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by fabioborellini 2402 days ago
Has centralised quality control for taxi drivers worked somewhere?

Our "grand old" taxi company in my town who advertises for being the only reliable option with professional drivers failed on me five times on a row. On successive rides I got a standard neo-nazi lecture about immigrants, my Visa credit card was refused apparently for transaction costs, two of my drivers got lost and one tried to drive to my destination using mostly sidewalks for driving on.

I sent feedback each time to only receive a generic "we are sorry, we have failed our quality controls and this will never happen again" copy-pasted message. Maybe it's more straightforward to advertise than getting rid of drivers who can't behave.

With Uber I know my bad ranking (I have always rated my drivers 5 stars, so far) has at least some effect on the misbehaving driver.
3 comments
pnongrata 2402 days ago
Some points about my personal experience with Uber in my city: 1. Drivers listening to evangelical stations very loudly, spewing hate between musics. Most get angry if you tell to lower the sound. God forbid you ask to change the station; 2. Many drivers trying to rig the system, which in turn costs me money. Uber gives me credit for most complaints, but I can only use it with Uber, so my lost money is good for them either way; 3. I've rated many drivers negatively. Whatever happened to them? Who can tell?
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bbczfvhmj 2402 days ago
“ Has centralised quality control for taxi drivers worked somewhere?”

From what I hear.... London !

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Zach_the_Lizard 2402 days ago
It's also produced cabs with very high pollution [1], up to 30x that of a regular car.

Here in New York we don't have the same kind of unusual taxicabs, but we do strictly regulate taxi and Uber drivers.

I personally find taxis here insufferable. I live in Queens and regularly had to help them "remember" where Queens is. Or remember the TLC regulations about accepting a credit card.

I've not had the same song and dance with Uber.

If this is the quality that the regulations enforce, count me out.

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/black-cabs-taxis-a...

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CaptainZapp 2402 days ago
Has centralised quality control for taxi drivers worked somewhere?

Yes. I can provide you with multiple examples.

Use a cab in Singapore or anywhere in Japan and be amazed.

The "cabs are terrible" argument seems to me to be a very localized view.

Terrible cabs exist. So does fantastic service via the most efficient route by a driver who actually knows the city.

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