Recently, our family, my wife, father & mother in law,our small baby 6 months old + I, visited Mumbai for 10 days. We had gone from Kathgodam to Delhi airport in our own cab and from Mumbai airport we hired a prepaid taxi to Airoli. Their apartment was next to plaza in Airoli. However, the driver of the cab was in a hurry as he wanted to go back to airport for more work and dropped as at the plaza itself. Anyways, the apartment was hardly a minute away.

 LEARNING 1 – Our drivers should be patient enough to enquire about were our guests need to be dropped and drop them at the said location only.   

Experience 2 – Booking a cab for Mumbai Darshan

We booked a Xylo cab for Mumbai darshan for 1 day which would cover – Airoli to Gateway of India to Mahalaxmi temple to Siddivinaik temple then to Juhu beach and finally back to Airoli. We booked through our relative who is living in Airoli. Now, we decided to leave by 9 AM and had called the cab at that time. On calling the driver at 9.15 AM he said he would take another 30 minutes to reach. We are fine with it and understand such things might happen. However, the driver attitude was like don’t close the door too hard and why are orange peel kept in door lower box which is there to carry bottle. Where should we keep them? Throw them on road or keep them in our pockets?

Learning – Our drivers should be able to understand about the guests needs and there should be either a spare litter bag in cab if not then guests can use the car to keep any waste items.

Experience 3 – Booking from a travel portal.

We booked an Eritga car to visit Shirdi and Shanisignapur for 2 days. Starting from 4 PM on Saturday to return by Sunday night. This time I booked a car from a Google listing which had great reviews and they mentioned that per day 300 KMs would be charged @ Rs. 12 per KM and driver day charges are Rs. 300 per day extra. So, the total came out to be 300 X 2 X 12 =  7,200 + 600 (driver TA) . We agreed to the same. No bargaining nothing. Expecting to get a good car. While, booking we had also mentioned that we might go to Triyambakeshwar temple in Nashik. The company agreed that we are free to go as any extra KMs running would be charged accordingly and we agreed.

The driver came on time with a good Ertiga cab. We started our journey from Airoli at 4 PM. After sometime, we asked if we can connect our phone to Bluetooth to listen to music to this the driver said there is some issue with Bluetooth and it is not getting connected. No issues as the radio was playing we were fine with it. However, after some time he connected his phone and started listening to songs. We did not notice it as the music was okay and never thought he gave the excuse of Bluetooth not working on purpose. But the guy real character we came to know later. Anyways, by evening we came to know the car headlights were not working and only the fog lights were working. The driver said it happened just now. We never gave second thoughts but were a little concerned as visibility was low. However, he was driving good and we proceeded nonstop to Shirdi. However, by 8.30 PM we were tired and thought of having dinner we told the same to driver , Shirdi was hardly 60 KMs away. However, it took driver 50 minutes after crossing many restaurants to stop at one restaurant from where Shirdi was hardly 5 KMs and insisted to have dinner here as the restaurant is good. We agreed. The restaurant was pathetic. They served stale food.

Learning – Our drivers should never insist on any restaurants from where they might have a commission setting. The guest is free to choose the restaurant and driver is bound to oblige. We give driver TA for the same.

Anyways, we reached Shirdi around 9.45 PM and went to sleep. Got up at 2.30 AM Shirdi was walking distance from our hotel and did Darshan and returned back to hotel by 8 AM. Went to breakfast at 9 AM and asked driver if he would like to have anything he said he already had breakfast. We then proceeded to SaniSignapur which is around 75 KMs from Shirdi. We reached there from a long route and after checking with driver he said the shorter rote the road is not good and so he took a longer route. It took us around 2.5 hours to reach Shirdi with more than 120 KMs running. Anyways, the driver stopped the car in parking (though he could have easily stopped near the temple and then go to parking but he did not) from there he told us to keep our shoes in car as there is no shoe stand in temple. We agreed. The temple was around 5 minutes’ walk from parking. We thought the driver would not be aware of this and let it go.

Learning – Our driver should stop the car to the nearest possible point for guests to go to their respective place and then go to parking to park the car. Not the other way round to park the car in parking and ask guests to go to the place.

Anyways, we did our Darshan and returned back to cab. Then we told driver that we would like to go to Nasik Triyambakeshwar temple which is almost on the route to Mumbai. To this the driver said he was not told that before hand and it would take Rs. 1000 extra + any other extra KMs charges the car would run. We said, we had an agreed to pay any extra KMs above 600 KMs and why is he asking for Rs. 1000 extra. He said to call the operator. We called the taxi operator and he told the diver to go to Nashik without any Rs. 1000 extra. After this, the driver attitude completely changed.  It has to be noted that since we boarded the car, the driver had not uttered a single word with us he was either driving or talking on phone while driving.

Learning – We also provide cabs on KM basis and it is none of our business where the guests want to go. As long as the road is motorable. The driver should bear this in mind that he is not doing any favor to guests to go to a separate place which was not mentioned in the itinerary. The guests have booked the car on KM basis and it is their right to go to any place. No questions asked!. Further, the driver should have a positive attitude because for him it might be extra work but for guests they have been waiting for this vacation and are here to explore the place. The driver should assist them in getting the best of their journey. 

The driver took around 5 hours from Sani Signapur to Nashik and in between the tyre got puncher. The spare tyre was also punchured. So, we had to wait for half an hour to get it repaired. The driver never said a word just got outside the car to get it repaired. His attitude was like that he is doing us some major favor to visit Triyambakeshwar. Anyways, we reached Triyambakeshwar, here the driver parked the car in a parking that was way too far from the main temple while there was a parking near the temple where all the other cars were parked. When asked, why he has parked so far he said, there is a shade here !! We along with senior citizen and 6 months baby had to suffer and walk atleast for 30 minutes just because our driver was getting a shade in this parking!! The driver said not to argue with him!!

Learning – Our drivers can never show an iota of attitude to our guests. Our house (I  & driver) is running because of our guests and not the other way around. If I get to know, that our driver has behaved in such a way, at the same spot he would be fired and we would send a different driver to our guests. 

There was a huge line in Trimbakeshwar temple and it took us 3 hours for Darshan while the driver had told us it would not take more than 40 minutes!! We were dead tired by now. Imagine waking up at 2.30 AM and it was now close to 7.30 PM. We started our journey back to Mumbai, again with no headlights. The driver did not find it appropriate to get it checked in Nashik while we were waiting for Darshan . I guess, he was enjoying the shade after sunset.

We reached Airoli, Mumbai by 11 PM. The driver asked for extra KMs charges we paid and asked for Rs. 300 extra as it was past 9 PM. We wanted to speak to the taxi operator regarding the driver behavior and all but they never answered. By now, the driver was showing his true colors started threatening us to hurry and pay. We were too tired to argue with him or wait for the taxi operator to complain.

In all, what I learned from this experience is the importance of driver attitude in making a trip memorable or nightmare. The car though important is secondary. The main importance is driver.  For our guests it is even more important as most of our guests book car for more than 4 days.

This is what we will follow so that our guests have a hassle free experience:

1. Car: The car should be well maintained, neat and clean. There should be provision for music and also an AUX cable so that guests can listen to their music if they want.
2. Driver: Most important – Should be professional first and then a good person. That knows the importance of guests experience and work towards that end.
3. Dedicated Help: We would provide our tour coordinator number that would assist customers if they need any assistance while on tour. Though guests are always free to call me anytime.
4. Feedback – SMS feedback with guests while on tour so that we know everything is going smoothly as some guests might bear any inconvenience without complaining. They should not bear any inconvenience.