Taxi in rural area: how to ensure it will turn up?
I live in a rural area and occasionally need to get a taxi to the local airport or railway station:
- my destination is distant (that’s why I choose to live in a rural area)
- the local airport/railway station is relatively small
- the services they run are relatively infrequent (miss the intended service and the whole trip is ruined)
- I must start my journey in the early morning (4-5am, too early to ask a friend to help)
- I must book my taxi in advance (no taxi rank in my village!)
Finding a taxi that will pick up from a rural area involves:
- either finding someone locally, usually a very small company (one person/one car, even), prepared to go out in the early morning
- or asking one of the many larger taxi companies in the nearest city (12 miles away) to come out to me
A couple of times I've been in the situation where the taxi does not arrive on the day and I've missed my flight/train:
- local small company: phone them but they do not answer or have to cancel with no notice, no chance of finding another local driver
- remote larger company: driver has not turned up, will send another immediately but will not arrive in time
My current approach is to find a local company and phone them multiple times, stressing how important it is to me they turn up on time.
Any advice on how to ensure I will not be let down by the taxi company?
I'm in the UK.
Best Answer
Ugly situation. Some ideas:
Befriend a specific taxi driver which is reliable (I think at the given time in the early morning there will be no rivals, it is more a convienience problem).
Be independent with other transportations. If you do not want or cannot afford a car, a motorbike, a scooter: Some people I know of drive 40 km (25 miles) with a bike. Ok, it needs 2 hours, but you know that you will arrive in time.
Drive to the city with the local railway station / airport one day before and rent an overnight stay.
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Answer 2
In the UK there are regulatory authorities that apparently limit the number of taxis and impose quality requirements there have been a study and suggestion by the UK parliament to abolish the Quantity Control on the number of taxis available in Rural areas and otherwise, which was similarly addressed by the Office of Fair Trade.
However, there is evidence to suggest that cabbies refuse to go to the rural area and there is apparently a call for a regulation to prohibit them from doing so. And in some place like Scotland there are complain procedure to be followed when service is subpar.
So long story short complain about the situation to the local licensing authority and the taxi company or the PHV company that left you stranded. In addition it may be better to hire a cab from the city where you need to go suggesting that you will pay the fare both ways taxi going to pick you up and the regular fare once it does.
Other then that since you live in rural area it is quite likely that you have your own mode of transportation, which you could use instead of calling a cab in this case you're not reliant on a "mercy" of others to get where you need to go.
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