Melbourne Taxi Drivers.
I spent the weekend in Sydney traveling by Taxi around, Cabs were clean, drivers very respectful, knew their way around or just entered the details into a GPS and let it do the work, they even asked if i wanted the quicker way which was a few $ more due to tolls or the slower way which less, very impressive professional service, very open in dealing with customers by explaining everything, they let me decide what and how and explained the costs involved.
I got back to Melbourne late last night and was allocated a cab in the airport taxi stand by the person directing waiting people.
And the fun began....
Taxi rolled up, a large Toyota maxi cab....Somali driver.....Jumped in.
Where to?
Roxburgh Park.
Wheres that? (10 min from the airport)
Look it up on your GPS, ill give you the exact address, its near Broad Meadows/ Craigiburn. (dumb founded look on the drivers face)
Can you show me the way? (Im thinking at this point do you want me to drive too while you have a rest)
Ok so he starts to drive off.
Sees the person allocating customers to cabs, stops in the middle of the Airport drop off road and starts hurling abuse at them. (There is a family of 4 waiting who were behind me with baggage standing waiting for the next cab.)
Why didnt you give me the large family with baggage so i can make more? Person shrugs their shoulders, Somali lets loose with abuse as i sat there and carrying on that he wont make enough on my fare.
Travel 50m, road becomes 3 lanes at a set of lights, person wants to merge in next to us, he hangs out the window hurling abuse at them too, it was a elderly couple, they had room, they indicated but he wanted to be a prick and not let them in.
I start telling him off for being so disrespectful and not giving way....
Asks the way, i tell him to turn left knowing a short cut to my place.
As he turns he realizes its a short cut and gets off the throttle and starts carrying on that he is out of fuel and needs to go the other way to a servo.
No problem i said, turn off the meter, im not paying.
He keeps going, stops talking....
Just as we are about to merge on to the freeway, he starts turning the van around to drive back towards the on ramp, head on into on coming freeway traffic, then i let the abuse go telling him he is going to kill everybody, us and a innocent driver doing 100 in a head on, he swerves back and continues on the right way....
Then he starts saying that i should have used the taxi stand up stairs on the next level, that everyone knows if your local you use that taxi stand, that he had to wait 2 hours in line to pick me up and it was not worth it.
I tell him that he cannot refuse my fare and that he should have lined up in the upper level taxi line if he didnt want to wait 2 hours for a fare.
Now driving on the Tulla freeway towards Sunbury, the Road is 100Kph, he is doing 65....i tell him he is going to cause a accident going so slow, its 100, hes doing 65, he says nothing about it and continues slowly whinging about how short the fare is, im thinking he is trying to load up the meter on purpose....cars following up his arse, he is holding up traffic as its becomes 1 lane around the back of the airport.
Giving him directions, all 100 Zones, signs showing 100, he continues at 65, i start pointing out the signs and asking him if he can read, he says is gravel on the sides and road works and continues...i tell him its been 100Kph for the last 15 years that i remember and most country roads have gravel shoulders....not a road works sign on any of the roads we used but heaps of 100 signs.
Get home with his whinging all the way about not making enough, i look at the meter and he is asking for $5 more than whats showing.
Ok, told him to fark himself, i was going to pay him cash but after realizing he was a scam artist, im paying by card and im only paying what the meter reads.
After arguing and getting my way, i paid him and left.
Frigging Melbourne taxi drivers, they are absolutely the shit of the shit of this earth.
And people wonder why cab drivers get bashed?
Yes i did get his details...yes getting reported, this guy shouldn't be on the road let alone driving a taxi.
Last edited by Godzilla; 15-04-13 at 12:04 AM.
LeroyPatrol (15-04-13),lsemmens (15-04-13),Mgoldbe1 (15-04-13),mtv (15-04-13),ol' boy (15-04-13),peter3535 (16-04-13),shred (15-04-13),Tiny (15-04-13),vampyre (03-05-13),VroomVroom (15-04-13),weirdo (15-04-13),xnavyman (15-04-13),zeke.damien (04-05-13)
| Look Here -> |
Very strange, as it describes the typical behavior of Sydney Taxi Drivers.
Your God was with you, when in Sydney, and unfortunately forgot to follow you home.
good on you for reporting him , what a scammer . surprising he is not on the other end of a Windows computer "help desk" somewhere.
Almost as bad as those cabs that won't take you in the city where they ask where you're going first before accepting a fare.
Leroy
XCRUISER HDSR600HD twin sat and terrestrial receiver $OOS *
XCRUISER HDSR385 Avant - sold out$OOS UltraPlus DVB-T and DVB-S2 tuners $49 Remotes $OOS
Love how you handled the situation Mate, but sorry you were in it the first place.
Someone with less smarts and balls than you would have been in strife.....and imagine what overseas tourists must think of Aust with Mr Somali being their introduction to our country.
there is a thread about taxi drivers here somewhere by sanity.
Sounds like you were on candid camera, wait for the episode to air soon
You should have stabbed him mate
I believe under the circumstances you had the moral right to do so
stop him (and us) from suffering any more
Should have asked him to take you to Mogadishu....
The fact that there's a highway to hell and a stairway to heaven says a lot about the anticipated traffic flow.
I'd rather walk than give my money to some stinky, sweaty african or curry muncher. About time they had a system like they do in England for learning how to be a cabby.
I agree that you got lucky in Sydney, as some are like the Melbourne driver you got at Tulla.... but I think Sydney cabbies are generally a much higher standard than Melbourne drivers.
Tulla seems to attract the dregs of the trade for some reason.... probably relying on scamming international and interstate visitors.
Most have no idea where anything is and totally rely on satnav.
I doubt we'd have many cab drivers at all if they had to pass 'The Knowledge" test that London drivers must do.
eg: "All-London drivers, also known as the Green Badge drivers, must learn 320 routes, 25,000 streets and 20,000 landmarks or places of interest within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross."
Take a android tablet with GPS while travelling by taxi and tell the bastard to follow it's directions
Oh, you got a good one..... Wait till you get a shit one!
Last edited by ol' boy; 15-04-13 at 03:47 PM.
Godzilla (16-04-13)
Not a bad idea..... as long as they cover all languages other than English.Originally Posted by pheggie
Tell you all what, an hour later i had to be at a birthday party, after talking about it with the host and 6 crown lagers in an hour and a half i looked at the bottle and realized it was the perfect size and shape to break it over the taxi drivers head....mental note to get pissed on the next flight back.....
Edit; i wonder how many cab driver attacks have been provoked by the driver?
Lucky for him i just wanted to get home quickly because people were waiting at the party and i remained calm....damn wife was too busy getting ready to pick me up....
Last edited by Godzilla; 15-04-13 at 04:17 PM.
25,000 streets within a six mile radius? - yeah right.
Someone's dreaming.
That's around 260 streets in a 100 metre radius.
Melbourne Taxi Drivers.
7 News!!!
Exactly what Godzilla started this thread about, just boiled over at Tulla Airport today!!!!
Police vs Taxi Drivers!
Last edited by ol' boy; 03-05-13 at 07:08 PM.
If u want to go on an expedition get a Land Rover, if u want to come home from an expedition get a Landcruiser!
From 7 News... blockade and protest by cab drivers at Melbourne Airport.
Beatrice Miles and her escapes, indefatigable, the bane of cabbies & residents alike.
I've always admired the way she hopped in a Cab and said PERTH! Cabbie called base and was told that he couldn't refuse, but was entitled to 24 Hrs notice.
Believe it you me, it happened with the cabbie pulling up every few miles to get what was on the meter.
I've forgotten what it cost, but methinks Six Hundred Pounds. The Basic Wage was ~ 14 Pounds / week.
Beatrice (Bea) Miles (17 September 1902 – 3 December 1973) was an eccentric Sydneysider who regularly hijacked and quoted for money.
Born in , she grew up in . Her father was a wealthy and hot-headed businessman who had a tempestuous relationship with his daughter. In 1923, he had her committed to a hospital for the insane, where she stayed for two years. After that she lived on the street and was known for her outrageous behaviour. She was arrested many times and claimed to have been 'falsely convicted 195 times, fairly 100 times'.
Her most notorious escapades involved taxi drivers. She regularly refused to pay fares. Some drivers refused to pick her up and she would sometimes damage the cab in retaliation, including reputedly ripping a door off its hinges once. In 1955, she took a taxi to and back. This time she did pay the fare, ₤600. It is also said she would sit in a Sydney bank smoking cigarettes under a sign reading "Gentlemen will refrain from smoking".
She was well-educated and spent a lot of time in the reading books, until finally being banned in the late 1950s. She was also regularly seen standing on street corners with a sign offering to quote verses from for between sixpence and three shillings. Bea's writings are in the state library, some in her own handwriting. They are: Dictionary by a Bitch, I Go on a Wild Goose Chase, I Leave in a Hurry, For We Are Young and Free, Notes on Sydney Monument and Advance Australia Fair. Fiercely patriotic, at twelve years old she wore a 'No Conscription' badge to school during the referendum in World War I. In another incident Bea was disgusted when she was severely marked down for an essay about Gallipoli, which she described as a 'strategical blunder', rather than 'a wonderful war effort'.
As she was a well-known figure in Sydney society, in 1961 a portrait of her was entered in the , while in 1983 a musical based on her life, Better known as Bee was first performed in 1984. The novel Lilian's Story by was loosely based on her life. It was turned into a movie in 1995 starring and in the title role.
When ill health started to catch up with her, she finally stopped living on the streets, spending the last nine years of her life in the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged in . She supposedly told the sisters, she had 'no allergies that I know of, one complex, no delusions, two inhibitions, no neuroses, three phobias, no superstitions and no frustrations'.
References
- ^ Martin, A. W. . . . Retrieved 2010-05-06.
- Blundell, Nina. 'The Life of Bea Miles'. 2002.
- Blundell, Nina. 'The Life of Bee Miles'. 2002. By Nina Blundell
- Grenville, Kate. . . Retrieved 2010-05-06.
- . . Retrieved 2010-05-06.
"Godz" Take a parachute in your hand luggage and "hit the silk" as you pass over your house.
That'll save all that angst.
Last edited by beer4life; 03-05-13 at 08:25 PM.
Tasman (08-05-13)
whats b miles doing in this thread, she was never a taxi driver, but the scourge of them, sat and drank a bottle of plonk with her at central station around 1955, i found her to be ok.
beer4life (03-05-13)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks