(česká verze — czech version of the page Taxi Praha here)
There has been many stories circulating round about Prague taxi and Prague taxi drivers. Catching a cab in Prague can still be a nightmare, even if you know "the right tricks". After many times heard the situation is getting better, it is always better to arrange taxi in Prague via some trustable company. If you want to get extra comfort at reasonable price, call ATP 00420 728 876 876.
Price of Taxi in Prague:
boarding tax * 35 — 100,-CZK (1 — 3 GBP)
price per km (0,6 mile) 28 — 99,-CZK (1 — 3 GBP)
overcharging: common, typical (never trust meters)
* that is what you pay just to get in the taxi
Do you know, what the "taxi turbo" is?
A year ago (2007) I met a "friend" I had not seen for a while. Last time I saw him he worked for the same transfer company as I did, later he disappeared with the money of our common employer (that means he had been driving, cashing the money and he had kept it all — even the bosses commission . He could "afford" it because they had no contract).
This story happened at the Prague airport gas-station where most drivers wait before their clients flights arrive at Prague airport. They drink coffee, smoke cigarettes, clean cars or just talk about how life is hard, how hard they have to work and how low are the tips from clients etc.
"Hi dude, how are you?" suddenly sounded from behind me. This my friend was standing there and laughing. He did not let me say anything and continued: "I am taxi driver again — look, I got the new Superb — let’s have a look!" I agreed and in a minute I was seated in his "new Superb" behind the steering wheel (try it dude). I admired his car, it looked nice, leather seats, satelite navigation — if I had all this stuff in my VW Passat! I realised he had a taxi-meter and a radio. I wondered how all that worked and he was explaining: "The radio is OK, you must pay some money back to dispatching so they like you and keep giving you contracts. Unfortunately, you cannot cheat with the taxi meter because now those bastards from City hall seriously controll it. But — I have this!"
Then he turned the meter on, the basic boarding tax (40,-CZK) appeared on the display (that is what all taxi do when you enter the cab). The car was not moving, but anyway, every minute 6,-CZK was added (that is called "waiting tax" and it works well for all Prague taxi drivers in traffic jams). And now it came: "Have a look dude!" He touched some point under the leather part of the gear shift — and — the display showed increase of 30,-CZK(!!).
"What is it? How does it work?" I asked.
"It is TURBO, dude!"
"How, how did you do it? Let me try it!" I tried couple of times but was not able to find and press it. It was tricky and obviously you had to "know the trick".
"It is hidden so no-one can explore it. You just drive with the idiots (that was how he called foreign passengers) and then you shout — LOOK THERE IS PRAGUE CASTLE! Ha ha, idiots are looking at the Prague castle and you press turbo. Nobody can register anything, beleive me. You do three, four times a ride and you get your tip. And officialy — no-one can say anything."
Well — I have not seen him from that day and I take no care how he has been — I do not like cheaters and I know very well that these guys make all us — Prague taxi or transfer drivers look like thieves. I hope you will not meet this guy when you need a taxi in Prague and I hope you would rather choose a honest company.
And the advise: If you need to jump in a taxi on a Prague street, try to show the driver you are not idiot and try to agree the price before you sit in. The price of a transfer in sedan from Prague airport should not get over 700 — 800,-CZK (25 — 30 GBP), so you can count how expensive should it be inside the city. Eg.You need to go from Wenceslaw square to Prague Castle (it is not more than 10km), so if the driver is OK do not pay him more than 300 — 400,-CZK. The tip is up to you.
And now — if you need a taxi in Prague, call us — even in the case all our cars are bussy at the moment, we do our maximum to send you a honest guy!
What is the "Prague airport taxi rate"?
When we started to do this transfer business sometimes around 2000 year we quickly got many foreign clients because we could secure good taxi service and we never charged more than a reasonable price which we agreed with the clients in advance. Those days we were charging from 500,-CZK to 700,-CZK (it depended on the distance and on the kind of vehicle). Suddenly other taxi guys, used to charge 10x more (Yes, that is true — it used to be commonly called "airport rate") started to be pretty jealous with us — now they saw us walking out from the arrival hall of Prague airport manytimes with smiling, english speaking clients. We talked, laughed and were helping our passengers with their luggage. Then we disapeared in the direction "Prague center" and within an hour we were back with a placard with the name of new client printed on.
Well — they were more clever — they did one transfer to the Prague airport ("up to hill" as we say) and they could go home — I had to do "10 hills" a day and still had not the same money (I had 10times higher cost). Sometimes you simply were thinking about to "join the wolfs" and do the same — it is easy — you promise something on your website and later you cheat and charge more or do other taxi driver tricks (will be written later).
So what is the point of it? More and more people from round the world know the situation with Prague (airport) taxis. People are not stupid and they can tell each other (especially via the internet) how to avoid taxi drivers tricks in Prague. And, as we Czech use to say, there is allways something good on a bad thing. We — because we decided to be honest have more clients from round the world than these guys would ever imagine. Thank you people you are not stupid and thank you you know whom to call when arriving to Prague.
It is a simple advice — if you can, arrange your airport taxi via internet or via sms or just call us. Our business "stands" on the fact we never trick you.
Thank you for your trust. Michal — ATP Airport Transfer Prague driver