Originally Posted by
Gongzuokuang
Hong Kong taxi drivers are becoming more obnoxious than normal.
On my last visit (around Christmas / New Years), I found two growing trends.
1) Drivers refusing to accept a fare.
2) Drivers refusing to use the meter.
For example, we were near the TST MTR station and wanted a ride to Knutsford Terrace. We must've had at least 7 taxis IN A ROW refuse to drive us there. In some cases they would pretend not to know where it is. So I produced a map showing it. They would still refuse. So I picked other destinations that were near, such as the Mira Place hotel. They would still refuse, generally without explanation; just a shake of the head and a dismissive wave of the hand.
And often at night, they would not let you into the cab until you told them your destination. They'd then say, $200 (instead of using the meter).
As I understand it, both of these are illegal.
I'm told you can report them. Is it worth the effort? Or does the licensing board just look the other way? Do you need their driver tag, or is the car tag enough?
As long as people tolerate this, it will continue to happen.
You can report them and most taxi drivers don't care because the penalties are too lenient and most complainants will not bother with going along with the full prosecution procedure (e.g. giving statements to police, actually showing up in court as a witness, etc). The police are out there in undercover trying to catch the illegal fares and they catch a bunch of drivers every week, but obviously that hasn't stopped the taxi drivers from ripping off passengers.
Sadly there's not much you can do but in your case, unless you're hauling a lot of things with you, walking is/was the best option.