up at home! (my dog will freak). maybe i'll print this correspondence out and photocopy it, and give it as a handout. :D
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wel its not a desirable form of behaviour but it has its uses at times...LOL
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"friends say it's because i'm a woman travelling alone."
Hardly. My wife took taxis twice a day for 2½ years and never had a problem.
As starries says, you'd rather get some lame attempted bullying by an HK taxi driver than some serious stuff in a Western country.
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hmmm... i've been a woman living, travelling alone all over the middle east. seen a few things. i don't think grabbing your purse and dragging it into the front seat and then hanging on hard is "lame" esp when it has your passport and all id in it. i don't think anyone's wife would view it this way either. maybe even men would not like this ...
i may not be personally aggressive, but i've lived and worked in 7 countries (including one you may not have heard of), worked in post-conflict zones. i think i know the difference between a serious attempt to cause trouble, and lame. i've been robbed, been around armed carjacking, serious central asian drug dealiers in action, arms markets, and people shot dead and left to rot. i have travelled in 54 countries, and taken taxis in them all. so, after 5 years of living in HK, taking taxis daily, and watching this, i decided to say sthg.
i think the worldwide taxi survey recently published by the hotels and tourist association is absolutely right - HK is not in the top ten. this survey reflects the views of many people, HKers and visitors. HK taxi drivers are not lame about the ways they are not good. this is probably why the 17% rise in complaints to the police has been reported in the SCMP.
better to acknowledge a problem than wish it away.
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What I mean by "lame" is that typically here it is "a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing". You said yourself you bluffed him and he threw it out.
Not saying for a minute it wasn't serious. However I would still rather my wife take a taxi in HK, where she might at worst well get some irrational angry behavior, than in Sweden, where rapes by drivers are regularly reported.
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Agree with xpat guy.Hmmm makes me think back to the guy who ran off from the taxi near Shatin ? was it ? a few years ago because he was new in Hk and unwisely ,had become frustrated by the taxi driver having no idea ,finally dropping him at the wrong place and the said angry and very silly passenger deciding not to pay ,legged it.He was surrounded by an angry Chinese crowd and arrested and charged by the police.Always felt a sneaking sympathy...and I did refuse to totaly meet the bill with an absolutely oafish and nasty taxi driver years ago in a similar situation who ran up a huge meter trying to get me to Causeway Bay Yacht Club via Mongolia -or so it seemed.
I gave him the regular fare as paid on other more direct rides there...things got heated but I told him what I thought of him and walked off...probably took a risk.My point is sometimes you can't win ,sometimes you do...on the whole I have found these guys to be ok but there are nasty storeis from other countries .I think the original poster was faced with a nasty situation as reported here in HK and I would have urged her to call the police right then and there...
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yeah, risk is the operative word here. taking a taxi is a taking a risk.
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dasia
15 yrs ago
I must live in another world or am an extremely lucky person. I'm female and have lived in HK for almost 8 years and have taken a taxi (on the Island) to and from work every day Monday to Friday. Have never had a problem and on the whole find the taxi drivers friendly and relatively good drivers. Have to admit there has been the occassional jerky trip as well as the ocassional F1 driver.
Once I only had a $500 note to pay the driver but he didn't have change. I offered to run and get change from my building management office but he declined and said "this time no fare"!! Another time I hopped into a taxi as another passenger hopped out and the driver forgot to restart the meter. We both realised what happened when I arrived at my destination and the driver asked me to pay whatever I usually pay.
So...I am very happy with the HK taxi drivers - the red cabs that is. Have never been in a blue or green cab so cannot comment on those.
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it seems even LegCo has discussed it...
http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201002/03/P201002030189.htm
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