London Banter - View Single Post

Roland Perry · October 7th 15, 09:03 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In message , at 01:40:23
on Wed, 7 Oct 2015, remarked:
I enquired about booking cab from the office to the station one day
and when I got told it would be 18 quid for a 6 mile journey. I
politely declined

I was expecting pre-booking to offer a discount, not in Cambridge it
seems

Where from? Must have been outside the city.

I think he means he expected a discount because of booking ahead at all.

But that displays a misunderstanding not just of the charging scheme in
Cambridge, but the way most taxi firms handle bookings. All that booking
ahead usually does is cause the cab office to put your details on a bit
of paper, and then send out the same call they would, had you just
phoned for a "car now", at some predetermined time before the pickup.

The only real advantage is the cab office has a degree of insight into
how long before the requested pick-up time they should put the booking
out for bids from the drivers. The passenger might leave it a bit late
to phone for a ride "now" thinking it can't be more than five minutes,
when in fact it's bound to take fifteen to get a car to them.
--
Roland Perry