Originally Posted by
jg86
I wouldn't be surprised if taxi drivers are quite keen to get the visa customers when they realise that on average they will most likely be spending more.
Update on the cabbies - they seem to be going backward.
I ordered an Visa Fly Taxi from my girlfriend's place last night. Her's isn't the easiest of places to get a Visa cab, it took me about 7 mins to go through plus another 7 to wait for the cab. Then again, nothing else is really gonna be faster.
The cabbie that took me had taken me home before "you were OTing from XXX co last month, right?". But I don't recognise his cab.
Firstly, he's taken down the "wings" on top of the taxi. I've noticed this on other cabs, the cabbie explained the wings ate up fuel. At first I thought this sounded fair enough, until I noticed the other thing.
More importantly, I realised he's taken down his "We accept Visa" and the red Autotaxi roundel decal. I asked why - surely this made his cab more difficult to identify as a Visa-taking cab? His response "we don't want to offer Visa unless you've pre-ordered it". Now I get it - they only want to accept Visa
when they think its worth their while, like my cross-harbour co to home trips and my $150 girlfriend to home trips. Otherwise (e.g. taxi rank, flag on the street), they want cash like any other cab.
The driver added - "we don't want a 1% impost like the Octopus taxis. If autotaxi imposes it, the Visa card machines will go". I believe this will occur near the end of the year - Dah Sing can't fee-waive the Autotaxi's credit card interchange (merchant fee) indefinitely.
I related the discussion to my girlfriend the next day - "now my dear, won't you be a little less upset if you took one of those 20% discount cabs like I told you to?". I asked her to pass me the number, I better follow up.