Wednesday, May 2, 2001

New pamphlet sets taxi ground rules City Hall makes multilingual attempt to curb overcharging By James Pitkin Petr Barna is sick of city taxis getting a bad rap. "It's definitely not good for our reputation," he says. "It's like when someone goes into a store expecting the shop assistant to steal from them. It gives you a weird feeling." Barna, director of Prague's Profi Taxi company, knows tourist books and travel articles worldwide warn of Prague's crafty cab drivers. Visitors have long complained about exorbitant fares to and from tourist sites. But now City Hall is trying to clean up Prague's record with a new pamphlet aimed at informing tourists about the ins and outs of taking cabs in the capital. The pamphlet, Taxi Service in Prague, is printed in four languages and offers advice on how much to pay, places where overcharging is common and what to do if you feel you've paid too much. "It's mainly for tourists," says Josef Sidlo, who heads taxi monitoring at Prague's Department of Taxes, Fees and Prices. "The complaints we get are fewer every year, but people still get overcharged." Sidlo says he's received only seven complaints so far this year; down significantly from the peak years of 1995-98, when dozens came in each month. Since then, fares have been regulated, with a maximum charge of 22 Kc a kilometer within the city limits, plus 4 Kc for each minute of waiting. The pamphlet warns passengers to only take cabs bearing a yellow-and-black "taxi" sign on top, and with a list of prices on the door. This is to avoid confusion with "contractual transport" vehicles that are also licensed to offer rides, but aren't subject to the same price regulations. Additionally, the meter should always be switched on, and should show a starting fee of 30 Kc when the ride begins. Passengers are also urged to take down the driver's I.D. number, printed inside the cab, and to report any complaints to Sidlo's Prague 1 office at Platnerska 19. One controversial inclusion is a chart listing "orientation fares" between various sites around the city. Taxi drivers complain that these may be misleading to passengers. "City Hall can hardly estimate how bad the traffic will be," says Jiri Kvasnicka, director of AAA Taxi. "Even if we take the most direct route, there can be a 20-minute wait, which means 80 Kc more. They should have stated that those prices are under ideal conditions." The pamphlet is available at the Prague Information Center on Old Town Square, the Congress Center in Prague 4, Ruzyne airport and other locations. And although hotels were initially apathetic, Radmila Kacenova of City Hall says more and more are requesting copies. "I'm surprised hotels didn't want them in the beginning," she says. "They didn't think there was anything new, and besides, most of them have their own taxi service. But now they're starting to show an interest." --Petra Cermakova contributed to this report. James Pitkin's e-mail address is jpitkin@praguepost.cz