A taxi driver in Moscow charged a Vietnamese visitor £275 for a journey to the airport
A taxi driver in Moscow charged a Vietnamese visitor 23’000 RUB (~£275) for a journey from the city centre to Sheremetevo Airport and got away, as reported in the Russian press.
At this price Wheely can offer three journeys in a black Mercedes-Maybach for the same route (and this is our highest level option called Luxe and we have over 100 Mercedes-Maybachs in Moscow). This is 5500 RUB for the flat rate from the city to Sheremetevo, parking and tolls at cost (~500 RUB) and a maximum tip of 20% done in-app (for exceptional service, such as when I asked a driver to buy me Lattes at arrivals before meeting me at arrivals, I compensated him for the coffee in cash of course).
This is not because we are cheap, the RUB is simply extremely weak right now (£1 = 83RUB compared to £1 = 50 RUB in 2013).
The scam the Vietnamese tourist fell for is simple and has been going on in the capital for years: when you hail a yellow taxi on the street or from a rank, you will be handed a price list with inflated rates. There is no centralised metering system as in European cities, any taxi company (or self-employed taxi driver) can set their own rates and metering.
Ten years ago I fell for this kind of scam myself when I asked for a taxi through the waiter at Cafe Pushkin: they called a Lada and I paid $50 for a 3 minute ride. Thankfully nowadays this is less prevalent, but even when requesting a car from a 5 star hotel you are likely to be overcharged 2–3x times.
Another key difference from the UK and Europe is that there is no driver licensing regulation in Russia. Vetting drivers is up to the taxi or ride-hailing company. We as a premium provider are extremely strict in this matter: all of our drivers are hand-picked, and in addition to the geographical tests we also carry out thorough background checks.
