Anyone else REALLY sick of Chicago cab drivers?
 

I don't have a car, so I probably use cabs (and the CTA for that matter) more than most people, and I am really getting tired of these clowns.

[Begin rant]

They are ALWAYS on the phone. ALWAYS. That is just unsafe - I don't care if they have a hands-free or not. And so many of these guys are such bad drivers already. I don't even mind the aggressive ones - I'm all for getting where I need to go quickly. But, I mean some of these guys seem to barely have a basic understanding of the operation of a car.

Secondly, they almost NEVER get out of the cab to help you with luggage if you have any.

Third, the cars are dirty and they smell. Do some of these guys LIVE in their cars? How much does an air freshener cost? 99 cents?

Fourth, I know the quickest way to get to my house. Don't argue with me and try and take me a different direction or a different exit off the freeway. Even if my way IS longer, that's the way I WANT TO GO - so take me there. If I want to know your opinion on the fastest route, I will ask for it.

Fifth, keep your gas tank filled up you cheap ........ And if you don't have enough gas to get me where I need to go, tell me that FIRST so I don't have to accompany you to the gas station - I don't have time for that!

Lastly, they're just plain rude. TWICE recently, I had some jerk drive me from ORD to the West Loop. Both times they were on the phone, talking loudly, the ENTIRE trip. I gave him a $2 tip (he was lucky to get that) and he got pissed off that I didn't give 'em more. What are we tipping these guys for again?

[End rant]

I agree about the phone - but I cut them a break because I know that they work a lot of hours and are disconnected from their families. If you don't want them on the phone, the passenger rights listed on the back of the front seat give you the right to tell them to get off the phone - so just tell them.

I have never had one not get out of the cab to help with luggage - but usually I don't want their help - just open the trunk.

Other than a little attitude once or twice, they always take the way home that I direct them to (live on the north side, right off of Lake Shore Drive).

Tipping - that is your perogative and if they get upset, so be it. A tip is never guaranteed.

They are annoying; fortunately that's been my experience with taxi drivers in all major U.S. cities so at least it's not just a Chicago thing.

I suspect it will be a while before we get educated taxi drivers like Singapore. :)

and report them.

Most consumers I know rant but never actually do anything concrete about it. As a result the person(s) with the problems (cabbies in this case) never get the feedback/correction that they should have.

FWIW, I have only had two very negative experiences in 12 years of taking many cabs in Chicagoland or to/from ORD.

--

I''ve had some very helpful cabbies, i.e., helping me with my luggage and waiting (with the meter running) for me to run up to the office and get my mail. Flash cab is best.

As for the phone, it's hard to conduct business on a cellphone with someone rambling in a foreign language or listening to reggae music in the background. I've had clients ask me "Where the hell are you?" while I'm on the phone. Now I tell the cabbies to turn down the radio and be quiet when I have to make a call.

Steve

I also have had only a couple of serious problems, but they ARE always on the phone, usually handheld.

I usually take cabs to the South Side, so they have no choice but to follow my directions.

:)

My biggest gripe is that they never take your credit card. I only ask when I am coming from the airport (i.e., when the ride will be $40ish, not $10ish) and they always say yes (because they have to) and yet somehow the machine never seems to work when we get to my place. :rolleyes:

I was always in the habit of asking as soon as I got in the car if the driver knew the route or if I should direct him, so I never really ran into that issue.

Most of them have been helpful with luggage, but then I am a smallish looking girl, so that may be why.

Some of them have been really really wonderful. Most have been so-so. I've only run into a few awful ones.

I guess I've just been on a cold streak with these guys lately.

I AM going to start telling them to hang up the phone though - that is a safety issue.

So how much do you tip these guys anyways? I usually will give up to $5 for an airport run if they are polite and I'm chatting with them, but obviously less if they're on the phone the whole time. For short rides around town I usually just add a $1 and change to the fare. Is that about right?

I usually give a few bucks tip, often it's determined by the cab fare. For example...$7.50 cab fare, I leave a $10. $11.15 cab fare...probably will give $13.

I have a friend who, when she gets into the cab, if the driver is on the phone, asks him to hang up. If he doesn't, she gets out. If he gets on the phone while driving, she asks him to hang up. If he doesn't, she asks him to pull over, pays and gets out. Granted, this is all "in town" driving, so that she'll be able to get another cab. I've been with her and seen this happen, so it's not just something that she talks about.

I always use Niles cab and stay away from the city cabs. Call when you get off the plane and they will pick you up.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/niles-flash-...ociation-niles

Will they pick-up/drop off in the city? :confused:

Yes, I live in Jefferson Park on the NW side. I just called them and there is no extra charge to Downtown.

Against the law!!??
 

Wait a minute! Didn't Chicago pass a law that you could not use hand held cell phones within the city limits? I thought you could only use speaker phones.

And isn't the Kennedy Expressway considered part of the Chicago Corridor all the way to O'Hare?

If so, this is a legal issue.

Are you close to the Niles border? They might think you live in Niles. It's not legal for any cab other then a city cab to take a ride that begins and ends in the city, including the airport.

The Kennedy/190 is not quite entirely in Chicago, but mostly is.

The cell phone law just isn't well enforced.

In Chicago you can only talk hands free. ORD is indeed part of the city, so is most of the Kennedy expressway (I-190/I-90) from the airport (part in Rosemont). So, yes it is a legal issue, but is rarely enforced by cops.

Well, then.... Da Mayor is obviously missing a great revenue opportunity!

He doesn't care about the nickel and dime stuff. Next, he's gonna lease Midway, then the parking meters.

Cabbies ignore every other traffic law. I wouldn't expect the hand-held phone ban to be treated differently.

This is illegal. Suburban taxis aren't allowed to collect fares in the city and then deposit them in the city limits.

That aside, I have had good luck with the Chicago Carriage cab folks - the maroon ones. They are always timely when I call and always get my rollaboard into and out of the trunk.

I usually give the cabby the cue he's getting my bag out for me by transacting business outside the cab - he gets paid in back by the trunk unless I want to hassle with the credit card. I did the credit card thing for a while but it completely messes with my expense reports so I just stopped doing it and carry cash for it and besides it saves the whole hassle of "the machine is broken".

Could someone explain to me the rationale behind this completely inane law?

Besides politicians getting paid off by city cab companies, of course.

Well last night: same story.

Got in a cab at ORD. Naturally, the cab driver did not get out to help me with my bag - just popped the trunk.

As we pulled out he immediately gets on the phone. I asked him to please hang up. He told me he was talking to dispatch (yeah, right :rolleyes: ).

Told him my address and which exit off the Kennedy and he said he knew where to go.
Of course, he is about to blow by my exit before I remind him where I'm going and he swerves across two lanes to quickly get off the Kennedy. Naturally he had no idea where to go after that so I had to walk him through it. I thought you said you knew where to go??? :td:

I tipped him $2.

:td:

What is inane about it? It's the law in pretty much any major city. Without it, why would any cab register in the city? They'd just all register in whatever suburb is cheap and the city would have no regulation powers whatsoever.

At least some of the suburbs have similar rules, though they generally allow the alliance companies like 303 and American to register some cabs but use them all. I know for a fact that American registers its cabs in numerous cities for that reason.

Loved the cabbie I had who didn't know how to get to Ontario from LSD. He didn't have a license posted but was driving a regular cab. On the other hand, we were doing 70mph and I got there about 5 minutes faster than normal^.

I had a similar problem a year or two ago. Heading from ORD over to Wallgreens corp offices. Once we finally got there went to give him the cc and he said that he couldn't take it. I reminded him that legally he was supposed to. He decides he wants to argue with me, something that isn't wise to do especially when I know I am right. Also he goes on to tell me that the machine is broken. That really set me off! I tell him that he better fix the machine otherwise he has two options I call the police (non emergency number) or he doesn't get paid. I also tell him that I know for a fact that he can do the card payment old school style taking an imprint of my card. After giving him the options he decides to back off and do an imprint of the card. I would have paid cash but I wasn't expecting on taking a cab and was expecting to be picked up from ORD. Now I avoid at all costs taking cabs. This isn't the only problem I've had with cabs. I've had a few try to take me the long way and milk me for the money. Again not a good idea because I have no problems with only paying part of the fare and walking away.

Which part of the Kennedy/190 is not in the city limits?

This is my pet peeve regarding all (most) cab companies in the US - their conveyances are filthy and nasty. They just don't have the same standards of professionalism and cleanliness that their counterparts in say, Dubai or Singapore have.

As for talking on the phone, I just ask them to get off it asap or I won't pay my fare. ne time, the guy ignored me so I pulled out my phone and began shouting loudly and swearing into it in a language the cabbie understood. That did the trick :D

Oh, the other thing I like doing is taking the cab from the airport to nearby hotels. They love that.

Chicago should modernize the cab fleets... perhaps common cars and not stuff from the used car lot.

What about taking the mayor's love for all things green and painting all cabs green (a nice version), like nyc's yellow. Some of these cars look so, well, ick!!

If the city's map of ward 41 can be trusted, between the river (ie right after the 90/190 split) and the railroad tracks just before Mannheim is out of the city. Pretty sure that'd be in Rosemount (eg at the River Road exit).

I travel almost weekly to O'Hare very early Monday morning. I used to use Yellow Cab, but changed to Dispatch recently. IMO, Dispatch has better service.

I've tried to report cabbies twice, once via phone, and another time online. In both instances, a few days later I received a blank form in the mail asking me to describe the issue, even though I had provided all the details previously.

It wasn't worth the additional effort to give them the information a second time.

Yes. Just take the El now.

Depends on whether the purpose of a business is to actually serve the customer or just cater to the the whims of a municipality or the business itself by jacking up costs and restricting competition and providing a source of funds to bribe politicians.

I prefer to cater to customers; guess I'm just funny that way.

Same reason unions suck.

The last time I took the El in from the airport, I nearly tossed my cookies. :(:(
It was 50 minutes of being jolted from side to side. I kept sticking my head out the doors to get some fresh air and calm the nausea. Da Mayor really needs to do something about those tracks.:td:

Every now and then, I'll grab a cab at Union Station to go north of the River.

My most recent outing was in a god-awful stench of a cab, driven by a guy who spent the entire drive whispering into his Bluetooth device in god knows what language. I was attending a meeting at the Four Seasons. Delaware Street was blocked off just west of the hotel and it was clear that he had no idea how to work his way around the detour and get to the hotel (here's a hint: If Rush Street is one way northbound, going west on Walton from Michigan isn't going to help). He ran at least two red lights when he got messed up and I bailed on him at Rush and Walton when it was clear that the ride was going to involve trial and error for 15 minutes. He got the exact meter for being an idiot.

For a brief while, it actually appeared that the City cared about the taxi system and customer service. That seems to have gone away in favor of doling out hack licenses to anyone with the cash to spare, regardless of language, driving, or navigation ability.

NYC taxis are a notch better, but not by much. I've had a few winners there too (like the guy who was determined to go down a street that the NYPD had blocked off and almost got his window busted in by the cop).

I've been to London a number of times. They have the absolute best cabbies. These guys put out serious money for the business and can lose it all in a moment. They are tested regularly and their cabs are gone over with a fine tooth comb. The fares are not cheap, but I would pay for a clean, safe, stress-free experience in the Loop.

I had a guy in Brussels not pull the flag when we left a train station. When we got to the hotel -- surprise! The meter showed about double what it was going to the train station in rush hour. And his command of English was suddenly non-existent. I had the night manager at the hotel speak with him and got the fare reduced.

So cabbies can be bad just about anywhere.

When was your last time? Those tracks have been getting a complete overhaul starting last summer.

I've been in Chicago for business for the last week and I haven't had many problems with cabs.

One problem I have had (and I might have this everywhere) is that they cheat you when you're from out of town. For instance:

Last night heading from my hotel near the Hancock Building to a restaurant on the Westside (outside of the loop) near the L....

Getting there: $15
Getting back: $11

Hmm....someone took the long way.....:rolleyes:

The second, is the credit card issue. I don't like carrying cash and I know that cabbies have to take it. So if I know the cab ride should be $10 or more I ask them if their machine is working. If they say no I wait until the next cab comes by. If they say yes, but "suddenly" it malfunctions at the destination I give them the option of figuring out how to make it work or having just given me a free ride....Amazing how quickly they get the machine working again....

That's not a huge difference, sure you were cheated? Was the traffic heavier when you were heading over and it was still rush hour?