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11. 04. 12. - 14:00

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11. 04. 12. - 14:00

Testing time for taxis

Private detectives have been travelling around Vienna to check up on the city's taxi drivers for two months and make sure that proper standards and quality of service were being maintained.

The end result is that although most of the problems found were minor technical problems – there were a couple of more serious issues including cases where taxi drivers had refused to accept fares because the amounts involved were too small.

In total 15 private detectives made 450 taxi journeys commissioned by the city council's council control department.

Of these 300 reports have so far been filed with around a third of the taxi drivers failing to make the grade but mostly for minor reasons.

One of the problems for example is failing to properly display the taxi driver license or playing music too loud over the radio. Taxi drivers involved will be given a personal appointment to discuss the problems.

But in 10 cases taxi drivers had refused to take people because the amounts requested were too small. These will also be invited to a personal meeting to discuss the matter with tax inspectors. They might also face charges that could result in them losing their licence.

In another seven cases the taxis were banned from continued service because of technical problems such as ripped seats.

The tests were organised by the city council after the road safety organisation ADAC and the Vienna tourism board had given the Vienna city taxi drivers a poor grade.

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