When you arrive in Saigon (SGN) at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport, getting a good taxi to take you the 6 km into town may be a challenge. As is common for visitors to many cities, from New York to Bangalore, this first challenge is often the most difficult of the entire visit.
Almost all -- not just some -- of the taxis at the airport will be bad taxis. A bad taxi will charge you two or three times as much as the going rate. If you pay up, you will probably get where you want safely and without incident. But disputing a bad taxi experience can lead to dangerous conflict. A normal sized taxi using a meter will charge a total of VND 80,000 (USD 4) to take a person from the airport to District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City. No tip will be expected, but given how lucky you are to get treated so fairly, I think giving the driver VND 100,000 (USD 5) and telling him or her to keep the change is more than fair. A bad taxi driver might charge you anything from VND 150,000 to VND 500,000 (USD 25) for the same trip.
Why are most taxis bad? First of all, some or all of the taxi drivers pay money to be let into the airport, and they expect to make it up by ripping off an unsuspecting visitor. Second, only one taxi from each company is let in at any given time, and there are only three or four good companies. And finally, the good ones get taken fast.
How do you know if you are in a bad taxi?
(1) They will ask for a fixed price to take you to your destination and will not turn on the meter. A reasonable fixed price to take you downtown (District 1) would be VND 100,000 (USD 5), but they will probably ask for VND 200,000. And even if they do agree to a reasonable price, they may claim it was per person, or that you have to pay for other fees when you arrive. You could just walk away in this situation, but that could lead to violent conflict. A friend of mine was beaten with a stick by a taxi driver in that situation, and such events are common and often worse (See local news).
(2) They will not turn on the meter. You must tell your taxi driver to turn on the meter. And you have to be focused and confirm that they do it. Bear in mind that the meter can take about 30 seconds to start to work. But if it is not turned on one must forcefully say "turn it on, or stop now and let me off." If they do not turn on the meter, you are in a worse situation than (1) above because they can, and probably will ask for as much money as they think they can extort from you.
(3) They will ask for extra fees. There is a VND 5,000 (USD 0.25) fee for taxis leaving the airport. But a good taxi would not ask for this to be paid. A bad taxi driver may claim this was many times as much and ask for it. I have also heard of people being asked for fees for luggage -- but there are none.
(4) They will drive a fake or copycat branded taxi. These taxis will have names that vary from those of good taxis by just a single letter, and use similar colours and logos. Their whole existence is based on deceit. Also, these taxis, and even ones that are just not good brands, may have meters that are modified to go faster and charge more. You can turn your head for a few seconds and the taxi driver will push a button and the meter will jump by VND 100,000 ($5) in an instant. How much they do this will be a judgment call on their part as to how much they think they can get away with.
The picture below shows a real MaiLinh Taxi logo (left) and a copycat Mr Taxi logo (right).
How do I find a good taxi?
(1) Just pick a good taxi company. These include Mai Linh, Vinataxi, and Vinasun. There are other reputable companies, but don't make your first trip an experiment in discovering them. Read the taxi labels very carefully and remember that close is not good enough: there are fake taxis out there. There are fake Mai Linh taxis that look very similar and have a similar name, but the signs are cheaper, there are fake Vinasun's (e.g. "Vinasum"). Note that the Vinataxi cars are yellow and usually pretty beat up and old, but they are among the least expensive and just as reliable as the more expensive ones in general. Keep an eye out for signs that you are in a bad taxi (see above) because you might be in a fake or have an unusually bad driver.
At the airport, there will be a dark green shirted Mai Linh taxi representative, and you may also find a Vinasun taxi representative. Just tell that person that you want one of their taxis and they will call one. Be prepared to wait and turn down many opportunities to take another brand of taxi. You might be lucky and find a yellow Vinasun you can flag down.
(2)
Do not pick a fake taxi. Look carefully to make sure the taxi looks other ones of the same brand you have seen before. Check the spelling and the logo. The fake logos will always be the cheaper looking ones, although some companies like Vinasun have upgraded their look and they do have some older, and so now less legitimate looking taxis out there.
Check the phone number. The fakes will often have numbers on them that are off by just one digit.
Vinataxi is 38-111-111.
Mai Linh will be 38-222-666 or
3-76-76-76.
Vinasun will be 8-27-27-27. The taxi companies, Mai Linh in particular, sometimes have a number of different phone numbers
. As I mentioned, a bigger giveaway is
not the number being wrong, but the number being almost right.
The picture below shows a fake MaiLinh taxi run by the "Mr Taxi Group",
whose business model seems to be built entirely around tricking tourists
or other taxi novices.
Compare the picture below of a fake taxi to the one earlier in this article showing a real MaiLinh taxi to see the similarity in branding and colours.
What to do if things go wrong? If you are running on a rigged meter and the cost has jumped way too high, you are probably going to be better off stopping immediately and finding another taxi. If you are in a busy area with other taxi traffic, just tell the driver to stop and let you off. Pretend you have just seen a shop or a hotel or a restaurant or something and decided you want to get off right there and right now to visit it. Don't tell the driver you are on to his trick or you will just end up arguing and wasting money and possibly causing him to lose face and become agressive. If it is late at night and the streets are empty and the weather is bad (a perfect time for a taxi driver to speed up his meter), you may be better off just making a comment about the meter being bad (or "sow") and letting the driver know you are looking at the meter carefully. If the VND 80,000 trip turns out to be VND 500,000, you could just calmly and without seeming concerned about the money collect your luggage and just hand the driver VND 200,000. But if things escalate you are probably better off just paying up and learning your lesson for next time.
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