Victorian woman Kathryn Beaton says repeated, illegal denials of service from drivers refusing to allow her guide dog into their vehicles have left her effectively housebound.
Edited to add: “anxious and in tears” is some shit tier headline writing when the real problem is the loss of independence and freedom, and the hours she has had to spend waiting just to be actively discriminated against.
In my experience calling a taxi leaves you on the phone on hold for 45mins, or the driver cancels on the way if they find someone else first (requiring you to rebook), or they don’t frequently show up in the area you need one, or they straight up drive past you to deny you to your face. Or they illegally require destination before allowing you in.
It might just be that it’s easier to count denials in the account history of the Uber app.
That’s appalling that that sort of behaviour is still prevalent with taxis. I think rideshare services also share the same problem though? There have been many anecdotes onine by Australians quoting their awful experiences with rideshare drivers and even some mentioning they found taxis to be the better option nowadays.
Regradless, I firmly believe the taxi industry should be held up to a higher standard.
Taxis were terrible before ride sharing came along and ride sharing has made them better - the Taxis have made significant efforts to improve now that they don’t have a monopoly. But they haven’t improved enough - Taxis are definitely worse than Uber in my city.
I think rideshare services have a bad reputation because they made some mistakes when they were starting out, and even now when they start in a new city and every single driver has zero experience so there will still be mistakes… but in general, now that ridesharing is well established, they are the best available service (at least in my city anyway - which is in Australia).
Yes, there’s still the occasional awful experience. “The best available” doesn’t mean “good enough”.
I avoid taxis more than uber because I tend to get poorer treatment from taxis for some reason. Other people I know find it’s the other way around. The difference isn’t hugely significant, probably.
Taxis and rideshares, at least here, are both private businesses with drivers governed by the company’s rules. I’d like to see them both held to the same standard, and I would like the companies themselves to be not-so-gently encouraged to improve their systems to minimise these situations. They can now, they just choose not to prioritise it because there are no associated risks with doing so.