Image by Leo Reynolds via FlickrSharjah Transport has somewhat belatedly introduced a taxi booking service. As long suffering readers will know, we have for many years had Mr G on call - a trustworthy, if slightly forgetful, taxi driver whom we call when we need a cab. Mr G has many regular customers, but his arrangements would be potentially impacted by a call centre, another woe to add to his long list (it's hard to make money these days, the company imposes all sorts of fines, fees and other impositions and the bus service has had a huge negative impact on taxis).Luckily, he's safe.
Sarah asked me to call 'em yesterday as she needed a cab from her school. The lady on the other end of the line took the location and told me the cab would be there in ten minutes.
"But I don't want it in ten minutes. I want it at two thirty."
"Two thirty?"
"Yes. Two thirty." (This was beginning to sound like a radio ad)
"Then why not call two fifteen?"
"Because I want to make a booking. You know, book a cab."
"We not take booking. You should to call two fifteen."
"But you're a taxi booking call centre. What earthly use are you if you don't take bookings?"
"Yes, we not take booking. You call ten minutes before you are need taxi."
"What if I can't? What if I will be in a classroom? What if I believed in a world where taxi booking call centres took bookings? What if I need a taxi to take me to the airport at 5am or from a remote location late at night?"
"*sigh*. Okay, mister. I make note and send taxi two thirty, okay?"
"Really?"
"Yes. Okay? Thank you goodbye."
2.30 came and went. A taxi, of course, did not.
Only in Sharjah, where all the roundabouts are squares, can you look forward to a taxi booking service that doesn't take bookings. Mr G's financial future is thus assured.
4 comments:
According to the tariff sticker in the Sharjah taxi I was in on Saturday, there is a fee for this, erm, service.
Well, I guess it's easier in AD, I call a cab right before I want to go home in order to avoid that paranoid feeling of being abandoned in the middle of nowhere. Booking sure is useful when you want to make sure you have a cab at rush hour, or late at night, however those are the times where you suffer to book a taxi. And it only arrives when I manage to win a desperate battle with another waiting person to get the first cab the comes my way. then its another hour of calling the center to cancel as well as the driver to assure him that I canceled.
This is one of the things Dubai's actually got right. I love the fact I can call a number, press a few buttons on my phone and then a cab will show up at the door roughly at the time I asked for - all without having to speak to a single person.
LOL! Sorry to hear..
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