the Price of a Taxi Ride to the Airport

I paid $38 for the fair plus $6 for the tip to go from my home in the downtown area of my city to the airport which is approximately 13 miles away.

The quality of the service was barely satisfactory in that the driver arrived nearly fifteen minutes late. Once present, however, he was courteous and took the most direct route to the airport. The taxi cabs in my city are notorious for telling all first time callers that the cab will arrive in "thirty minutes" regardless of the drivers' work load or road conditions. In my case, when the original estimated arrival time passed, I had to call in to the dispatch center to learn the real estimated time of arrival. The dispatcher skirted the issue, not specifying any number of minutes, saying only that the driver was "in route". The thing is, while you are waiting you cannot tell if the driver is merely running late or whether there has been a mix-up and the driver is, perhaps, not coming at all. That seems to be a cab company operating policy issue and not a driver-specific issue.

Look into other forms of transportation because, as in my city, there is a city bus that drives to the airport for about $3. It may seem like a long time to be on a bus because it takes a circuitous route, but you may end up spending at least that amount of time using a taxi cab when you factor in the waiting time along with the taxi cab ride. If your city is one in which you cannot hail a cab on the streets and must call a dispatch office, be sure to budget in at least thirty extra minutes if there is somewhere you must be on time. If the driver runs late it may not be a huge problem, but if the driver is already late and it turns out that he or she cannot pick up your call, there is the potential that you could be stuck without a ride. For example, the dispatcher may say they have no record of your call or that there has been a mistake and they will send dispatch another driver. The problem with this is that you are, basically, beginning the whole waiting process all over again. Also, be very clear about your address and have the dispatcher repeat it back to you. The cab companies here are notorious for sending cabs to the wrong address either because the lettered streets are not clear (like the difference between B Street and D Street) and they drop of the final digits in house numbers.