I do a lot of running around in cabs here in Taipei, including a fairly regular commute to and from work (afternoons and evenings). I was thinking recently that rather than fork out lots of small amounts to many cab drivers, why don’t I just have a regular driver and pay him a lump sum up-front, say, once a week. I guess I’m currently spending about NT$5,000 a month, and could easily double that if I used cabs as much as I’d actually like to (I don’t have a car or scooter). NT$10,000 per month would have to be a significant proportion of a cab driver’s income, and would seem to suggest there might be a market for this kind of thing.
My questions: Does anyone use, or know of someone else who uses, a regular cab driver in Taipei? What do you (or they) pay them for the service, and how do you calculate the fee? Do you have set times for travel (e.g. a standard commute to and from work), or is your driver “on call”?
Just curious, if all cabs accepted the Easy Card, would that solve your problem? Is payment really the main reason for doing this?
I’m just not sure if you’re spending enough money per month for one guy to remain on call for you. Interesting question, though. It would be cool to say you had your own driver.
I posted a number of a limo service somewhere, maybe you could ask them for a quote. At least it would look much cooler if you drive to / from work in a black limo than a crappy yellow taxi.
[quote=“scomargo”]Just curious, if all cabs accepted the Easy Card, would that solve your problem? Is payment really the main reason for doing this?
I’m just not sure if you’re spending enough money per month for one guy to remain on call for you. Interesting question, though. It would be cool to say you had your own driver. [/quote]
I’m being a tightass… I live the quivalent of a NT$300-350 cab ride from my workplace (a fairly long distance for Taipei), and usually mix-up my weekly commuting with some cab rides and trips on the MRT/bus. Now what I had in mind was tossing-in the MRT/bus altogether, and just take a cab every day. That would cost just a bit much for me over a typical monthly period than I can currently afford (maybe around NT$12-13,000 or so), but if I could get that down to less than NT10,000, then I’d consider it money well spent for all the time and hassle it would save. So my idea was to offer someone the NT$10,000 up front, and see if they would do the job as a regular gig - regular money in the back pocket for them, and a reasonably priced, hassle-free ride for me. Sound like a deal someone would find attractive? I’m not sure, but I regularly hear stories from drivers here that they only bring in about NT$2,000 per day (say about NT$55,000 per month). A sure-fire NT$10,000 would probably be desirable under these circumstances… Just an idea.
I had a cab regularly drive me home from work. The key is to find someone who lives in your area and starts off the day around the time you need to leave for work. That way you’ll be their first client of the day and they don’t need to drive back from where ever they last dropped off their client.
My cab driver lived in the area and just waited for me in front of my building. I regularly spent 250 NT getting home.
I’m sure you could negotiate a slightly lower price if you travel every day.
Another option is to get the the Taiwan Taxi card ( Taiwan Big Taxi group). Their discount card is 100 NT.
Their discount is 10 NT off 100 NT spent. 20 NT off 200 spent. etc.
You get the drift.
So if you spend 350 on a taxi ride, you only pay 320 NT.
Just show them your card at the end of the ride before you pay.
Call: 2192-6688
Call from cell: 55688
You can call them up to have them pick you up from wherever you are. You just need an address.
