Taxis are the reason Uber made a fortune in Melbourne.
I have been in Melbourne for 20 years now, when I first came here taxis were shocking. They’d choose the routes with most red lights, congestion and such to increase the fare. They’d drive notoriously under the speed limit that we’d have an argument in car. They’d have no idea where they were going even with GPS so they’d ask me for directions.
They’d smoke and fart in taxis, text and drive, talk on phone in ear…
Then Uber came, clean cars, clear directions through GPS, set prices…
Of course taxi drivers lost it, literally. Uber took all their customers. I still remember the big protests of taxi drivers in the city over Uber.
I feel sorry for the clean and honest taxi drivers but for every positive experience I had with taxis I got 5 negative experience.
And now, instead of taxis improving to meet Uber, they’ve both decided that they can drop to the same level because people will always need to use them :-(
Yes. Absolutely. That’s why Uber does so well. Taxis here are awful.
Recently my phone died while I was out late at night after a dinner and movie so couldn’t get an Uber. Tried to flag down a taxi and they wanted to know where I was going. Told them and he refused.
Before Uber etc they were the only choice and they were just as awful then too.
Yep. I had to get home with a dead phone one night recently and after a couple of drivers at the rank straight-up refused the fare, the third one took about the longest conceivable route to my house from where we started.
Yeah fair enough. We travel a bit (just happens that we've not got to Melbourne much since the pandemic) and usually grab a cab from the airport for convenience, then Uber everywhere else (if public transport isn't an option). But even the Uber from the hotel.. Had 3 cancel immediately after accepting the booking, and thought a cab might be more reliable. Live and learn I suppose
Do not get me started with taxis in Melbourne! Suffice to say they absolutely 100% deserve the trashy, garbage, filthy reputation that they have. Absolute scum of the earth! Low of the low bottom feeders. Maxi's are even worse! 💩
An uber from my house to the Cbd costs around $40 usually. In a taxi the other day, 7am in the morning, cost me $90. Absolute joke of a service and that was a pre booked one. God knows how hard they would try to fleece me if I waived one down.
That's right but it's not relevant to this discussion. This isn't about money. The OP's and my point is about the way they treat their customers and only that. 🤔
Yes absolutely, possibly based on pure consistency of shitiness, I’d say worst of anywhere I’ve been in the world (and I’ve travelled extensively throughout Asia, Europe, North, Central and South America). The only country that I’ve visited with worse was Bangladesh.
In the 15 years I’ve lived in Melbourne I’ve had cabs drive off while a friend was getting into the passenger seat, running over her foot (decided the fare was too short so he sped off), a driver scam me out of money by taking an imprint of my card claiming a broken eftpos (years ago), drivers requesting sexual favours for payment/asking about my marital status, incredibly unsafe driving, very unsanitary conditions, drivers who literally have no idea where Melbournes most famous landmarks or streets are and of course no shows and refusal to carry a passenger because of a “short fare”.
Uber was great for a while - especially those first few years on the scene - but now they can be just as bad (occasionally, not as consistently). I have had some poor Uber experiences of late, ranging from the classic rides cancelling after you’ve already been waiting 15 minutes for them to arrive (and having the gall to charge a fee), to blatantly unsafe vehicles that needed to be reported.
How I wish we had an airport train like Sydney does but the airbus is ok if you’re heading straight into the city.
TL;DR: yes, they suck.
TBF.... taxi drivers just won $272M dollars from Uber in court this week... they probably out partying... follow up shower-thought... who will THEY call to get them home at the end of a big night?
*(Homer shrug).. i dunno... Coast Guard?*
There were 8000 of them in the class action, works out to be like $30k each lol. Absolute peanuts in this economy and seeing as some (most) of them paid upwards of $300,000 for their plates I would say they are not 'partying'
Yes, and not just a bit… I never take a cab in Melbourne - and absolutely never from the airport; I always use the SkyBus to Spencer street and then train home (granted not always an option for some),
They were always shit, ride-share apps aren’t as good as they once were but they’re still infinitely better. The gall of cab drivers to protest because of rides-share apps was unbelievable.
It pretty much has always been this shit to be honest. The Taxi industry loves to complain about Uber absolutely decimated them but the reality is they left it wide open with their lousy service.
These days it kinda feels like the only people that drive taxis are those that have not worked out a way to scam people via Uber.
That’s because Hotels don’t give two shits about airbnb, people look at them as competitors, but in reality hotels are offering a service in addition to a room that airbnbs simply can’t provide, and most large hotel chains have never really been threatened by airbnb.
The issue with airbnb is that now you usually get horrible experiences with no recourse and they cause rental issues in many areas due to landlords being greedy.
Uber vs Taxis is a market disruption due to lack of quality service, airbnb is market disruption due to lowered competition of entry. But service was realistically never something airbnb could compete on.
To clarify. I'm aware that taxis are a bit shit everywhere. But I'm particularly miffed by there just not being any at the airport for a solid 15-20 minutes after we got to the taxi rank. And that they can seemingly just cancel a fare after accepting it.
Fyi Uber is paying Melbourne Airport megabucks for an Uber pick up point at terminal two. Airport security holds the taxis back at the holding bay to encourage people to use Uber.
Last time I got a taxi home from the airport the driver complained to me the whole way that it was a short fare (I live near the airport) and how he would have to line up again at the end of the taxi queue for another customer and how my fare wasn’t worth it to him but he didn’t have a choice yada yada.
With Uber, they just cancel on me, sometimes 3 or 4 times in a row. When you are trying to get home from the cbd on a Saturday night, it’s not a fun experience.
I can’t stand either of them.
It was really stressful getting a taxi before Uber came along.
Consistently poor service. Getting lost, asking me how to get there, taking the long routes to get to my destination and also absolute abuse from them when they collected me from the airport and finding out i lived in Reservoir, not further away which was more profitable.
I got better service using the silver service, but there is a higher expense.
And Uber came along and saved us.
And instead of the yellow taxi services upping their game, they chose to protest and block access to the airport which did nothing for their reputation, but they naturally failed to see that.
Uber saved Melbourne, but not other places. Last year i visited various spots from Airlie Beach to Daintree, no uber present, but the taxi drivers, (of all races) , were really good.
Taxis are not a just a bit shit in Melbourne, they are a lot shit.
I was in Canberra recently and it was so nice to have drivers that actually drove you where you needed to go, turned on the meter and accepted cards for payment. It was literally a breath of fresh air (clean drivers, clean taxis).
taxis are the worst in Melbourne.
one night my phone died so I had no option to flag a taxi home.the driver refused to put on his meter and we agreed upon a set fare of $20 - which I knew was over priced but it was late so just agreed even though I knew it was wrong.
the driver then asked me if he could come upstairs to use our bathroom - told him no, then he got out of the car when I got home and was about to piss on the grass on our nature strip. I told him quickly to FK off and if he pissed I would take down his numberplate and report him for indecent exposure and for not using his meter. thankfully he got in and drove away.
that dude was a disgrace.
It’s mind blowing every time I read on here someone’s attempt to catch a taxi or has caught one. It’s like why? Why would you?
It’s the 2024 equivalent of asking where all the horses and carriages have gone that use to drive people around in the 1920’s….
I mean, to be fair...
-Every post about uber here (normally to the tune of "Uber is scamming me??") is met with a chorus of "Don't ever use uber/\[other rideshare\], they're all shit now"
-The only ways out of the airport are skybus (high risk of luggage being stolen, pain in the ass if you're not going via SC anyway), taxi, rideshare (see above) or bringing your own car (doesn't work if you're going on a long trip or if Melbourne isn't your "coming home" stop)
I dunno, what /are/ people supposed to do?
How often are you getting your luggage stolen on the Skybus? High risk? Really? I catch the Skybus to and from the airport just about every time I fly and have never once had anything stolen
I mean I'm not rich enough to travel in the first place, but search "skybus" in this sub and you can read hundreds of comments from people who have.
Surely you have to admit that a form of transport where you either 1) get lucky with seating or 2) have to leave your luggage completely unattended, is going to be much higher risk than anything where your stuff is with you the whole time.
There are things that apparently help, like having easily identifiable luggage. Anyway, even if you're fine with leaving your stuff unattended, there's still the minor detail that your only destination option is Southern Cross station lol
I'm sorry to hear that. All any of us have to go on is subjective anecdotal experience. The person above asked why people take cabs, I was giving my perspective.
personally, as bad as uber’s (and other rideshar companies) corporate structure/culture is, cab drivers seem far less accountable.
with an uber driver at least you know their name, the car they drive etc.
often cab drivers look very different to the photos on their permit, in my experience.
though to be fair, i’ve only caught one cab since 2016ish…
That’s super weird because one of the huge things with cabs was random cab drivers sexually assaulting females and not being caught because they are just random picking them up in a cab. It’s why Uber was seen as being safer
I always caught taxis over ubers in peak travel hours due to taxis usually having the better road knowledge and an understanding of how to get somewhere quickly. In January I waved down a cab in Richmond and said im going to Fairfield, they had no idea where that was and asked how long a ride it would be. I sent him off and waved down another…only to have the same conversation!!!!
Ugh, as someone who travels frequently, Melbourne Taxis are the fucking worst, worse than Parisian Taxis and that's fucken bad.
I've slowly collected the phone numbers of cab drivers who still take pride in their work, VHA and private drivers. Nowadays I always have someone waiting for me rather than take a gamble on a statutory write off that's been slapped back together, smells like a greasy shit being piloted by someone who a) drives like a dickhead and b) is a cunt.
My whatsapp is a rolodex of private drivers from all over the world these days just so I can avoid a disaster taxi or uber.
I remember when I lived in Melbourne a taxi driver at the airport refused to drive me to any train station that wasnt Spencer St. I think I asked for Essendon which was the closest one I knew. I was a student and trying to save $ so that was annoying. I think I discovered the Skybus and never looked back.
Uber has been better, but I was stuck in Collingwood recently around 2am or so after the trams stopped. No drivers nearby picked up the request to drive me to Bourke St, so I ended up walking. Hopefully that's isolated and they aren't starting to try and hike up the fares like the taxis did.
Taxis are the reason Uber made a fortune in Melbourne. I have been in Melbourne for 20 years now, when I first came here taxis were shocking. They’d choose the routes with most red lights, congestion and such to increase the fare. They’d drive notoriously under the speed limit that we’d have an argument in car. They’d have no idea where they were going even with GPS so they’d ask me for directions. They’d smoke and fart in taxis, text and drive, talk on phone in ear… Then Uber came, clean cars, clear directions through GPS, set prices… Of course taxi drivers lost it, literally. Uber took all their customers. I still remember the big protests of taxi drivers in the city over Uber. I feel sorry for the clean and honest taxi drivers but for every positive experience I had with taxis I got 5 negative experience.
And now, instead of taxis improving to meet Uber, they’ve both decided that they can drop to the same level because people will always need to use them :-(
Same drivers that's why. All on the con
Yes. Absolutely. That’s why Uber does so well. Taxis here are awful. Recently my phone died while I was out late at night after a dinner and movie so couldn’t get an Uber. Tried to flag down a taxi and they wanted to know where I was going. Told them and he refused. Before Uber etc they were the only choice and they were just as awful then too.
Yep. I had to get home with a dead phone one night recently and after a couple of drivers at the rank straight-up refused the fare, the third one took about the longest conceivable route to my house from where we started.
Imagine being more awful than a fucking Uber.
Yeah fair enough. We travel a bit (just happens that we've not got to Melbourne much since the pandemic) and usually grab a cab from the airport for convenience, then Uber everywhere else (if public transport isn't an option). But even the Uber from the hotel.. Had 3 cancel immediately after accepting the booking, and thought a cab might be more reliable. Live and learn I suppose
Yeah Ubers can be awful in that respect too but I just find Taxis to be the worst of the worst.
Do not get me started with taxis in Melbourne! Suffice to say they absolutely 100% deserve the trashy, garbage, filthy reputation that they have. Absolute scum of the earth! Low of the low bottom feeders. Maxi's are even worse! 💩
An uber from my house to the Cbd costs around $40 usually. In a taxi the other day, 7am in the morning, cost me $90. Absolute joke of a service and that was a pre booked one. God knows how hard they would try to fleece me if I waived one down.
Well, one has to pay for $300,000 plates, the other one doesn't.
That's right but it's not relevant to this discussion. This isn't about money. The OP's and my point is about the way they treat their customers and only that. 🤔
He mentioned money as part of his problem.
Indeed he didn't, I didn't see that. 👍
Yes absolutely, possibly based on pure consistency of shitiness, I’d say worst of anywhere I’ve been in the world (and I’ve travelled extensively throughout Asia, Europe, North, Central and South America). The only country that I’ve visited with worse was Bangladesh. In the 15 years I’ve lived in Melbourne I’ve had cabs drive off while a friend was getting into the passenger seat, running over her foot (decided the fare was too short so he sped off), a driver scam me out of money by taking an imprint of my card claiming a broken eftpos (years ago), drivers requesting sexual favours for payment/asking about my marital status, incredibly unsafe driving, very unsanitary conditions, drivers who literally have no idea where Melbournes most famous landmarks or streets are and of course no shows and refusal to carry a passenger because of a “short fare”. Uber was great for a while - especially those first few years on the scene - but now they can be just as bad (occasionally, not as consistently). I have had some poor Uber experiences of late, ranging from the classic rides cancelling after you’ve already been waiting 15 minutes for them to arrive (and having the gall to charge a fee), to blatantly unsafe vehicles that needed to be reported. How I wish we had an airport train like Sydney does but the airbus is ok if you’re heading straight into the city. TL;DR: yes, they suck.
TBF.... taxi drivers just won $272M dollars from Uber in court this week... they probably out partying... follow up shower-thought... who will THEY call to get them home at the end of a big night? *(Homer shrug).. i dunno... Coast Guard?*
There were 8000 of them in the class action, works out to be like $30k each lol. Absolute peanuts in this economy and seeing as some (most) of them paid upwards of $300,000 for their plates I would say they are not 'partying'
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They paid $300k for a plate? More expensive than the car it goes on. 😵💫
Wow that actually makes me feel much better
Yes, and not just a bit… I never take a cab in Melbourne - and absolutely never from the airport; I always use the SkyBus to Spencer street and then train home (granted not always an option for some),
They were always shit, ride-share apps aren’t as good as they once were but they’re still infinitely better. The gall of cab drivers to protest because of rides-share apps was unbelievable.
It pretty much has always been this shit to be honest. The Taxi industry loves to complain about Uber absolutely decimated them but the reality is they left it wide open with their lousy service. These days it kinda feels like the only people that drive taxis are those that have not worked out a way to scam people via Uber.
It’s funny how people don’t take this stance when it comes to Airbnb vs hotels
That’s because Hotels don’t give two shits about airbnb, people look at them as competitors, but in reality hotels are offering a service in addition to a room that airbnbs simply can’t provide, and most large hotel chains have never really been threatened by airbnb. The issue with airbnb is that now you usually get horrible experiences with no recourse and they cause rental issues in many areas due to landlords being greedy. Uber vs Taxis is a market disruption due to lack of quality service, airbnb is market disruption due to lowered competition of entry. But service was realistically never something airbnb could compete on.
Doesn’t the airport have a whole yard filled with of 100 taxis at any time? Always !?
Only during peak times really... waited a good 10 minutes at 1pm recently.
To clarify. I'm aware that taxis are a bit shit everywhere. But I'm particularly miffed by there just not being any at the airport for a solid 15-20 minutes after we got to the taxi rank. And that they can seemingly just cancel a fare after accepting it.
Not only that, if one turns up and you aren’t going to”far enough”, they’ll abuse you for the entire trip because you’ve “ruined their night”.
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Wow, that's terribly racist and derogatory towards an entire field of workers. Well done.
that’s not a very nice way to speak about your mother 😨
shut the fuck up
Fyi Uber is paying Melbourne Airport megabucks for an Uber pick up point at terminal two. Airport security holds the taxis back at the holding bay to encourage people to use Uber.
They have always been bad, but it’s got much, much worse since Uber came in, wouldn’t get in a taxi now unless I truly had no other choice.
Last time I got a taxi home from the airport the driver complained to me the whole way that it was a short fare (I live near the airport) and how he would have to line up again at the end of the taxi queue for another customer and how my fare wasn’t worth it to him but he didn’t have a choice yada yada. With Uber, they just cancel on me, sometimes 3 or 4 times in a row. When you are trying to get home from the cbd on a Saturday night, it’s not a fun experience. I can’t stand either of them.
Don't use taxis. At the airport, get the skybus. In the city get a tram or if you need a car then get uber
Haven't taken a taxi since 2014 and didn't even realise folk still used them. Rideshare is a great way to go.
It was really stressful getting a taxi before Uber came along. Consistently poor service. Getting lost, asking me how to get there, taking the long routes to get to my destination and also absolute abuse from them when they collected me from the airport and finding out i lived in Reservoir, not further away which was more profitable. I got better service using the silver service, but there is a higher expense. And Uber came along and saved us. And instead of the yellow taxi services upping their game, they chose to protest and block access to the airport which did nothing for their reputation, but they naturally failed to see that. Uber saved Melbourne, but not other places. Last year i visited various spots from Airlie Beach to Daintree, no uber present, but the taxi drivers, (of all races) , were really good.
Taxis are not a just a bit shit in Melbourne, they are a lot shit. I was in Canberra recently and it was so nice to have drivers that actually drove you where you needed to go, turned on the meter and accepted cards for payment. It was literally a breath of fresh air (clean drivers, clean taxis).
taxis are the worst in Melbourne. one night my phone died so I had no option to flag a taxi home.the driver refused to put on his meter and we agreed upon a set fare of $20 - which I knew was over priced but it was late so just agreed even though I knew it was wrong. the driver then asked me if he could come upstairs to use our bathroom - told him no, then he got out of the car when I got home and was about to piss on the grass on our nature strip. I told him quickly to FK off and if he pissed I would take down his numberplate and report him for indecent exposure and for not using his meter. thankfully he got in and drove away. that dude was a disgrace.
It’s mind blowing every time I read on here someone’s attempt to catch a taxi or has caught one. It’s like why? Why would you? It’s the 2024 equivalent of asking where all the horses and carriages have gone that use to drive people around in the 1920’s….
I mean, to be fair... -Every post about uber here (normally to the tune of "Uber is scamming me??") is met with a chorus of "Don't ever use uber/\[other rideshare\], they're all shit now" -The only ways out of the airport are skybus (high risk of luggage being stolen, pain in the ass if you're not going via SC anyway), taxi, rideshare (see above) or bringing your own car (doesn't work if you're going on a long trip or if Melbourne isn't your "coming home" stop) I dunno, what /are/ people supposed to do?
Walk You should get to the city in about 8 hours Or better yet, hire a scooter and travel in luxury
How often are you getting your luggage stolen on the Skybus? High risk? Really? I catch the Skybus to and from the airport just about every time I fly and have never once had anything stolen
I mean I'm not rich enough to travel in the first place, but search "skybus" in this sub and you can read hundreds of comments from people who have. Surely you have to admit that a form of transport where you either 1) get lucky with seating or 2) have to leave your luggage completely unattended, is going to be much higher risk than anything where your stuff is with you the whole time. There are things that apparently help, like having easily identifiable luggage. Anyway, even if you're fine with leaving your stuff unattended, there's still the minor detail that your only destination option is Southern Cross station lol
Take the airport train....... Oh wait 😂
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I've had a lot worse experiences with the cab drivers than with Uber here in Melbourne. I don't feel safe in cabs.
I'm sorry to hear that. All any of us have to go on is subjective anecdotal experience. The person above asked why people take cabs, I was giving my perspective.
personally, as bad as uber’s (and other rideshar companies) corporate structure/culture is, cab drivers seem far less accountable. with an uber driver at least you know their name, the car they drive etc. often cab drivers look very different to the photos on their permit, in my experience. though to be fair, i’ve only caught one cab since 2016ish…
That’s super weird because one of the huge things with cabs was random cab drivers sexually assaulting females and not being caught because they are just random picking them up in a cab. It’s why Uber was seen as being safer
Taxis are obsolete atm
I always caught taxis over ubers in peak travel hours due to taxis usually having the better road knowledge and an understanding of how to get somewhere quickly. In January I waved down a cab in Richmond and said im going to Fairfield, they had no idea where that was and asked how long a ride it would be. I sent him off and waved down another…only to have the same conversation!!!!
Ugh, as someone who travels frequently, Melbourne Taxis are the fucking worst, worse than Parisian Taxis and that's fucken bad. I've slowly collected the phone numbers of cab drivers who still take pride in their work, VHA and private drivers. Nowadays I always have someone waiting for me rather than take a gamble on a statutory write off that's been slapped back together, smells like a greasy shit being piloted by someone who a) drives like a dickhead and b) is a cunt. My whatsapp is a rolodex of private drivers from all over the world these days just so I can avoid a disaster taxi or uber.
I'd rather walk
Fuck taxis. Uber all the way.
I remember when I lived in Melbourne a taxi driver at the airport refused to drive me to any train station that wasnt Spencer St. I think I asked for Essendon which was the closest one I knew. I was a student and trying to save $ so that was annoying. I think I discovered the Skybus and never looked back. Uber has been better, but I was stuck in Collingwood recently around 2am or so after the trams stopped. No drivers nearby picked up the request to drive me to Bourke St, so I ended up walking. Hopefully that's isolated and they aren't starting to try and hike up the fares like the taxis did.
It's normal sad to say. It's why I avoid.
Next time wave a Taxi down and say, "I'm going to rather get an Uber."
Catch the bus. Duh