Taxi Drivers

Home Forums Polo’s Rabble Taxi Drivers

Viewing 5 reply threads
  • Author
    Posts
    • #1659
      Anonymous
      Member

      Don’t know if it’s just me, but the taxi driver’s in Iran are some of the worst I’ve ever had the misfortune to deal with; bloody thieves or wannabe ones at least. Even in Vietnam when you knew you were being ripped off they at least didn’t try and get more out of you once a price was agreed on.

    • #4184
      Anonymous
      Member

      Kramer,
      hope your having a good time in Iran. Where are you now?

      Yeah the cab drivers were bad…………at driving. We had no problems with getting ripped off. The ones we had seemed to be on the up and up. Although there were a few times we shared some rides with the locals and knew without any doubt we were paying way more than the locals riding with us…we saw what they were paying.

      Our drivers in Tabirz were positivly frightening….there were many Ativan moments. After a gnarly mountain drive to Kandovan in a junk car with almost no brakes our driver was tailgating a motorbike with three young males on it that swerved to avoid bieng run over by a dump truck that decided to change lanes. We were fortunate that they didn’t go down because we would have run all three right over.

      Our driver apologised for our repsonse of “W T F!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Said he felt so bad we didn’t have to pay “Yeah Yeah” so our total for the whole day was $3 and he gave me and Iranian military hat that was in his car and knew I was coveting. My son now wears it in conjuction with his “Shin Bet” T shirt.

      Have fun close your eyes and hold on tight….to your money too.

      Best,
      Stiv :twisted:

    • #4185
      abdakbar
      Member

      For the first few months in Karachi this past trip, before my container with my car arrived, I fomulated a nice policy when dealing with Taxi drivers….Mind you, this only works when residing in a place with regular taxi service, for an extended period of time. Find out the appropriate rate for a ride from point A to point B from some of the locals before hailing a taxi. Upon hailing the cab, just get in and state your destination…DO NOT allow discussion on price. Avoid the topic!!! Upon the arrival allow the taxi driver to state the fee. If his fee is within 15% or so of the apropriate rate pay it and tip him on top of that… He’ll be your friend for ife and speak nicely of you to the other cabbies. If however he quotes some otrageous some, get irate. Point B will probably have some folks hanging around (witnesses) Tell the cabbie what you’re willing to pay. If he doesn’t accept it, tell him he’ll take the regular rate or nothing and begin to walk away. If he approaches you with anything other than “o.k. I’m sorry, Xnumber is fine….” Turn around and smack him…beat the hell out of him. This is where the witnesses come in handy. They will undoubtedly approach to break it up and find out what’s going on. Tell them that this thief of a cab driver tried to charge you “Y” price for a cab ride that should cost “X” as you were only coming from point “A” and when you were negotiating he refused a decent some and then followed you with bad intent. Usually (in my experience) the witnesses will agree with you, help you out, and one time a bunch of Jumaati’s in Pakistan continued to beat the cabbie while I sat down and had a cup of tea with the head guy of the group. When this cheating beaten cab driver returns to the stand where you picked him up, he’ll tell all his friends about you, about the bandages he’s wearing, etc. He’ll end up telling them that he did try to cheat you. At that point the square dealing guys will say, “hey, I took that guy from Q to R and he tipped me very well.” This ofcourse is the Machievelian model. Be both loved and feared. Once there is discussion among the cabbies in your area that if you are treated well they are rewarded and if you are treated poorly they are punished, you’ll be on easy street. I broke one cabbies jaw, and all the other cabbies in my area ran him out on a rail. A week later he came to my house to beg forgiveness, which I happily gave, but he still never operated in that area again. You can accomplish thiis method in aweeks time and it will serve you well for the next several months with little reinforcement.

    • #4186
      Anonymous
      Member

      Glad that worked for you, but I will still have to stick with my “no assaulting cab drivers” code. (unless they hit me first).

      Perhaps you have certain skills that I lack, but I always assume that cabbies have more friends than I do..even the corrupt ones.

    • #4187
      kramer
      Member

      Hehe Abdakbar, glad someone is taking revenge on the taxi drivers. I’ll stick to colourful language at this point though.

      Stiv, I’m in Esfahan at the moment and will probably be heading out to Afghanistan in a week, having got some contacts there from fellow BFCers. Shorter than i expected here (had a good time so far) but i want to try and fit in Nepal at the end of my trip plus some time in Kashmir.

    • #4188
      Anonymous
      Member

      Have to hand it to you Kramer you’re logging some miles. Hope you’re taking lots of pictures….how’s that going?

      We Yanks just don’t get kind of time off. :evil:

      Once in Egypt a cabbie was getting greedy and my buddy said “Look pal you’re trying to cheat me and Allah doesn’t like that shit!” “If I were you I’d go to the Mosque today to ask his forgiveness” he said pointing to the heavens. The Cabbie got way freaked out and super apologetic saying “Iwas only kidding name your price!” To which my friend looked at one of the ten other cabbies witnessing this display laughing. and said 5Egyptian pounds, and the guy closest to us “I will take you” problem solved :mrgreen:

      Best,
      Stiv

Viewing 5 reply threads
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.