In Las Vegas, Nevada taxi drivers have been 'long-hauling' their customers for years. Long-hauling is the term for driving in a circuitous way to a destination, increasing the taxi fee. In 2012, a total of 14.8 million was "robbed" from tourists as victims of long hauling. This statistic comes from about one four passengers who ride. Undercover officers were long-hauled in every one in three trips.
I think this is a basic form of robbery on the taxi service's part. I recommend for you boys and girls that: when you are travelling to an area that you do not really know the location of, check the airport; they (along with Las Vegas) now have 'distance charts' so that you know what you SHOULD be charged when riding in a taxi. Take a picture of it with your phone or what have you, and keep with yourself a quick reference guide. As illegal as this is, the taxi service is highly needed and unfortunately the authorities must give lee way to this 'public service', even though they are cracking down.
As for other parts of government, the police (previously mentioned) and traveling branches are affected. The police investigate and deal with these problems as they can, and airports especially are helping tourists get through a trip without getting 'scammed'.
Tourism is a HUGE income for Las Vegas and there are only bad consequences to come when people stop visiting the strip.
Stay charismatic!
That is awful that people would actually do this!!! I cannot believe that they are getting away with this! This needs to be stopped as it is not fair to anyone. I hope the taxi-drivers doing the long-hauling get stopped and get fined or something in result to this injustice. This is not fair to many who cannot waste a few dollars.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how the taxi services take advantage of the tourists coming to this scenic area. You would think that since they depend on tourism so much, that they would at least try to protect them from manipulative behaviors such as this. This is a very cool story, keep it up!
ReplyDeleteThis is highway robbery in the most literal sense. I am glad to hear that there are ways to avoid it, but I fear that many travellers are still oblivious to the danger. Hopefully awareness of this problem will become more widespread so that more people will be on the lookout for "long-hauling."
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