Whose Faulty Vision

Pre-paid Taxis

While I’m talking about business travel…the Cincinnati airport has the wonderful innovation of pre-paid taxis. At the airport, you can pre-pay a round trip (to and from the airport), even with the drop-off of one end and the pick-up at the other in different places. It’s a flat fee, not based on a meter, and you can put it on your credit card. It’s incredibly convenient; I love not having to worry about cash to pay the taxi driver. Also, it’s cheaper–at least, my trip back to the airport came out a bit cheaper than the meter. The driver didn’t run the meter for the trip from the airport, so I dunno there.

Funny thing, though. The only other places I’ve been where you can pre-pay taxis at the airport are places where the taxis have a reputation for ripping off Western tourists, so pre-paying is a way of making the Westerners feel safer. I’m speaking here of Costa Rica and Mumbai–in both places, my guidebook warned about the risk of getting ripped off if you get into a taxi without pre-paying.

So now I’m wondering if the Cincinnati taxis had a similarly unsavory reputation.