Canberra Cabs re-visited

I must say i used to work for canberra cabs, and im to believe the goverment are to blame here they need to take in to consideration the expansion of canberra as well as the number of taxi plates they are willing to issue. Canberra’s population is growing at a rapid rate and we need more taxi’s on the road simple as that! It doesnt help the call taker when people are screaming down the telephone, if anything it will make the taxi arrive slower as its not the call takers fault, and for the hire car problem aerial consolidated transport also run “canberra hire cars, elite transport and queanbeyan taxis and silver service about the new automated system it could be better but is getting there in a perfect world every call would be taken by a real person but the public would be paying an arm and a leg for a simple taxi fare. My msg i would like to get out is taxis dont wait around the corner from your home, If your heading to the airport book the taxi and hour and a half before your flight departs and dont be to cocky thinking thats way to long to be waiting at the airport i have no luggage because its likly the taxi wont be there on time maybe even pay the 11 dollar booking fee for silver service becauseits defently worth it. The government is the problem here and they need to issue more licences to making the taxi arrive within 20 mins.

Because the moronic buisnesswoman from Melbourne must have missed the part of the advertising that said:
A 24-hour Quality Service
For you our customer this means an extremely high standard of service, which is maintained, and measured against best practice criteria. This does not apply before 10 am and not when Tony Blair/his Mum/The head of state/Boony is in town. Do not expect to be picked up within hours in this case.

what sort of moron calls a taxi at 8 am and expects one to be available. why didnt you book the night before ?

its not as if these problems with delays are unknown.

once again – someone elses fault.

Yes, I can appreciate that jube. However, they could have the guts to say “F$%k off, no chance for a cab in the next 2 hours.” In that case she could have taken the bus.

Where did you get that from Sssanta? It’s true – if you have a life threatening condition they have special taxis – they’re called ambulances.

The best trick is to register someone in your house with the taxis, with a life threatening condition. You tend to receieve your taxi without delay, as they are expecting somone half dead wierdo needing a trip to hospital.

Slinky, in times of massive spikes in work – take into account Parliament, Mr Blair’s visit plus a number of delegations being in town, and yes they are busy as hell. If you called a cab last week, you would have found a quicker response, as most of the cabs were parked on ranks earning nothing. In Canberra, it is feast or famine for all parts of the industry and trying to find the happy balance has (so far) been near impossible in this town’s unique environment.

PS. Midnitecalla: This was by no way an attack on the Cabbie…I find Canberra cabbies friendly and quite knowledgeable. However if the organisational structure disallows cabs to be there reasonably on call (we allowedd 40 minutes), they are just rendered useless…

If you live outside the inner north and inner south, hire cars can be a very viable option for airport transport. They are always on time, the cars are very comfortable, they have huge boots for luggage – the driver even carries your bag for you. They can also be booked from the airport to get you home, avoiding the cab queue.

Comparative pricing examples (estimates only): Dunlop to Airport: Taxi $50 – $55, Hire Car $60; Chapman to Airport: Taxi $35 – $40, Hire Car $45. Tuggeranong to the City works out pretty well too. The only downside is a minimum price that varies from company to company, but on average it is about $40, meaning trips from Ainslie or Kingston tend to be a bit more than the cab…..but the service and timing make up for it!

(I wish to point out I work as a dispatcher for a leading hire car company in Canberra, but I don’t consider this an ad as I haven’t used company names)

Brain and logistics would have pointed me to the bus in this case…