It’s easy to get scammed by shady taxi drivers who know that you are from out of town, may not know the local customs, and have extra cash to be cheated out of. Not all taxi drivers are going to cheat you but there are a few quiet ways to be your own travel insurance against it.
Being prepared is the best way to take away most of the leverage shady taxi drivers have to rip you off and you can outwit most without uttering a word.
Research The Local Customs
Taxi culture in Turkey is different than in South Africa than in Argentina, etc. It’s important to know the specifics. Otherwise you’ll just have to take the taxi driver’s word and expect that their actions are the norm. Spend a few minutes Google hacking your next trip the local tipping, meter, and baggage customs.
Know The Average Fare
There are a number of travel blogs that will tell you approximately how much it should cost you to get from the airport to your hostel, between major sites, and any other local hot spots. You don’t want to trust the taxi driver, the only thing you should rely on them is to drive. Find out everything else yourself before you get in the cab. Calculate international cab fares with World Taximeter, do a blog search, or get on Twitter and ask me, I’ll help you find out.
Be Vague About Where You’re Going
Start with the area of town you are going to and get more specific with your final destination as you get closer. It’s more difficult for a driver to wander around when you can see the signs to the part of town you want to go to.
Don’t Engage in Conversation
Almost universally taxi drivers will try to chat with you, especially if you look very foreign. While they might just be curious, the more you talk the more you give away about how clueless you are. I was once ripped off by a driver in a large city I had visited many times because I unwittingly gave away that I was unfamiliar with a part of town.
Have Correct Change
You should always have small bills on you whenever you travel separate from your larger ones. Your socks are a good place to hide your big denominations since opening a fat wallet with a bunch of bills just makes you a more tempting target. Besides, taxi drivers never have correct change, ever.
It’s All Quiet
Good body language and communicating non-verbally will help you bargain when you don’t know the local language. The more you research beforehand the more confident you’ll be directing traffic from the back seat. Tomorrow in Part 2 I’ll share a few ways to be firm, confident, and not get ripped off while being quiet at the same time.
[photos by: Who.is.Bill.Posters?, jk5854]
Some good tips there. One which I assume may appear in part 2 is to pay once you are out of the taxi, either through the driver’s window or face to face after unloading your luggage. This way there is no chance of being detained inside the taxi if you are unwilling to pay the fare being asked for.
Good tip that I actually missed for tomorrow’s post but will make sure to add it. Certainly a rule to follow, getting stuck in the back seat arguing is a terrible position to be in. Stressful, frustrating, and hard to get a fair price.
I really like this classic photo of DeNiro!!! Haha…
He’s one taxi driver I wouldn’t mess with 🙂
These tips are absolute BULLSHIT!
Firt of all, taxi drivers DO NOT have time to try to rip people off, they have like 8 hours to make their money and they make their money on VOLUME and GRATUITIES. The more you stay in their taxi you are wasting their time.
NEXT, most of them do not engage conversation because they DO NOT speak English. And most foreign people are like New Yorkers: they will find any opportunity NOT to tip, especially taxi drivers, WHY? Who knows, but everyone knows its true.
NEXT,people should know that the fastest way is usually not the most direct and the reason for that is because if all the locals use the SAME PATH then that will make traffic worse, but if you go around the traffic but still in the right direction, you can go to less congested areas. Idiot taxi associations like the famed NYC TLC will tell everyone about the most direct path, yet the poor taxi driver catches hell for not taking the fastest way. And what makes it worse is psychotic idiots that work 8 hour a day hop out and get in a taxi and start farting out directions to someone who drives the streets 12 hours a day 5-7 days per week! what the hell.
BEING VAGUE.
umm, have you lost your damn mind. That wastes time and opens up Pandora’s box for getting lost, taking the wrong street, identifying the fastest way to get there, if you are vague about where you are going you then have lost the opportunity of getting there the best way so there for your LOOSE YOUR RIGHT TO COMPLAIN. I don’t know who thought of this one but they obviously do not take taxis in NYC.
Yes, please have correct change.
THere is nothing more that a taxi driver likes is some cheap bastard that gives coin and ask for coin back. This brings up another thing that was not mentioned in this part 1 of “being scammed” by a taxi driver (what BS).
Taxi drivers are not waiters and bartenders, they have to pay HIGH FEES before they even start working so pay attention to this:
New york tipping
$ 4.00 minimum at %40
$20.00 maximum unless you go out of town
If you can’t afford a tip, it’s very easy to calculate,
Keep your butt out of the taxi and take a bus.
The taxi is a luxury item and should be treated as so.
If you know what the fare is everyday and you go the same route everyday, FINE, but keep in mind that taxi drivers have NO CONTROL over what the fare is. If you ask him how much it cost and you get some big large figure, DONT COMPLAIN if you agreed to it, next time just get in, tell him where you are going and shut up. Remember, shes the captain of the ship and really doesn’t care where you are going and shouldn’t.
On that note, there is one thing that is a myth a bout taxi drivers.
KNOW YOUR DIRECTIONS.
If you don’t know where you are going, NEITHER SHOULD SHE!
This isn’t a Carnival Cruise®, Know where you want to go, write down the address and begin to give directions if you have a specific way to go.
LASTLY, This bullshit write up gets my goat about “conversation”. The taxi driver has very limited opportunities to earn a gratuity and conversation is one of them. Everyone knows that when you have someone to talk to and the conversation is interesting you have a much shorter trip and you have less opportunity for car sickness. Also people ENJOY talking when the taxi driver does not speak English AND this may be the ONLY opportunity to LEARN ENGLISH. And as for those idiots who complain that taxi drivers DON’T SPEAK ENGLISH, it’s not that they are going to give them a larger gratuity.
CONTRARY TO THIS WRITE UP, Not every taxi driver wants to rip you off, most are too busy to even think about that BS.
Just shut up and enjoy the ride.
You know what Montz, I was agreeing with this article until I read what you had to say.
It seems like everyone in town wants to put down the taxi driver and I have had some really nice ones over the years as compared to mean ones. The ones that have been rude we all want to remember but the nice ones we do not tip very well and we forget as soon as we step out of the car.
I want to apologize if I were rude because we too forget out rude and nasty customers can be and I really feel sorry for the NYC taxi drivers, they seem to get harassed from the police left and right and there’s nothing they can do about it.
I personally feel that they get harassed because a LARGE portion are Muslim and most of the people in this town are Jewish it seems.
I never put down taxi drivers, there are honest and dishonest ones all over the world. In some parts of the world more than others. But this is true of all people in all professions – there are honest and dishonest doctors, waiters, etc…
Again, your perceptions were based on NY cab drivers and this post covers general tips. Read #1 above – “Research the local customs.”
Besides, these tips are good to follow even with honest cab drivers, having the correct change, knowing the average fare, and knowing the local customs are all just good travel common sense.
Did you read the first line:
“Not all taxi drivers are going to cheat you but there are a few quiet ways to be your own travel insurance against it.”
I never said that most are going to scam you – although it varies depending where you travel in the world. You’re basing most of your assumptions on NYC, have you been to the parts of the world I have?
As a tourist you are a good target to many unethical people, not just some shady taxi drivers.
I agree too that you should have an idea where you’re going, but you try to navigate Istanbul or Hong Kong if you’re setting foot there for the first time.
You make a lot of assumptions here –
“Everyone knows that when you have someone to talk to and the conversation is interesting you have a much shorter trip and you have less opportunity for car sickness. Also people ENJOY talking when the taxi driver does not speak English AND this may be the ONLY opportunity to LEARN ENGLISH. And as for those idiots who complain that taxi drivers DON’T SPEAK ENGLISH, it’s not that they are going to give them a larger gratuity.”
That really just isn’t relevant here. It’s completely based on stereotypes of NY cab drivers. Besides, the customer is always right – if you don’t want to talk during your ride you don’t have to.
1)I don’t think the travel which involves frequent flyer partnership, including another country in your trip etc involves hanging out in NY.much.
2) everything you say may be true of NY cabbies but obviously you have never taken a cab in DELHI. It is so bad that women are advised to not take a taxi at night alone (a zillion flights from europe arrive around 1 and 2am so loads of people find themselves there in the pisshours of the night)
3) i’ve been in a cab with several MEN trailing with me, all who MOST EMPHATICALLY gave the name of the place we are going to, the cross street of a MAJOR rd, THE MAJOR HOSPITAL which is RIGHT across from it and the taxi driver kept arguing and lying that it is “NOT OPEN”, I DON”Y KNOW WHERE IT IS” BS. I’v ben back to the same place a few times in a cab, so it IS there, it IS open, and people KNOW where it is.
4)I took a TUK TUK taxi in Mangalore, and when i refused to pay the unreasonable fee at the end( it was a silly short ride from the bus station to the train station in a SMALL town) he threw the customary HUGE emotional angry pretend fit, “refused” to take the fare I was offering, and walked away. I was unmoved and said find. (inside i was shaken like a martini). After 5 minutes he came back with a big smile and like we are buddies who had a pretend fight, came back warmly and wanted the fare he earlier refuse. I had to pay him back for freaking me out like that and since i had time while waiting for the train I refused and told him a few times he didn’t want it. I explained this occurrence to the ashram vidvan who was very indignant and embarrassed for his countryman.
But i had been warned about these shenanigans so i was prepared. Which don’t mean NY cabbies do this. We travelers are not stupid.
5) if we had just told the cabbie to take us to KarolBagh the general area he wouldn’t have had something to argue with us about – the whole of Karol Bagh CANNOT be closed, but the a****ole took weary travelers who arrived somewhere in the middle of the night and stressed us out big time. The amount of times we had to tell that fool to take us to that intersection was innumerable.
In conclusion – don’t be so indignant and outraged at the advice until you have travelled where this person has. I hope you get foolish***tted by a cab driver in India and waste hours in the night not knowing what to do because he has gone in circles and your smart phone died.
(ok not really – hope you are ok)
Montz- I really think you are overreacting- the fact is that there are both types of taxi drivers- honest and not so honest. I live in Sarajevo, and I’ve had both. One thing that has helped me- If they don’t have a taxi-meter, I always ask how much the fare will be before getting in the cab. This means there are no shock values at the end of it.
I had a few wicked taxi rides… Marrakech and Madeira included.
And some of those taxi drivers are really “chatty”.
I try not to give away signals that I don’t know the city/town very well.
But still, even if they take the short and right way, their counters often show fake figures or they just play the “it’s not working” trick.
It’s tough and the, “which way should I take” question can often force you to reveal even more how fresh you are.
Yes, they always do that 😉
Even at home, they get me confused at times.