skymaxicabs73
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Airport taxis are hell - but here's why the proposed fare cap in Sydney won't fix the problem
The government is hatching a plan to stop taxis ripping off airport customers. But here's why the plan is seriously flawed.Visit for more information Airport transfer Sydney
It was 8AM on a weekday morning, and I’d just dragged myself off a 15-hour flight from Los Angeles and slumped myself into a taxi at Sydney airport, which then drove me the 20 minutes to my apartment in Marrickville.
Gloopy-eyed, jetlagged, and probably smelling like those hideous plasticine sausages that every airline serves for breakfast, I leant over to pay for my ride.
Sevently. Six. Dollars. And. Forty. Cents. For a journey of five kilometres, that usually costs me between $25 and $35 if I use an Uber - even at the busiest times of day.
I tried to protest but the driver’s reply was infuriating - and largely impossible to argue with. “The meter did it!” he lied, gesturing vaguely towards a bunch of impenetrable neon numbers on his dashboard. “It did it by itself and there’s nothing I can do about it.” Tired, annoyed but with all the fight sucked out of me from half a day crumpled into an economy class seat, I let it go and stomped into my house.
I’m far from the only person who has experienced shifty taxi behaviour at the airport (check out this guy who reckons he was scammed four times), but now it seems like the state regulator is finally starting to recognise - and respond - to this soul-sucking problem.
According to news.com.au The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal has urged the NSW government to cap taxi trips between Sydney Airport and the CBD - limiting the fare to a maximum of $60 for regular taxis and $80 for maxi taxis.
Sounds great in theory. Full of holes when you really think about it.
First, these price caps (if they are enacted) will only apply to fares heading to the 2000 postcode - eg. the very centre of Sydney. My 2204 Marrickville postcode - though closer to the airport than the CBD - may still let taxi drivers wriggle out of any fare cap.
Here’s another issue. Whatever the rules, taxi drivers simply don’t like short trips. A friend of mine also lives quite close to the airport, and reports that she is regularly yelled at by irate taxi drivers who are annoyed that she is requesting such a brief ride, denying them a lengthy fare. Presumably, this arbitrary $60 cap won’t help them dial back the tantrums on other, shorter, rides.
And here’s yet another way this new cap could be subject to abuse. Not all fees to the city should cost as much as $60, particularly at slower times of the day. Yet if taxi drivers are allowed to apply a $60 cap, it’s a pretty safe bet that they will make sure they charge that full $60, no matter what.
In fairness, taxis have drawn a short straw in the ongoing battle between ride sharing services, especially at the airport. An Uber driver once explained to me that he loves airport fares, because he and his Uber colleagues can sit on a side street near the airport and simply accept a fare when it comes in, if they like the look of it. They can get coffee and snacks while they wait. They can accept other, non-airport bookings if they seem worthwhile. “I like the short fares as well - it’s more lucrative for us to do multiple short fares than one long one,” he explained.
Taxis, on the other hand, have no choice but to sit in the queue at the airport waiting for a fare - and then they must accept that trip no matter how long or short it is. Sometimes, they might be sitting there for hours. And they have already paid $4.10 to enter the airport, so if they decide they’ve had enough of waiting they will have to forfeit that fee.
In other words, it would seem that in the Year Of Our Lord 2025, taxis, airports and plane passengers are a messy mix, no matter what milquetoast band-aid solutions the state government decides to apply.
That means, for me, I’ll be sticking to my Ubers. Sorry about the plasticine sausage smell, guys.