Budget Taxis

Who has ever heard of budget taxis? No, I'm not talking about going back to the old days where you have rickshaws and people who run around pulling passengers in. Although I do believe that will improve all taxi drivers' health and keep them fit, that's not what I'm talking about.

Lately, taxi fares have increased. Not only that, the taxi companies seem to have piled on a huge amount of peak hour charges, airport transportation rates, midnight rates and there are telephone book fees to be paid. And if you are unlucky to hit all these charges, then well, you pay for it, literally! Nowadays, people refrain from taking taxis and move towards other forms of transportation like trains and buses, only taking taxis as as last resort, because with these rates, not many can afford it. Taxis are considered more of a luxury transportation, well, perhaps not in all countries.

Now, what if, based on the idea of budget airlines, we come out with a company for budget taxis? Think about it, budget airlines came about because airfares were too expensive, airlines didn't fly to destinations frequently enough for you and for short-haul flights, it was just not worth it paying so much to fly such a short distance.

Now apply this same idea on a smaller scale to a small country, and with an abundance amount of vehicles. You start small, a fleet of 20 to 50 vehicles, depending on how many your startup can afford. Perhaps 2nd hand vehicles if you don't have the capital to buy new vehicles. You have relatively good drivers, who are courteous, willing to go the extra mile for passengers. You also get rid of all those pesky peak hour and booking charges. You start your passengers on a flat rate of perhaps $3 and bring them to their destination safe and sound.

Now with a small company, you don't make much losses as compared to your larger competition. Having no extra charges will make the passengers come back and take your taxis more often. And the best things in life are spread by word of mouth. So if you provide excellent service to your passengers they will remember it and highly recommend it to their friends. Their friends will in turn start talking about this new budget taxi that doesn't have pesky charges and do bookings to their other friends and sooner or later everyone will catch wind of your budget taxi. As with all things, skepticism always plays are part when starting something new, so you'll have to pump in a lot of effor to provide good service for passengers, that's what they always want and usually remember.

Starting small, you always have the excuse not to charge anything, even if the private taxi companies that charge everything start pressuring you to charge all those pesky rates. Passengers will also start playing a part to change the system, in turn asking those companies why they are charging when it really isn't necessary. Of course there will be competition, but you have all the passengers available. Passengers (customers) are always the ones who will help your business, all you have to do is to treat them well and they'll always remember what good things you did. Of course, they also remember the bad things you did, but well, there has to be a balance. You can't satisfy all of them, especially those really demanding ones, but you can try your best to please them.

All good enterprises start with an idea. They are built upon, gather moss, as they say, till they become something big and workable. And although we all aspire to be rich, unfortunately I do not have the financial capital yet to build upon this idea, it isn't an Information Technology (IT) idea like Facebook or Google, where you can start it in a dorm room. However, perhaps this blog entry will spark off somebody else's thoughts somewhere in some country, like a stone thrown into a pond, causing ripple effects that spread far and wide and affect everyone, for the better I hope.

Will this work? I can't say for sure. Look at the skepticism faced when budget airlines started. Plenty of people had their doubts. Eventually some of the better budget airline companies prevailed and look, mostly in Europe and Asia, budget airlines have become a hit. So, will this budget taxi work? Who can say, but I'm sure in the long run, it is worth trying out and who knows, it might become a commercial success.

Afternote: There are already small budget taxis that operate in New Zealand and a few other countries, they charge low prices for bring people around. Some are even used for whole day tours, which is an interesting idea also. Like I said, it depends on how you want to set it up, but the main aim is to be in competition with all those pesky fare hikes and extra charges which are unnecessary.