In London, a taxi driver must pass a difficult test called "The Knowledge" in order to be licensed. They must know all the streets and the best routes from one place to another, and study for years to become an expert on the city. The average driver needs 12 attempts over 34 months to pass. In Hyderabad, you barely need a running vehicle.
To be fair to the taxi drivers, many of the streets don't even appear to have names, and so formal addresses are mostly useless. Even a GPS system would be foiled by the lack of proper naming. Getting somewhere often involves getting to the neighborhood, and then either calling the store/restaurant you are going to, or asking people on the street until one of them knows where the place is. And sometimes, they point you in the wrong direction.
Additionally, the taxi drivers themselves often do not know where certain neighborhoods and landmarks are. Sometimes you have to flag down several autos before finding one that knows where you're going, more or less, is willing to take you there, and is willing to do so on the meter, not at an inflated price that is usually about twice what it should be. And sometimes, even if you agree to their price there are difficulties. Last night after agreeing to the auto drivers price, he had trouble finding the place and wanted more than he had said in the first place, even though he knew there would be some driving around to find the place.
The taxis sometimes are not in the best condition, and struggle to get up the mild inclines of bridges, and their engines stop while idling at stoplights. One taxi we were in recently had the most pathetic sounding horn, a sickly wheeze that no one outside our vehicle could hear. The taxi itself was not much healthier, and the driver puttered along, honking now and then anyway as we took our slow ride home.
To be fair, the drivers have a hard job, and we've always found what were looking for in the end We know ahead of time when they may not know exactly where something is, and the cost of the ride is usually less than what the tip would be for a taxi ride of the same distance in America.
To be fair to the taxi drivers, many of the streets don't even appear to have names, and so formal addresses are mostly useless. Even a GPS system would be foiled by the lack of proper naming. Getting somewhere often involves getting to the neighborhood, and then either calling the store/restaurant you are going to, or asking people on the street until one of them knows where the place is. And sometimes, they point you in the wrong direction.
Additionally, the taxi drivers themselves often do not know where certain neighborhoods and landmarks are. Sometimes you have to flag down several autos before finding one that knows where you're going, more or less, is willing to take you there, and is willing to do so on the meter, not at an inflated price that is usually about twice what it should be. And sometimes, even if you agree to their price there are difficulties. Last night after agreeing to the auto drivers price, he had trouble finding the place and wanted more than he had said in the first place, even though he knew there would be some driving around to find the place.
The taxis sometimes are not in the best condition, and struggle to get up the mild inclines of bridges, and their engines stop while idling at stoplights. One taxi we were in recently had the most pathetic sounding horn, a sickly wheeze that no one outside our vehicle could hear. The taxi itself was not much healthier, and the driver puttered along, honking now and then anyway as we took our slow ride home.
To be fair, the drivers have a hard job, and we've always found what were looking for in the end We know ahead of time when they may not know exactly where something is, and the cost of the ride is usually less than what the tip would be for a taxi ride of the same distance in America.
I have to say that was one of my favorite things about my visit to India that we took autos everywhere and they amounted to less than 5 dollars (at most ever) for me... People in India thought it was too expensive. But if the drivers know where they're going its amazing luck!
Jas.