Zagreb resident claims: Taxi driver charged his mother-in-law 82 euros for a 7-kilometer ride

(Patria) - A Zagreb resident contacted the portal Index.hr with a story about a taxi driver who charged his mother-in-law 82 euros for a ride from Tkalčićeva Street to Velesajam. The ride was about 7.2 kilometers long.

"I am sending the receipt for a taxi ride that my mother-in-law received for a ride in Zagreb from Tkalčićeva Street to Velesajam, where a bus for a trip to Budapest was waiting for her. People need to be warned about such manipulations and frauds," the reader stated. The ride took place yesterday at 5:50 AM.


Photo: Index

According to the Road Transport Act, which was amended in 2018, each transport operator can choose the price they want per kilometer.

"The taxi transport price list is independently determined by the transport operator, and must contain at least the price per kilometer traveled," clearly states Article 48 of the Road Transport Act. Taxi drivers can change their price lists.

Božo Miletić, secretary of taxi drivers gathered in the association "Lider" and former president of the Association of Taxi Drivers at the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts, commented earlier this year on the increasing number of cases where people complain that taxi drivers are "ripping them off" in Zagreb.

- Currently, the law in force is too liberal and favors all those who like 'fishing in troubled waters,' which is something I spoke about even before its adoption. In all more serious companies, everything is more or less strictly controlled, and there is a whole hierarchy of positions, precisely to avoid such things, or, if they do happen, to detect them and sanction the perpetrator.

The Road Transport Act is conducive to various manipulations to the detriment of users and the state itself, and requires urgent amendments. People open limited liability companies and appoint homeless people from Bosnia and Herzegovina or Serbia as responsible persons, paying them a few hundred euros, undercut the prices of those of us who really try to work according to regulations, rack up debts, and then just close the company. The debts disappear with the company, and state institutions cannot trace the responsible persons, and so it goes in a circle - he said.

The Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure is in the process of adopting a new Rulebook on amendments and supplements to the rulebook on special conditions for vehicles used for public road transport and transport for own needs. One of the key changes concerns obligations related to displaying the price list of taxi services and additional technical requirements.

Taxi drivers will still be able to freely set prices, but according to the new rules, it is precisely prescribed how and where all prices must be displayed and visible to users.

Price lists must be placed on the back of the driver's and front passenger's seats or on the external side surfaces of the vehicle, except on side glass surfaces. The height of the letters on the price list must not be less than 10 millimeters, which should ensure better readability and prevent manipulation, and ensure that service users know in advance how much they will pay for transport.

Additional regulation concerns taximeters. If a taximeter is present in the vehicle, it must be of an approved type, verified, and placed in a location visible to users inside the vehicle. The goal of this change is to ensure the accuracy of service charges and prevent possible abuses in the calculation of transport prices.