Whenever we are getting late to work, we don't hesitate to ride the taxi to the office. It's seems to be a daily habit whenever we know we couldn't make it on time to work.
Being a frequent taxi passenger, I already knew the range of the fare that we should pay the driver that is why i see to it that I have that extra money for the taxi in case that we would be late to the office. We pay 100 pesos at max from our house to the office.
This morning was not the same taxi ride I take everyday. We rode an airport taxi.
What makes it different? It's expensive!
It was my first time to ride such PUV and I was surprised that the meter was already 70 bucks and it was barely 10 meters from our place. Thinking that the meter machine is tampered or something, I asked the driver, "Kuya, bakit 70 agad?" and he replied "Airport taxi po ito." All I replied was "Ah..".
I went curious on what makes this "special" as an "airport taxi". A laminated document behind the driver's seat caught my eyes. It was a "Passenger's Right" document. I manage to get a pen and paper to read and copy its contents.
The first part that caught my interest is the bold and italized paragraph saying:
"Flag down rate of Php70.00 for the first 500 meters and Php4.00 for every succeeding 300 meters thereof".It answered and explained the question I asked the driver. He is not lying. It is really 70 pesos. Sigh*, too expensive. It is more than twice the regular rate I pay for a regular taxi.
But what can I do? I cannot tell the driver "Para na lang po sa tabi". I wouldn't waste my time waiting for another taxi especially during rush hour. And so I am left thinking to myself, "Next time, I would not take a ride with this taxi, as much as possible, again."
To kill my disappointment I try to entertainment myself by observing the inside of the PUV and then I again, my eyes fell back to that laminated paper. It states the right of the passenger in details
.- Right to ride an air conditioned vehicle.
- Right to an adequate trunk space for belongings.
- Right to be conveyed via the most Convenient, Direct and "__" route.
- Right to a noise-free environment.
- Right to a smoke-free environment.
- Right to a clean and orderly vehicle.
- Right to be served by a Courteous, Neat and Uniformed Driver(dress code).
- Right to be informed of any Fare Adjustment.
- Right to be given upon demand an official receipt, bearing the following information.
- a. Name of the Company/Operator
- b. Phone number and/address of the Company/Operator
- c. Name of the driver
I was amazed that there are such rights a taxi passenger has. As I've read about the official receipt, I checked out the fare meter and it is not same ordinary meter a regular taxi has. It has a receipt printer or generator or whatever you call it. I am looking forward to see what the receipt actually contains.
Meanwhile, I try to review the interior of the taxi. It is neat, orderly and comfortable. The ride is also fast and we didn't experience that shaky motion that would make you feel dizzy. On the start of the journey, the driver contacted their operator to tell the pick-up point and destination. I was eavesdropping hehe. :)
And so we reach the office, our fare was 150 pesos. He took a log sheet and wrote something then pressed a button in the fare meter and a receipt was printed. It was a thermal printer. Sad to say, I didn't get a hand of the ticket, sigh*.
We managed to have a quick ride of 15 minutes. Just an average ride time but I won't forget this first airport taxi ride of mine. I learned a lot.
Summary from OneManga
