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Taxing the Credibility

Now, as someone who firmly believes in the adage about "lies, more lies and statistics" a recent report on the taxi industry had me wetting my pants with disbelief.

This authoritative report - from the Victorian Taxi Directorate - reckoned that there has been a rise in complaints about cab drivers.

Well, where's the news value in that?, thought I - keeping in mind the varying quality of the usually ordinary service offered I would have thought complaints would be fairly regular and heavy.

I mean how many times have you hopped into a cab only to find that the driver has only a basic command of English?

Or, that the driver doesn't know where they are going?

Or, that the driver is rude?

Or, that they pong horribly?

Or their cab stinks like a pub's loo?

Quite a few, I'd imagine, and yet in Melbourne - with thousands of cabbies doing a fair few trips a day - there are fewer than two complaints a day against them.

Now either we've got the best cabbies in the world - bar the ones in London's black taxis - or else someone is trying to pull the wool over our collective eyes.

How's this. According to the report only 484 passengers complained about taxi drivers last year.

484 a year! Go on, pull the other one. 484 a week maybe!

Mind you, having had some shocking drivers over the years - including the ancient (even more than me) loon who ran a red light across a very wide six-lane arterial road - I've never reported one.

Perhaps we should report more and allow the Taxi Directorate to get a truer picture of what it is like to suffer at the hands of some of our more hopeless cabbies.

Now, "where to maaaate?"

If there is something that has really got up your nose, let Grumpy Old Coot know at grumpy@webwombat.com