BETTER PARTSCustomer King as a jester?
Munich, 21 August 2014
The German taxi landscape often is criticized and not only because of more than 800 different tariffs. Missing information, incomplete receipts and unnecessary detours among the most common deficiencies. This is for the end user, the passenger, not only annoying, but hardly or not to see through. Time for the automobile club ADAC, check taxis in eight German cities on their transparency, customer service and deficits.
School grades for 160 tests
All test routes were traveled in March and April 2014 by two different testers. They drove on weekdays, during the day and twice at night twice. Fitted with trolley and business wear, the test persons should mimic a non-local business travelers. Of 160 trips around a quarter ( 35 ) was " very good" rating with a grade. In more than half ( 87 ) the testers awarded the grade "good ". " Sufficient " were still 17 of the trips made . Contrast, 21 received only a "poor" or " very poor".
expected defects
The most common deficits were as expected: often lacked the information on the applicable tariffs. This results in price ranges for a seven-mile drive including five minutes waiting time and a piece of luggage from 16.10 euros in Dresden up to 19,90 Euro in Hamburg. In almost 90 percent of cases, the receipts were filled out incompletely. In addition, the tester had an unnecessary detour using their entrained GPS devices recorded at every tenth trip. To traffic violations also occurred: 17 percent of drivers disregarded the applicable traffic rules. In four cases, it could not even come to a test because the driver refused to complete the ride.
Negative record
A test stung while out particularly: A driver in Frankfurt drove not only a big detour, through red lights and refunded at the end to little change. He fell beyond due to lack of spatial and language skills, no evidence of his license and a lack of collective overview.
Competition is good for business
What can be done? The Automobile Association recommends standardizing the taxi order and a transparent tariff system. For a fast implementation of the required points that competition could provide. The classic taxi companies are under tremendous pressure for a short time. New taxi companies organize themselves with individuals and private cars. They are usually much cheaper. The competition could not only provide better rates, but also for a better all-round service characterized by the old established companies. For just the service stays with the " new private " after the first test on the track.
First utterance to the test
Shortly after the release of the test results are expressed by the President of the German Association of taxi and car rental BZP, Michael Müller. "We take these test results very seriously, they help us, the quality of our services continue to improve. Though there are only random samples from eight cities who are not necessarily representative. " Furthermore, Müller answered the question to the tariff jungle. This would go back to the communities that define independently the rates. The BZP would be ready for talks and changes that could improve transparency for customers here . (ml)