A woman has slammed cabbies in Sydney for ‘ripping off’ passengers after she was told she would need to fork out $95 to get home from a night out in the city.
Carla Efstratiou, a social media commentator who runs popular website ‘Go Woke Go Broke’ decided to catch a taxi from the city to her place in Sydney’s eastern suburbs just after midnight last Sunday.
Ms Efstratiou, who was at a Christmas party earlier that night, said she couldn’t find an Uber after several drivers cancelled her booking.
She took to Instagram to lash out at the ‘insane’ price of the cab ride.
‘[It’s a] twenty minute maximum drive, about 30 bucks… and he was like that will be $95,’ she said.
Ms Efstratiou was left in disbelief over the price of the trip and said she tried to confront the driver over the cost of the ride.
‘I was like “sorry what?” and he was like moving slowly at this point trying to get away from me, I was like “what… stop!”.’
Carla Efstratiou (pictured) slammed cab drivers in Sydney after she was told she would need to pay $95 to be driven home from a night out in the city to the eastern suburbs
‘$95..are you sure?’
She said was confused when the driver asked her where she was going.
‘I was like “why are you even asking, you just have to take me anywhere I want to go”.’
She hailed down another cab who she said also had its doors locked and windows open and claimed the driver was charging $100 for a ride home.
‘Legally they’re not allowed to do that and deny a ride because of distance,’ Ms Efstratiou said.
The huge cost of getting around Sydney in a cab left her stunned and she said those who don’t have another way of getting home would end up paying the hefty rates.
‘Either they didn’t want a short fare or they were trying to find someone who would pay a stupid amount of money to go short distances,’ she said.
‘The dodginess is insane’
Ms Efstratiou said she had ‘no sympathy’ for taxi drivers who were ‘price gouging’ during a cost-of-living crisis with many drivers complaining about ride share services taking away their business.
Her post was flooded with dozens of comments from users who said they had also been quoted insane prices from drivers, while some said they had forked out plenty for a cab ride in the past.
Ms Efstratiou (pictured) said she had little sympathy for cab drivers who were ‘price gouging’ during a cost-of-living crisis
‘Same thing happened to us on Saturday night after Fooies (Foo Fighters) concert. We needed to get back to Parramatta, Uber quoted $65 then we found the cab line, first one wanted $90 the next one in line wanted $120!!!,’ one user wrote.
‘I got stung 80 bucks to go 15 minutes down the road from Newcastle Airport,’ another said.
Some said taxi services weren’t to blame for the exorbitant prices while others accused ride share services for making cab fares more expensive.
‘Taxis work on a tariff set by the government, yes they could rip you off but that’s not taxis that’s individual drivers,’ one user said.
‘If your wondering why some driver might be charging the same as Uber does, it’s because of the government letting Uber into the country,’ another wrote.
CEO NSW Taxi Council Nick Abraham told Daily Mail Australia that it’s illegal for drivers to set cab fares themselves and they must use the meter to charge passengers for their trip.
He said passengers would normally pay up to $40 ‘on a good run’ for a trip from the city to the eastern suburbs.
Mr Abraham urged authorities to do more to crack down on those who are setting prices themselves.
Customers detailed their experiences of forking out plenty of money for a cab ride
CEO NSW Taxi Council Nick Abraham set it’s illegal for taxi drivers to set cab fare themselves and said the prices of cab rides must be charged according to the meter
‘We want them (drivers) dealt with and we want them removed from the industry completely,’ he said.
‘We are calling for the government to go back to issuing one single authority for taxi drivers to ensure that when they get removed…they lose their ability to drive a taxi full stop.
‘Right now they get removed from the network, they go up the road to another taxi company, apply for another ID get back behind the wheel of a taxi and we want to prevent that.’
He urged customers to report a taxi’s vehicle number and the details of the driver to the Taxi Fare Hotline if they are quoted a higher cab fare from a driver.
Taxi drivers will be fined $1,000 if they charge customers more than the amount on the meter during a trip.
More than 520 taxi drivers were reprimanded for overcharging customers and for not using their metres from the end of 2022 to June 2023.
The Taxi Fare Hotline fielded more than a thousand complaints of drivers who also refused shorter trips and demanded upfront fees from passengers worth hundreds of dollars.