Renting a cab is always one of the best options that one can avail. For both residents of a particular city and tourists, hiring a taxi is feasible: it depends on the situation. There are several circumstances where it might not always be possible for you to drive your car. For example, during the winter time, you might not want to take your car to the streets because it is in winter that cars tend to break down more often.
Tourists can acquire a rented cab for sightseeing purposes. There are taxis providing companies who offer various sightseeing facilities to all tourists. In fact, people can rent them for purposes like shopping, medical checkups, and short vacation trips too.
The purpose of this article will be to find a trustworthy company from where you can get maximum facilities. Here are seven steps that you need to keep in mind while choosing a taxi:
1. Never get in without agreeing on a fare.
Period. The merits of a number of these suggestions might be argued over by some. Your fare is based on two, and only two, options: a metered fare or a negotiated rate. Most people like hopping in a cab and seeing a working meter (although frankly, you can just as easily get ripped off that way through a variety of meter scams), but more often than not when you hop in a cab in a good number of places in the world, there isn’t going to be a meter. Make sure you agree before you get in the cab – before you put your backpack or anything in the cab – on exactly how much the fare is going to be. Therefore, you should be able to avoid fare scam.
2. Have the proper change.
It’s always amusing when some cab driver quotes you a $15 fare somewhere, you get there and pull out a $20 and looks at you shocked that he is supposed to make a change. Come on! They are cabbie. They operate in a cash business. They get and give cash all day. The simple solution is to always carry lots and lots of small bills (which is a good idea for a number of reasons anyway) and give the exact amount to the cabbie.
3. No tipping.
This follows from the former. Unless getting one of those few cabbies that fit into the “amazing” category, don’t tip a penny. Most times, people are getting ripped off for being a foreigner to start with. The fare is the fare. This will prevent you from wasted expenditure.
4. Try not to look.
Driving all over the world is horrendously frightening. Add to that a cab driver that wants to get you there as fast as they can, so they can rip off another customer and the driving can be downright scary. Do yourself a favor and look out the side windows and not the front – you don’t want to see what is happening.
5. Get directions in the local language.
Your hostel should have a business card with the address, and hopefully a basic map, printed in the local language. Always grab one or two when you check in. After a night out drinking, being able to hand a cab driver a card with your hostel on it, in the local language, can be a savior. Additionally, if you are going anywhere by cab (or any transportation really), Always have the people at the hostel write out where you are going in the local language and keep it in my notebook. It should go without saying, but won’t here, that you obviously need to ask the people at the hostel what sort of fare price you should be expecting for the cab rides in order to properly negotiate.
6. Stick to licensed cabs.
This isn’t a problem everywhere, but to be on the safe side, make sure to use a licensed cab. Some places you can tell by the license plate, others by the what’s printed on the cab – ask the people at your hostel what to look for.
7. Don’t be afraid to say no.
Or otherwise, be aggressive. Many times when you arrive at your destination, after negotiating a fare, the cabbie will say “extra $5 for traffic” or something of the sort. Get your stuff out of the cab, make a small ball out of the proper amount of money you negotiated, hand it to the cabbie and walk away. Other times, cabbies will negotiate a fare with you and then try to pick up other passengers along the way to make more money. That’s fine if you are in a “collective taxi” or “service taxi”, which operate more like little buses. However, if you got a one person fare and he turns around and asks “OK to pick him up,” there is nothing wrong with saying no. A negotiating is corollary. Saying no and walking away is pretty much the best negotiating strategy in almost all circumstances.