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[rgeczi]

Most of you guys who've been here for a while know this already, but for all you Hefei newbies, this post is for you.

Whenever you take a taxi in Hefei, add 2RMB to the metered price.  This was done a little while back to counter the higher fuel costs.  In the next 3 months or so, they will be revising this temporary setup and then the fare will include it.  But for now, yeah, add 2RMB to the metered price.

I was reading about how they setup a review of this practice due to some foreigners not knowing the reason for the added 2RMB.  So I hope my post clears things up a bit for you newbies. 

[Aussie Mike]

Except for the Black taxies which have an 8 rmb flagfall. They charge 1 rmb extra.

Another thing is they will round to the nearest whole kuai, eg, 9.40 goes to 9 but 9.50 goes to 10. Many drivers will try to round up from 9.10 then add the extra 2 kuai so they get 3 extra.

[Andy72]

i must say that i have met mostly very honest taxi drivers, always rounding in a honest way..

only once i got extremely angry when a driver picked up other people on the way to the station: no problem for that but then, they got up when the meter was at 10, at the station it was 40, so i said i pay 10 plus 30/2, and they pay 30/2 but the driver wanted 40 from me and 30 from them..

they paid 30 i threw at him 30 as well and refused to pay more.. got my stuff and left even if he kept saying stuff to my back..

[luiz_iniciante]

I think that in the case of a shared taxi the law (at least in Beijing) states that each person pay 60% of the total fare. I don't know what happens though if the meter is already running when others are picked up. I think the important thing is to negotiate the price before you set off, rather than when you arrive.

[Aussie Mike]

Instead of arguing, make a show of you writing down their numbers. If serious, I'll use my phone to photograph his license ID. They don't want to argue after that.

One day I videoed the the driver ranting at me in Chinese. 

[Andy72]

i did not think about that Mike, good idea!
when facing the real law they suddenly get a nice kick back to reality!

the taxi was legit, not pirate, so i was not thinking to negotiate anything.. and anyway my chinese is too basic to try..
i just used common sense, crashing of course with chinese view of reality.. as usual!

[Andy72]

i know about the meter, i am not worried at all (not a newbie, at least not for hefei!!)

and usually i say no, but that time it was clearly people like me in a hurry to get to the railway station and since i live in the "countryside" and i know how difficult it is from here sometimes to get a cab, i felt obliged to welcome them on..

anyway, in general, i also do not want to share!

still, as i said, only one bad feeling in more than 2 years in Hefei and countless taxi rides.. i can't complain!!! 

[luiz_iniciante]

I have no problems with sharing my taxi either. They are scarce in Hefei, and if you are out in the middle of nowhere you are really throwing someone a lifeline by taking them on board.

My real beef with taxis here is that driver, especially at night, is often not the person to whom the car is registered to i.e. not the guy in the photo on the dashboard. There have been times when I have wondered whether the person driving even has a driving license. I remember on one occasion a lady struggling to restart the stalled engine admitting to me that 'really, she was not a good driver at all'. This kind of musical chairs with the taxi doesn't seem to happen in the larger cities like Nanjing or Shanghai, which I put down to tougher law enforcement.

My second complaint is about seatbelts. So far I have witnessed five car accidents in Hefei and three of them involved taxis. Yet no one seems to wear seatbelts, not even the driver. Often the passenger seatbelt so twisted up that it is unusable. And when one can buckle it, it is usually quite dirty, so that one is forced to chose between one's shirt and one's life. If anyone here has any pull with the local government, I would urge them to recommend a seatbelt campaign: billboards, tv ads, fines, etc. to try to raise the level of awareness.

[Andy72]

last night, saturday, around 23 (not that late), i caught my driver falling asleep..
we were on jinzhai lu, highway!
he was driving reasonably slow, still.... i asked my gf to ask him if he was ok and then telling him to drive slow and turn down the window for fresh air!

not the first time sadly i assist to this.. then i get extra alert!

[luiz_iniciante]

On one occasion I was having trouble explaining to the taxi driver (a dialect speaker) where I wanted to go. I happened to have a map on me and brought it out to show him. He waved it away saying, 'Sorry, but I can't see very well.'

[Andy72]

...and then you walked!!!! 

[Aussie Mike]

If you take his ID, you are in strife...
That is a serious offense in any country.

Use your phone and photograph it.

I had a situation where the driver took me a longer way and got upset when I gave him the usual fare. He was threatening so I took his ID out of the carrier and held it next to his face with my phone in my hand and asked him, "Ne yao ma"? The fact that his face did not look anything like the photo, he decided not to argue anymore.

[Joeyhf]

Not much complaints.
I got few times fake money back (50,20,10RMB notes) from driver.
Sometimes taxis are very dirty ,so before get taxi need to check if seats are clean enough.
But never has argued with driver about fares.

[Stevviz]

While I am thinking of it.........for camping or cabin life happiness is Down Booties. Especially in the sleeping bag.

Down Booties are not a warm as a good woman, but they don't snore or hog the blankets.