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TAXI FROM HELL
Last week on 3AW I covered the issue of taxi fares and a
proposed increase. And the state of our cabs and the competence
of our drivers.
I said:
I take a lot of taxis. Unlike one of my predecessors, Steve
Price, the man they called “the poisoned dwarf”.
But he had an issue after returning to Tullamarine after the
Adelaide Grand Pix. I don’t hate taxi drivers. Occasionally,
they can frustrating. Like the time I told a driver to go
“straight down Toorak Road”. And he said “Where’s
Toorak Road”. And I said “You’re on it”.
But in general, I have praised cab drivers. Some, as I said,
are doing it tough working long hours to make less money than
they made eight years ago.
Well, this week, I had the cab ride from hell. I was going
to join friends – including Mike Brady and Elliot Goblet
for dinner at The Rose in Bay Street, Port Melbourne.
They went on ahead. We’d join them. A simple five-maybe
ten minute ride from South Melbourne. Yeah, sure.
A female friend and I copped a cab driver who did not know
where Bay Street was. Didn’t know where Port Melbourne
was. He missed City Road. Turned right when I said left. We
went to Docklands. Twice he tried to take me to the city.
WE saw those lit up skyscrapers so many times. Then he suggested
he was heading for the West Gate Bridge. Then he suggested
the Eastern Freeway. Then he went to Station Pier.
Twice my friend showed him, on the Melway, where he should
be going. I mean Bay Street is hardly a small thoroughfare.
It’s a main street!
Then he excused himself because he said he was from Dandenong
and it was his first day on the job. It took us nearly half
an hour to get from South Melbourne to Port Melbourne. For
the first fifteen minutes I was sympathetic. Then I gave up.
He turned of the meter out of guilt.
We got out of the taxi. My friend refused to let me give
him the ten dollars I offered. And standing on a foreign street
corner we flagged a cab who got us there in about three minutes.
And this industry wants a fare rise of more than 20 per cent
when they hire absolute incompetents????
Thursday, June 9, 2005
©Copyright
Derryn Hinch 2005
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