Price Gouging Taxi's in Mayo - be careful.

6541

50 Euro from Westport to Castlebar last Friday night. That is a total distance of 18 K, on Google 16 minute drive. This equals Euro 3.20 a minute or 187 Euro an hour.

peter4918

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058327264/price-gouging-taxis-in-mayo-be-careful

How many in taxi, did you pre-book?

Atlantic Dawn

What did the meter read, did you get a receipt?

6541

2 in the Taxi and he didn't put meter on.

irishgeo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121532882#Comment_121532882

The TII fare calculator with 2 people and a general westport to Castlebar entry and a premium rate gives you a estimated fare of 40 to 49.40 so it's not wildly out to say 50 euro.

You can enter in the precise details of your journey details yourself.

You could have asked for the meter to be turned on.

KevRossi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058327264/price-gouging-taxis-in-mayo-be-careful

Yes, and in the exact spot where he dropped you off there was somebody who wanted to go straight back to Westport.

Or, in reality they drove back empty to Westport to look for fares on one of the busiest weekends of the year, as opposed to other nights when they sit around doing nothing.

And you have to take into consideration fuel, insurance, upkeep on the car etc. etc.

6541

50 Euro Westport to Castlebar cannot be justified.

baldbear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121565799#Comment_121565799

Everything is pricey now . It's a pain.

Did you ask about the meter not been on? You could have asked in the taxi how much the price would be.

Premium prices would have been charged for that date according to the taxi fare website.

No point cribbing now.

Quitelife

Might be a bit on the high end but with Insurance in particular & all the other costs its hard get a taxi in rural Ireland these days as many have given up due to it been unviable

6541

50 yo yo to Castlebar is mental.

artanevilla

Do you think you were overcharged in that someone taking the exact same journey would be charged a lower amount? Have you made this journey a number of times before to compare?

Or do you think in your own opinion that 50 euro is too expensive for a taxi journey of this length?

If the former is the case, how much is this journey supposed to cost?

If the latter is the case, how much to you believe it should cost?

6541

Yes - I was overcharged.

A journey by a Castlebar based operator should be about 30 Euro's.

The taxi is based out of Castlebar. The guy is clearly gouging.

Kimbot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121566483#Comment_121566483

According to the fare calculator you were charged in and around the correct price. It doesnt matter where they are based from, if you think you can do a better job for cheaper then by all means go and setup your own company and charge people 30 quid for that trip and see how long you stay in business.

6541

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121566521#Comment_121566521

Have you some affiliation to Taxi's in Mayo ?

Kimbot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121566550#Comment_121566550

No I dont.

6541

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121566559#Comment_121566559

You must like overpaying so.

AyeGer

I remember about 20 years ago taxis in Letterkenny used to charge double fare on St Stephen’s Day. I got badly stung as I had no idea that was a thing.

Would your €50 charge be something similar op?

This is it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121566719#Comment_121566719

You must like over paying if you didn't ask the fare beforehand, or ask for the meter to be turned on. Hopefully you've learned your lesson 🙃

6541

i don't think so. Everybody is giving out about Taxi's now. So many rouge operators, no standards and just made up fares.

This is it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121566747#Comment_121566747

Yep, asking the fare beforehand, or for the meter to be turned on will sort that out 👍

crusd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121566719#Comment_121566719

https://www.transportforireland.ie/fares/taxi-fares/

You can check were you overcharged if you like

JVince

Did similar last May on a Saturday morning and cost from Westport to castlebar Golf club was €42 for 2 of us and clubs.

Thought it was about right.

We gave him €50 as his service was excellent and gave us a couple of tips on tricky holes.

Taxis are expensive, but the costs are high too.

6541

Website results are in ... I was gouged. Be careful of Mayo Taxi Drivers.

6541

And the 50 Yo Yo was with his meter off ...

Atlantic Dawn

Just to confirm it was an actual taxi with a plate on the roof?

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121566796#Comment_121566796

Estimated fare 36-45. You got charged 50. You call that gouging?

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121566796#Comment_121566796

Taxis are just expensive, that's the way it's been for the past 10 years nearly.

The prices went up in line with fuel costs, but sure now most of them have EVs so they're making much more per trip.

We nominate someone to be the designated driver and pay for their zero drinks for the night. It's cheaper than a taxi and they get a free night out and no hangover

notthereyet

At least you got a taxi, out the road in claremorris there is no such lugsurery as a taxi,you should diffitnetly have pencilled in 50 quid for a taxi on to your night out over Christmas from westport to castlebar, it's a lot of Money plus a few drinks and maybe something to eat it's costly to go out in ireland nowadays ,takeaway and a few cans is the alternative I am afraid for a lot of us.

callaway92

Lads will ye come off it. €50 is an absolute joke; and there's even that new road now too behind Abbvie too which is a good road. Whether it's gouging or not by the taxi is debatable; but if it is industry standard, then Uber (proper Uber and not the watered down one) needs to wipe the industry here up.

We were at a gig recently in Castlebar (stayed in Westport), and the drive was a breeze in there on a peak night. It's as straight forward as a drive gets. €50 is a robbery.

For what it's worth, the TFI website says Abbvie to Castlebar Train Station is estimated €37-€45.80. I'm not sure what the exact destinations the OP was, but hypothetically, if the OP was 10% over the top end of the predicted amounts, then of course it's a rip off.

EDIT:

Hotel Westport to TF Royal Hotel in Castlebar for 3 over 18s at peak time is estimated €35 to €43.40

OP def in an extremely high charged bracket.

Big Gerry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121566800#Comment_121566800

Without the meter on the Taximan can just made up whatever price he wants.

Kimbot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121566796#Comment_121566796

Well then I guess you can put a complaint in with the taxi regulator if you still think you were overcharged and see if they agree.

AndrewJRenko

Did you get a receipt OP?

HBC08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121566483#Comment_121566483

Unfortunately prices (taxis or otherwise) are not calculated by what you think they should be.

Last time I did that journey was during the recession and it was €40.It was also easier to get a taxi then,you were lucky to get one.

There's a bus that runs every 30mins aswell.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121566800#Comment_121566800

You failed to ask for the meter to be turned on and you failed to agree a price before hand.

So you were totally reliant on the driver setting the price.

My home place is about 5 miles outside Castlebar, a metered fare from the top of Main Street out to there at 1am on a Bank Holiday Saturday night/Sunday morning cost me €20 recently.

It's not a stretch to think that a journey from (somewhere in or around) Castlebar to (somewhere in or around) Westport would be €50.

Roughly where in each town were you coming from and going to?

flatty

I told my young lad to always get a price first. It's usually twenty euro for him to get 5 miles home at night (Galway, no traffic). He hopped in one a few weeks back. How much? 40 euro.

He hopped out again and got in the one behind.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121567203#Comment_121567203

Rural galway here too. To get 5 miles away costs me about 30 quid, but the taxi has to come to me.

6541

Taxi's drivers are taking the absolute p**s.

If you do the math some of them are charging prices of Medical Consultants.

Please, please minister for transport bring in Uber.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121569837#Comment_121569837

Prices have increased by over 15% in the last 5 years, while a large amount of cost for taxi drivers has decreased as they moved to EV.

6541

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121569884#Comment_121569884

how about we as a nation actually grow a pair and actually fix a problem.

How come in other countries they have a taxi system that has rules, is inexpensive and works. However in little ole Ireland we just accept overcharged, tax avoiding garbage ?

kerryjack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121569940#Comment_121569940

Ya your right,we had a few privateers around these parts that were great, one young student lad who didn't drink would make a few quid for himself weekends and be out and about but somebody turned him in to revenue, local garda used not bother with him but revenue are a different story. Stoped doing it anyway. Its still a great little curtain twitching country.

artanevilla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121569940#Comment_121569940

What other countries is this? My own guess is you have extremely limited knowledge of how taxis work in other countries, other than maybe getting cheap fare on holiday in a country that costs are fractions of what costs are here. It seems your knowledge of the taxi industry here is limited also as you've said that the taxi should have cost 30 euro despite several posters demonstrating using the actual pricing structure (which is in law) that that is not the case.

In Ireland the Taxi industry is EXTREMELY regulated to the point where we have a massive shortage of taxi drivers due to the prohibitive nature of both getting set up and the costs involved.

And when you say we in little ole Ireland you mean you? You are the one who got into a taxi without agreeing a price or asking for the meter to be put on and accepted the the "overcharged, tax avoiding garbage". And then come in complaining that the whole taxi industry in Mayo is price gouging because of your one experience of one driver in a very particular circumstance.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121570039#Comment_121570039

I'd wager the OP has never been to Naples in Italy where the taxi meter is actually a pseudo random number generator.

artanevilla

Or Moscow where they just have a mad app on their phone that calculates the fare using whatever parameters they want.

jacool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121566782#Comment_121566782

The fact that you got him to caddy as well means you got a right old bargain!

irishgeo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058327264/price-gouging-taxis-in-mayo-be-careful

You failed to follow all the rules and it's the taxi driver who is at fault.

You didn't request a meter fare.

You failed to agree a price before you started out.

I'm not sure if the taxi driver had the meter on as required.

The fare calculator put its roughly around the same price as you paid.

Its your fault but you are trying to blame the taxi.

It was nice of you to give him a 10 euro tip.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121570013#Comment_121570013

So you're a big fan of uninsured drivers then?

Trigger Happy

Thread should be renamed - "I did not agree a Taxi fare or use the meter and got surprised at the random fare the taxi driver charged me"

HBC08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121569940#Comment_121569940

There's a bus company that runs a fleet of buses between Castlebar and Westport at weekends and holiday periods (like when you were there) it runs every half hour til 5am.

If you can't understand or afford the price of a 45km round trip taxi journey at Christmas it's perfect for you.

Its very unusual to have those kind of transport options in rural Ireland. Most places you wouldn't get a bus or taxi for any price.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121570850#Comment_121570850

Thread should be renamed - "I did not agree a Taxi fare or use the meter and got surprised at the random fare the taxi driver charged me" - on arguably the most expensive night of the year to get a taxi

FYP.

6541

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121571134#Comment_121571134

it's 17.8 K trip for 50 Euro.

This is it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121571354#Comment_121571354

Did you ask the price beforehand or for the meter to be put on?