So there!

Let's see if I get a response to this. I sent it to the taxi directorate and the Govt taxi agency.

Last Friday night, 22 December at about 11.20pm, I left a restaurant in Hardware Lane in Melbourne. There were no available taxis around, so I walked towards the centre of the city to see if there’d be more taxis around S...... St. I was ignored by a couple with their lights on, so I kept walking towards L..... St as I wanted to get home to ...... L.... St was busy, but the only taxis that went past already had passengers. I knew there was a service station on R........ St where some taxis parked, so I headed there.

On the way, a taxi stopped to let out some passengers. I crossed the street to see if he’d take me. I told him where I was going and he said he was there to pick up other passengers. He was obviously lying as he’d only just stopped to drop people off and there was nobody else around.

I thought I’d definitely get a taxi on R...... St. I waved down two available cabs and both refused to pick me up when I told them I was going to ......... By this time, it was almost midnight and starting to rain and the battery on my mobile was going flat. I rang 13.... at 11.55pm and told the woman who answered that I was by myself in the dark, I needed to get home, I’d been refused a ride by available taxis and I needed a taxi urgently. She said there were no available taxis in Carlton and to make other arrangements or call back in half an hour. I said I couldn’t wait that long in the dark, on a street corner, by myself and asked if she understood what I was saying. She just repeated to make other arrangements. If I could have made other arrangements I wouldn’t have needed to call a damn taxi in the first place!!

I didn’t want to wait on a corner in that area, so I kept walking, down the median strip of the road, heading north. It was only due to the kindness of a passenger already in a taxi that I was able to get a taxi. He was near the end of his trip and had the driver pull over to pick me up, before dropping him at his destination. I’m grateful to the driver and the passenger.

I think it’s disgusting that taxi drivers could refuse to pick up a lone female in the middle of the night, in the rain. Where is the customer service and the responsibility to the public? Is picking up a passenger for a quick buck in the city more important than getting someone home safely? ….and perhaps getting a reasonable, grateful tip in the process?

It’s VERY rare that I need to hire a taxi. The last time I hired a random taxi was back in August. He turned out to be unprofessional, a liar and a thief and STOLE $20 from me and got into an argument with my partner.

These are the very reasons taxi drivers have a bad reputation and in my opinion, from my experience, that reputation is appropriate. It’s unfortunate that the types of drivers who either ignored me or refused to pick me up are the same people who are picking up visitors to the city, from the airports etc. What a bad example of our city they’re giving, if that’s their regular attitude towards their job and their passengers!

It will be a long time before I ever give my money to a Melbourne taxi driver again and I’ll be making sure all my friends know of my experience and use other modes of transport whenever they can.