In a hurry, you come out of your office/home and would like to jump in a cab for your next assignment. You see, first cab passing by and try to hail it down but the driver simply drives away without bothering to stop for you. Dishearten you try doing this desperately for every passing cab.
Whether you hail a cab from the street or book online from many providers like Book Maxi Cab Melbourne, the vehicle must meet the same basic safety requirements expected of all passenger vehicles on our roads. Taxis engaging in rank and hail work will need to meet additional requirements such as installing cameras to reflect the anonymous nature of the rank and hail work.
Well the best thing would be to find the nearest taxi rank and try to jump in a cab. In Melbourne generally you can pick and get into any cab from a taxi rank but doing so could make the driver of the first cab waiting on the rank go crazy. Because the drivers expect that the first cab on the rank has the privilege of taking the next customer. So it will be a cool idea to make your journey smooth to get into the first taxi in the rank from which ever rank you are hailing the cab from.
As soon you get into the cab after your welcome greetings from the driver the first thing a taxi driver expect is that where you would be heading to? So the good idea is to inform the Taxi driver as soon as you can about your destination address. Once done with the address if you have any particular route to be followed please update him accordingly. The reason being to get to a particular route there could be N number of possibilities and it is highly possible with some dodgy or unprofessional drivers take you through the costlier route. End of the day he is getting more money out of it.
If you are new to the city it is recommended that you do your homework of the route where you are going to try to use Google maps as it will give you various possible route options to make it to your destination.
Now, it is also a very good idea to get a fare estimate of how much it might cost you to get to your destination from your place if you hire a Taxi. There are various sites on the internet where you can easily try to get an estimate of the taxi fare. We at Book Maxi Cab Melbourne also do such favour to our esteemed clients. Once quoted if you book with us you wont end up paying anything extra at the end of the trip.
If your just looking to know an estimate but still want to go by the meter you are open to do but might cost you more or less depending on the road and traffic conditions.
Going by the meter as soon as you jump into the cab the driver will start the meter and you at the end of the journey you pay whatever it comes up on the meter. For general information let me tell you that Taxi Meters in Victoria operates in differently at different times. Below I will list the details for everybody to understand.
If you are using the cab between 9am to 5pm the flag fall will start at $4.20 and the clock ticks at $1.62 per kilometer but at the same time if the traffic is heavy and you are crawling with a speed of less than 21km the ticking of the clocks falls to $0.56 per kilometer.
If the cab is being used between 5pm to 9am the flag fall starts with $5.20 and the clocks ticking will be set at $1.80 per kilometer. Crawling in the traffic with speed less than 21Km/H the ticking comes down to $0.63 per kilometer.But for the weekend it is a different tariff rates apart from what I listed above. There is a special tariff on weekends (Friday & Saturday) if you hire a taxi between 10pm and 4am
The flag fall between 10p.m to 4a.m on weekend starts with $6.20 and the kilometre rates will be $1.98. Which means for every kilometer travelled you will end up paying almost $2 and if you caught in a mid night city traffic and travelling at a speed less than 21kmph than the ticking goes by $0.69 per kilometer.
This weekend tariffs is applicable not only on Friday and Saturday but for all the time on Christmas day, Boxing day, New years day and from 6pm at New years eve until midnight at the end of the New year day. So when you jump in a cab with metered fare you should be aware with these tariffs a taxi operates with.
So it is good to be aware that a trip between same place but at a different time can end up costing you a different amount.
Now since we are taking about hailing a taxi from the rank or a passing by taxi one should remember that the booking fee of $2 does not apply for taxis hailed from the rank or flagged passing on the street.
Maxi Cabs rates are exactly same as all the listed above except that when there are more than 4 passengers the driver is eligible to charge you with a High Occupancy Vehicle fee (Maxi Cab fee) of $14 which will add up to the entire fare at the end of the journey. Unlike other cities of Australia, for example Brisbane where HOV fee cannot be applied if the Maxi cab is hailed while passing by. It can only be charged when you book for that specific type of taxi, in Melbourne this fee is applicable whether you hail it from then rank or book it through Book Maxi Cab Melbourne.
All the above tarrifs are set by Essential Service Commission (ESV) in Victoria
Now a day in Melbourne it is legal for the driver to ask for an upfront amount of the appropriate fare. This was not there earlier like a couple of years back and when there is a fare evader a driver would end up with lost income and time. So to tackle the menace of fare evaders this policy has been in place. Always while prepay remember to ask for your invoice from the driver. Invoice have all the details like Taxi number, Driver's authorization number, Date and Time of travel and Amount paid and the cab company to which that particular cab is attached with. This is a very good piece of information if you happen to leave behind any of your valuables in the hire Maxi Van Taxi.
It is good to remember that if your soil the Maxi Cab and or Taxi you are liable to clean it to a reasonable level so that next whoever getting in does not feel uncleanliness. A Maxi cab Melbourne driver is eligible to charge you for the cleaning up to a maximum of $120 soiling the cab with food drinks or any bodily fluids. So it's always a good idea to carry a vomit bag with you while going out for a party.
A CPVV levy fee of $1.10 which incl GST is applicable to Taxi or Maxi cab hired for the trip. It is applicable whether you hail a taxi from the rank or book it through providers like Book Maxi Cab Melbourne. This fee was introduced from 1st July 2018 and is applicable not only in Taxis but in all the ride sharing services. This levy was introduced to fund the transition package for former taxi and hire car license owners and also to improve services to passengers with disability.
If you are hiring a Maxi Cab Melbourne airport one must know that it has to pass through the toll way and the cost of tolls for Citylink from Melbourne to Melbourne Airport is $6.3 and if you are travelling from South Eastern suburbs the toll cost could be around $8.1. Similarly the tolls involve on Eastlink are $2.85 for the Melba tunnel and $5.58 for Melba Tunnel and any part of east link
Melbourne airport Taxi cab/Maxi cab access fee is around $3.65. So if you hail or book a Taxi from Melbourne Airport the customer has to pay this fee.
