Black Cabs

[Miss Demeanour]

I have had a couple of occasions recently where I have needed to get a black cab.

Now after all the fuss they keep making about the threat of Uber and unlicensed cabs etc etc etc you would imagine they would be trying to up their game in terms of customer service.

Not a chance !!

First and foremost whenever you are going has got to tie in with their needs. When we got a black cab from the airport the geezer was most put out because we didn't want to go into town and he considered it a 'local ' fare ...even though it still cost nearly 50 quid to get us home in rush hour !!

last night I got one from work to do a works even across town. So he starts off by babbling on about he was just going to go home. Surely you don't pick up the fare then. then he starts whinging on about how much it  costs to maintain his cab. Then he went down a road that was blocked off / under diversions that he was completely unaware of and this was 5 minutes away from where we were.

Whinged and moaned about it all.

I ended up asking him when the last time was that he had gone on any customer awareness training ?? 

he said I could get out if i wanted to - so I did 

[Barman]

I have had a couple of occasions recently where I have needed to get a black cab.

Now after all the fuss they keep making about the threat of Uber and unlicensed cabs etc etc etc you would imagine they would be trying to up their game in terms of customer service.

Not a chance !!

First and foremost whenever you are going has got to tie in with their needs. When we got a black cab from the airport the geezer was most put out because we didn't want to go into town and he considered it a 'local ' fare ...even though it still cost nearly 50 quid to get us home in rush hour !!

last night I got one from work to do a works even across town. So he starts off by babbling on about he was just going to go home. Surely you don't pick up the fare then. then he starts whinging on about how much it  costs to maintain his cab. Then he went down a road that was blocked off / under diversions that he was completely unaware of and this was 5 minutes away from where we were.

Whinged and moaned about it all.

I ended up asking him when the last time was that he had gone on any customer awareness training ?? 

he said I could get out if i wanted to - so I did 

Well done! 

The cab drivers have left a huge own goal thanks to their greed...

They could have created their own navigation app based on their millions of journeys that learnt all of their little back doubles, etc. That would have done away for the need to do the ridiculous 'Knowledge' but they could still have controlled it and made it available only to licenced drivers. They could have grown that into an 'Uber' type app. They could have had all their cabs 'talking' to each other and sharing route information, delays, etc. They would have created a product that nobody else could realistically compete with...

But no, instead they stick with the 'Knowledge' and their outdated 'not South of the river Guv' practices while trying to reduce the tidal wave of competition with complaints and protests...

[Steve]

Not good is it, that "I'll only take the fare if it's on my route home" line is a real pisser but it's not unknown after 11 in London.  And when do you most want a cab in London . . .

Strangest one I had was picked up a cab at Preston station to take me to a hotel near BAe Warton.  After about 10 minutes of him phoning his mates to see if they knew where the hotel was (FFS!) he asks me if I'd even been to Mecca.  Biting back to temptation to say "why do you need directions there too?" I merely said "no".  Which brought the question "why not". 

Now maybe I should have said "well I got into this taxi to go there but he didn't know the route" but stupidly I said "because it's a barred city for non muslims" and it all went downhill with him asking "why aren't you a muslim" etc    Luckily I did not disclose that I was going to a meeting to discuss how those aircraft that amongst other things bomb the shit out of certain muslims could be made even more effective (at the other things obviously  )

Lesson learnt:   if you're in a cab and it gets strange pretend to be Latvian and have no English (this may not be the best plan if you're in Latvia.

[Darwins Selection]

What is a cab?

[Steve]

What is a cab?

What your man drives when he's moonlighting.  The more modern ones look like this

[Darwins Selection]

What is a cab?

What your man drives when he's moonlighting.  The more modern ones look like this

[Miss Demeanour]

Well done! 

The cab drivers have left a huge own goal thanks to their greed...

They could have created their own navigation app based on their millions of journeys that learnt all of their little back doubles, etc. That would have done away for the need to do the ridiculous 'Knowledge' but they could still have controlled it and made it available only to licenced drivers. They could have grown that into an 'Uber' type app. They could have had all their cabs 'talking' to each other and sharing route information, delays, etc. They would have created a product that nobody else could realistically compete with...

But no, instead they stick with the 'Knowledge' and their outdated 'not South of the river Guv' practices while trying to reduce the tidal wave of competition with complaints and protests...

 

And all this blarney about how much safer they are ...that's because they crawl along and let every other bugger out in front of them