Taxi from Derry - price difference.

mrmac

Heading to Mandarin Palace for a work thing tomorrow night (Friday). I'm getting a lift in, so looking for a taxi back to Letterkenny.

Rang two taxi firms in Letterkenny and quoted 55 euro.
Rang two taxi firms in Derry and quoted 22 pounds!

WTF - where's Eddie Hobbs when you want him!?

greenman09

Used to cost me 35stg from derry to letterkenny. Few years back tho. Prob near 40 now.That was a return as well.

muffler

mrmac wrote: »

Heading to Mandarin Palace for a work thing tomorrow night (Friday). I'm getting a lift in, so looking for a taxi back to Letterkenny.

Rang two taxi firms in Letterkenny and quoted 55 euro.
Rang two taxi firms in Derry and quoted 22 pounds!

WTF - where's Eddie Hobbs when you want him!?

Another fine example of rip off Ireland.

ednwireland

actually is fixed fares and no competition from gov. regulation again. the fares up here doubled after the taxi regulator brought in national fare structure (whose idea was that)
so basically we got dublin taxi prices great - rarley use taxis now as its 10 euro to get 2 miles out of town, drink at home so pubs lost my business as well. another briallantly thought out peice of joined up thinking from our gov.

donegalman1

The regulator has really messed up and effected social lives here, but thats nothing to the rip off merchants who think they can charge anything at night in Letterkenny, especially in Letterkenny if they think you are drunk and then even wait for a tip. Name and shame or start reporting to the reguIator say, they are fond of getting on the radio and crying themselves.

Senna

Many taxis in Letterkenny have stopped using the meter to price runs and will now come to an agreement on price before you set off, this is legal (for the taxis). I would not use any taxi that uses the meter price, unless at 3am outside the pub in the rain:D

Star cabs was one of the first to introduce 5e for all runs around Letterkenny but many more have followed. It sounds like the 55e fair is a meter run and the 22 is an agreed price and in fairness, 22e is not too bad.

mrmac

Got the taxi home last night, with Derry Taxi. Meter was on, came to £22stg, exactly as quoted on the phone when I booked it. Gave the guy £25 as he was bang on time and a sound lad.
If the taxi firms I called in Letterkenny had quoted a price even close to £25, or €30, or even €35, I'd have booked one of them, but €55.
Regulation is good, when it's used to protect and benefit the industry, but when it actually damages the ability to be competitive, questions have to be asked.

I think that may be also true of our economy in general, by trying to improve our standard of living, we increase inflation as prices rise to absorb increased wealth! It's a classic catch 22, however the country has to make some difficult decisions about what to do next!

donegalgirl28

Got quoted a taxi from Letterkenny to Dungloe one way for €60. It was an emergency, thankfully one of my mates offered to give me a lift instead.

When I quoted one of the locals in my area for a return trip, it was €110. I'd rather just stay in a hotel for that price.

babaloushka

donegalgirl28 wrote: »

Got quoted a taxi from Letterkenny to Dungloe one way for €60. It was an emergency, thankfully one of my mates offered to give me a lift instead.

When I quoted one of the locals in my area for a return trip, it was €110. I'd rather just stay in a hotel for that price.

Absolutely agree - and hotels seem to be making some efforts (currently anyway) to offer good deals to overnight revelers. Can't you just imagine a cartoon that would represent the competition between a taxi and a hotel for their custom! I wish I could draw ...