Madam Medusa

oh it's totally not the drivers' fault usually...the so called booking system is a complete frigging joke...you book hours in advance, but they only put the call out 15/30 mins in advance of you needing the taxi, so there may not be any taxis in the area...

i've gone round and round in circles with dubai transport about what is the point of pre-booking...they say it's so you are in the system, but when i ask how that helps me, they go quiet...

MM, xx

Eeyore

Come off it, this is Dubai. If you're of the wrong ethnicity, you're a second- or third-class citizen from the get-go, no matter how diligently you try to play by the rules. And if something comes down to your word against an RTA inspector's, then you're never going to win, even if you were absolutely in the right.

Yeah, we're all in the same boat as the taxi drivers. We've all been hit equally hard by the increases in the cost of living, and we're all struggling under the yoke of equally onerous terms and conditions of employment.

Ahem.

twinkle-star

Even tried going food shopping in a taxi??? At least the Dubai taxi men used to help me get the shopping out the back of their boot!

Got in an Abu taxi last week he drove off with my shopping in the back... waved my arms up and down and he saw me and came back!
Mr Star said leave his door open and he wont drive off.
This week I asked him while in the taxi to open his boot and left the back door open got my shopping out, closed the boot and he drove off down the road with his back door open............
At least i got my shopping!...

angelaj70

Oh yes, this mirrors my experience in Dubai and Ab Dhabi. Taxi drivers don't care about you. There is one exception: if they see that you are a money-making opportunity, then they will be nice and helpfful as long as you are useful.

MataHari

oh I completely disagree...I find most of them friendly (or just plain quiet which is ok with me as well) but a lot of them chat away, some of them are quite funny...just like any other people really...
and of course they like to get a tip in the end...can you blame them? And why should they 'care' about you...do you care about them?

twinkle-star

I think its called customer service.......

MataHari

like I said...I have never had a bad experience...apart from some that can't drive...
and when they are being nice...people say stuff like you are a moneymaking opportunity..of course you are...they are there to make money...

NorthernLad

Looks like they have had enough...

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/52337...bies-to-strike

'Fines can be as much as 35,000 dirhams ($9,529) for a faulty global positioning system, 500 dirhams for picking up a client late and 100 dirhams if the driver cannot provide change to a customer.

Mayada Ali Saeed, a spokeswoman at the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA), which oversees Dubai's taxis declined to comment when contacted by newswire Reuters.'

The airport will be a fun place tomorrow night.

MataHari

35,000 dhs fine...the guy might as well hang himself then...

Autonomy

a) How would it be the cabbies fault that a highly specialist and technical device such as a GPS is not working?
b) If they have GPS why are they still so fcking sht at booking / allocation of vehicles...

jvr20

one guy in Shj told me of a fine of 350 for being spotted with a bottle of water in his cab.

MataHari

oh please...let that not be true...

Spugsy

loads of them never have change, or they're trying it on.

Inselaffen

well the cab driver we had back from the quiz last night just clearly did not have a brain!

Spugsy

did he not 'shimmy' round the corners for you?