Poor service from Radio Taxis

ju1i3_2

Shockingly poor service from Radio Taxis (London) yesterday. I pre-booked 3 taxis days before and they said a cash booking was fine even though I was happy to do a credit card booking. It wasn't fine. They didn't pre-book them - just called for free taxis a few minutes before I needed them. I've never needed to book a taxi before so had no experience of decent firms to use. I probably won't need to book one again but if I do I will never use Radio Taxis.

arcon5

I believe Addison Lee are leading the market as far as cabs are concerned in London.

A cash booking probably was fine (most domestic bookings will be cash), just the telephone operator messed up the booking.

vuvuzela

A lot of people dislike Addison Lee due to their drivers cavalier treatment of cyclists and their use of bus lanes at one point http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3404458.ece

paddyrg

Addison Lee are probably best for minicabs, but are getting a bit big for their boots in some ways.

I recently installed Hailo (app) on my smartphone, never bothered booking a minicab again, you just order a real black cab (with a driver who knows where they're going! Shock!) to the door with the press of a button, pay on your card, and pay the normal meter fare. I cannot gush highly enough about how well the service works and how good the app is - may be worth a try.

SailorSam

I think it's probably normal with most taxi companies that if you pre-book a Cab you're not getting any preferential treatment. The booking will be up on the wall in front of the operator and will get called out in exactly the same way as a job that has just been phoned in. The driver that comes will have no idea whether his fare just called or booked a month earlier,
It all comes down to the radio operator noticing what booking have been taken.