Vietnam Taxi
10
Sharing a recent case, highlighted by Thanh Nien News, about how a Vietnamese taxi driver died after a fight with a tourist. This was what happened as extracted from the article:
‘Alexander had taken a Saigon Tourist cab driven by Le Van H., 41, to the Phuong Dong Hotel in Tan Binh District from the Tan Son Nhat International Airport, also located in the same district. They’d struck a deal that Alexander would pay H. VND200,000 (US$10.54) for the trip, police said. Alexander should have been charged around VND40,000, some taxi drivers told Thanh Nien Weekly.
On the way, Alexander wanted to get out because the driver kept driving around, investigators cited Alexander as saying after interrogating him. When H. stopped on Hoang Van Thu Street to ask local people for directions to the hotel, Alexander got off and agreed to pay him VND100,000. The taxi driver then ran after Alexander, and grabbed his luggage, police said. Alexander then hit H. in the face, causing the driver to fall and lose consciousness. He died of brain injury before being hospitalized, according to the police’.
The incident above may be debatable as both the taxi driver and passenger will have their own case. But my suspicion is that Alexander (the passenger) may have had prior unpleasant experiences and was already fed up by that point. If you have been reading up travel forums on Vietnam, you will learn that taxi scams are brought up very often. I’ve also posted one such topic here.
The same article above went on to report a few more horror stories in Vietnam taxi drivers:
‘Tim Russell, a tour operator in HCMC, said he had personally witnessed physical intimidation of foreign visitors by taxi drivers, and that the problem of cheating was not confined to rides from the airport. He also said he himself had been threatened by a drunk driver with a wooden club, but had managed to snatch it away in time’.
‘Amanda Perry, an Australian tour guide, said two of her female clients had been driven from the War Remnants Museum in District 1 to their hotel next to Ben Thanh Market in District 1 and the taxi driver asked for VND500,000 (the fare should have been less than VND50,000). When they refused he grabbed one of the women to hold her back so they could not get out of the taxi and get help from the hotel. He then also tried to grab her bag and take everything, Perry said. Finally the hotel staff saw what was happening and rushed to help them and the ladies were able to get out – the driver however sped off as one of the women was still getting out of the taxi and she fell to the ground and was a little injured’.
Read the full article here.
My advice:
01) If you are arriving at the Saigon international airport, there are a few booths just before the exit where you can buy taxi vouchers. They will cost about between US$2 to US$4 more than the regular fare but the fixed price means no arguments with the taxi drivers.
02) As far as possible, go for taxis from the Mai Linh company. They seem to have the best reputations.
03) Take the Saigon airport bus for a change.
If you find this Vietnam travel tips useful, do share it with your friends using the social icons below. Warn them about Vietnam taxi scams.
I am a Vietnamese, I would recommend Mai Linh taxi and Vinasun Taxi, their number is 38 38 38 38, or 38 27 27 27.
At the airport, normally you can see a lot of Saigon air taxi but I would suggest to stay away from them. As well as Saigon air, as a tourist, I would suggest you to stay away from Petrolimex taxi too, they have the worst service that I know.
Vina taxi also can be a good option too (yellow Taxi number 38 11 11 11)
Hope my tip can help.
Uyên
Thank you Uyen for dropping by. And thanks for those cab numbers.
I’d recommend the same as Uyen – in the month we were here Mai Linh and Vinasun were the two we used (as recommended by people we stayed with who have lived in Saigon all their lives). Fair prices, we were never driven in circles, and the taxi drivers were even friendly and helpful.
Beware of M.Taxi – they try to copy Mai Linh, and their logo is exactly the same, but they are NOT the same company.
Thank you Allison
i’ve read in some forums that only certain taxi companies are allowed to pick up passengers at the arrival hall level. If I go up to the departure hall level, will i able to flag down a malinh or vinasun taxi?
No problem at all Andy.
my friend also recomanded mai linh and vinusun taxi, so, we just look at those 2 taxi at vietnam. BUT, there is a few of pirate taxi that using almostly the 2 above name taxi company. I had lost a hugh amount of money due to the above matter during my first time to vietnam. so, just look carefully before you step in the taxi. Normally the driver wear uniform for the above 2 taxi company. i had write down the pirate taxi plat number but i dont know wether is useful or not.
Thanks for sharing Pang.
No, it won’t make a difference with those plate numbers.
Thanks for the useful information!! This type of info. is hard to get. Your advice is very helpful.
Thanks for your compliment Chuzai