RSS feedCame across this post from Richard MacManus’ Read/Write Web, about Australian taxi driver strategies. Traffic works much like sand in an hour glass, if you know how the dynamics of sand works, and have an idea of the type of people travelling at that particular time of day, between those particular two points, you can have a pretty good guess at the optimal route. Drive it at least once a week and it becomes second nature.
I’m not sure if Richard is a driver himself, but this isn’t confined to taxi drivers. Most people I know that love to drive, including myself, have these same strategies. Driving the same route to work and back each day is a perfect example, but there are many other routes people take throughout the week that are equally optimisable.
The interesting thing about taxi drivers however, is that most of them have an innate ability to optimise their fares. For example, taxis have a driving rate, and a waiting rate. When the speed of the taxi drops below a certain threshold, the waiting rate kicks in, which is less than the driving rate. This is obvious, because it’s printed on the fare sheet in the taxi. To optimise the income for a fare, you’d think the driver would delay the trip as much as possible, choosing routes where traffic jams extend the time it takes to get to the destination. Lengthen the journey, and the fare increases over time. However, the driving rate is higher, so there is a speed at which the combination of fares and travel time is the optimal for the driver. In most cases however it is better for the driver to get you there as fast as possible, getting the initial hiring charge plus the driving rate, which may be less all up than having to wait several times at traffic lights.
This complex relationship between rates, time, speed, traffic congestion and initial hiring fee, seems to be completely subconscious for most drivers, yet if you question one about it, they usually can’t actually explain it.
So, at times cabbies do strange things, they’ll get you to your destination quickly or on time, but every now and again they’ll make a turn that ends up in traffic or they’ll accidentally miss a traffic light, but will still seem to get you there quickly. They can’t explain it, but it’s them optimising the fare.
So next time your cabbie makes a seeming mistake, just bite your tongue, he’s doing it for the fare, and the more you point it out to him, the more of your money he’ll take.