Taxi Service - How to Find and Choose

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No matter where you live, there is a taxi company in your area. Whether you live in a bustling city such as New York and Chicago, or in the quiet mid-west like Fargo, there will always be a demand for cab service. This guide will give you basic outline on what to look for when choosing a taxi company.

Even in the smallest of cities, there can be dozens of cab companies operated by owner operators and small businesses. This makes it's hard to weed out the good ones from the bad. The first thing you should do is go online and look for a taxi service directory or use Google "taxi service" followed by "your area". This will pull up a list of local cab companies in your area. From the list, try to select at least three to five taxi companies. Now that you have your list in hand, it's time to do a little research. Two of the best websites for this are Rip-off Report and the Better Business Bureau. Most reputable companies will be part of the Better Business Bureau or at the very least a taxi association. Also, please keep in mind that any reviews on Rip-off Report are only one side of the story and can even be malicious competitors trying to ruin the taxi services name. Use your own judgment to find out if this person had a genuinely bad experience or is out for blood. Now that you have done your research, it's time to call your list.

It's important to ask a few questions upfront when calling the cab companies. The first thing to ask is hours of operation. Most taxi companies will be 24/7, but some of the smaller companies will open only until 3 AM. This can be very important depending on if you're just looking for airport pickup or you need a ride home from the late-night bar crawling. Now that's out of the way the next thing to ask is how much their rates are and be sure to get a quick estimate on how much it will cost to get you from point A to your point of destination. You should have your addresses on hand and be ready to tell them the miles you will be traveling. After you have called all the cab companies on your list, it's now time to choose your service.

Please keep in mind that the cheapest service is not always the best one to go for. Sometimes it's worth paying a little extra to get that service with all the positive praise and reviews. At least you are not tied to any service plan like other businesses and one bad cab ride can't hurt you.