"lost" taxi drivers

J

JP1234

Registered User
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Is this the norm now, that a taxi driver in Dublin would have no clue at all about how to get from A to B?

We spent a weekend in Dublin. On Saturday night, around 10.30 we got in a taxi on Dame Street to take us back to our hotel, Bewleys in Ballsbridge. Taxi driver #1 asked us where to, we told him and he shook his head and said he didn't know where that was! We told him "near the RDS, next to the British Embassy" still, not a clue. His excuse "sorry, I am not from here" ( have to state now he was nigerian by the sound of it) Rather than try to direct him we jumped out of the cab. Taxi #2, more of the same, except at least this one had a sat nav but we jumped out all the same. Only on our third attempt did we get a driver who knew where to go! I could understand if we were going to or from some obscure place or housing estate but from a city centre to a landmark hotel! Do drivers not have to show some basic knowledge of a place to get licenced?

( We never use cabs where we live and on our trips to Dublin we normally use the car so maybe we missed something! - don't pay a bit of notice to the taxi driver issues!)
 
Reading this it would appear that knowledge of the area in which one proposes to operate is not a requirement in the grant of a licence. Crazy but true. Unlike "The knowledge" as required in London.
 
Yep definitely getting more common, one woman I think it must have been her first day, we were travelling from Parnell St to the Burlington and she hadn't a clue.

At every junction / corner I had to tell her where to turn, she also tried to turn into the oncoming traffic on O'Connell bridge as I said "turn right here", luckily, I grabbed the wheel and stopped her.

However, in saying that, I've often had to stop Irish taxi drivers taking me the long way home, I've made some of them stop the meter.
 
I'd an Irish taxi driver last Tuesday I asked him to take me to McKee Avenue in Finglas, he said where's that I'm from the South Side! I thought he meant the road, so I said if you head towards finglas I'll direct you from there its near Superquinn in the village. He said but how do I get to Finglas! So I had to direct him, its shocking!
 
Saw in the Sunday Times that apparently Dublin has far more taxis per head of population than most other Cities including New York, London etc.

Maybe quality, not quantity is what is needed - which is pretty much what deregulation protesters have been saying really.
 
I think that comparison only compares to the total number of "black" cabs in London though. There's far more "Hackney's" in London than there is in Dublin, per capita. I think its a similar case with New York.

There should definitely be more stringent entry requirements though, I've noticed the drop in quality too.
 
JP1234 said:
have to state now he was nigerian by the sound of it
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Fair play to you - able to identify an African's nationality from how he speaks English. Can you identify natives of the other 52 African nations in the same way?
 
From what I gather from my sons, the night taxi drivers are a completly different breed to the day taxi drivers. The night ones don't seem to know where they are going, charge more than they should and go very roundabout ways to get from A to B. My lads often get out of taxis as quickly as they get in if they sense any kind of nonsense from the driver.
 
Often happen at the airport when I hop in & give my destination.... last couple of times I've been asked 'And which way would you like to go'...... invariably I end up giving the instructions .. 'take next left...better off staying in this lane' etc......
 
Graham_07 said:
Reading this it would appear that knowledge of the area in which one proposes to operate is not a requirement in the grant of a licence. Crazy but true. Unlike "The knowledge" as required in London.
Click to expand...

You [broken link removed] need to pass a knowledge test which is run by the carraige office.
 
ClubMan said:
Fair play to you - able to identify an African's nationality from how he speaks English. Can you identify natives of the other 52 African nations in the same way?
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Immigration statistics would suggest the probability of his being correct is very high.
 
ClubMan said:
Fair play to you - able to identify an African's nationality from how he speaks English. Can you identify natives of the other 52 African nations in the same way?
Click to expand...

No, Nigerian is my speciality ( FWIW I was basing my presumption on his accent which sounded exactly like the 4 Nigerian employees where I work.)
 
Caveat said:
Maybe quality, not quantity is what is needed - which is pretty much what deregulation protesters have been saying really.
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Well at least you have an option now! Before deregulation I would have gladly gotten into a taxi who hadn't a clue where to go and guide him myself.

It seems clear to me that this problem will solve itself. Mr X gets in taxi A who does know where to go. Mr X gets out and into taxi B who does. Result taxi A either educates himself or goes out of business. Where's the problem? Also with GPS problems like this will become (almost) irrelevant.
 
My sister and her 4 friends went to Dublin for a night. They were staying in the Red Cow Moran Hotel. They got two taxis from Dublin city centre. Taxi no 2 didn't know the way so taxi 1 told him to follow him. On the way out they were stop at a set of traffic lights taxi no 2 got out of the car and went up to taxi 1 to check if he was going the right way. My sister said she felt like sitting in and driving off in the taxi as she was sick listening to the driver giving out to them as to why they wanted to stay so far out of the city.
I think he put his passengers at risk getting out leaving the engine running at a set of traffic lights. This happened on April 26th last. Mr Bean would do better.
 
Last year in Beijing one of our taxi drivers got out while we were stopped at a set of lights, walked across 4 lanes of stopped traffic, jumped over a wall, relieved himself, jumped back over the wall, walked back across the traffic and got back in . . . all in the time it took for the lights to change.

We had many startled looking Chinese looking at us sitting in the taxi with no driver - this obviously wasn't normal behaviour. It was all a bit bemusing for us, but there wasn't a whole lot we could do. It certainly beat the alternatives which were open to him . . .

z
 

But how many people will actually get out and switch - the examples above suggest that the passenger is putting up with it. I also suspect that they'll get a bit sneakier if this starts to happen - i.e. they'll wait a minute or two before asking directions, at which point the passenger is even less likely to object as they will have to pay something.
 
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