August the 15th, 2021 - Some Croatian taxi drivers are taking advantage of the unexpectedly excellent tourist season and in an attempt to make as much money as possible, are refusing to accept journeys under 100 kuna.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, in the current rather unprecedented and positive situation in which the summer tourist season is in full swing and the streets are full of tourists, we're increasingly witnessing the rude tactics of various Croatian companies who are trying to make the most of the ignorance of foreign nationals and take advantage of the situation given their experience of the dire summer of 2020. While morally wrong to do to anyone, such attitudes and policies often affect local customers and consumers as well.
After the news broke that some greedy landlords renting out apartments to tourists are simply cancelling previously agreed reservations made by Croatian guests in order to rent out their apartments at higher prices to foreigners making last minute bookings, Croatian taxi drivers have also begun only accepting rides if they think they'll make good money on them. Slododna Dalmacija described the infuriating experience of one woman from Split attempting to book a taxi.
''It isn't enough to say that it's been driving me insane. I've heard countless times that Croatian taxi drivers are talking amongst themselves about how they won't accept a ride if its less than 100 kuna. They won't even accept your card for payment, only cash. It's horrible what they're doing, but as soon as winter comes around, that 30 kuna from a local man will come in handy,'' she said.
Milivoj Topic, president of the carrier's guild at the Association of Craftsmen of the City of Split, explained what lies behind the story about certain Croatian taxi drivers and an epidemic of greed among them. In particular, it is a matter of market liberalisation and therefore taxi drivers and other such carriers can set whatever prices they want to.
''That gives you the right to charge as much as you want for your services. It's a competition,'' he said, adding:
"In the past maybe four or five months, we advocated for order in terms of taxi transport. We reached some kind of agreement, everything was already down on paper, but in the end, Transport Minister Oleg Butkovic just ignored everything and left things as they are, and the way they are means disorder and non-transparency,'' he concluded.
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