Well, there are many posts warning about Taxi rip-offs in Belgium. I shall not doubt the posts since they are probably true. Here is another one from my client from London.

She came by train from London to the Eurostar Train Terminal in Brussels because she does not like flying (Don't forget that flying is for the birds. Limo Taxi is the way) to attend a business meeting in Utrecht Netherland. At that time she was not my client yet of course, so she got in a taxi outside of the Eurostar Train Terminal station in Brussels to Utrecht (Holland). Normal price more or less 140km x 1,7€ per km around 250 – 270 € including step in charge and about 90 min drive max with some traffic jam.

Well… 5 hours later the Taxi meter had recorded about 1000€ while she had a sightseeing of the major cities around in Holland, but from the highway. This is not a joke, it is 100% true story and as you can understand I cannot reveal the identity of my client. The taxi driver start crying that it was not his taxi and that he was working for a boss, he had to pay the amount on the meter to the company and so on. She fell for it and settled down for 600€ if I remember correct and of course never made her appointment in the AMRO bank.

The thing that she does not know is that if the driver had called the police she had to pay the full amount that was registered on the taxi meter. That is the law and you can not do much about it than to make an official complaint and live long after.. The chance to get your ripped-off money back? I shall leave this to the maths and probability laws.

Lesson NR 1:
Always ask how far your destination is and how much your fair will cost.

Lesson NR 2:
For long distance taxi transport make a fixed amount deal with the driver, if he / she refuses and says "on the meter" … Hasta la vista baby. Take the one that will give you a fixed price.

Legal stuff
It is on the discretion of the client to choose the vehicle and / or the driver from the taxi spots and not take the first on the cue line.
A taxi driver may not refuse a fair from a taxi spot unless he can prove that you are in an unstable mental state (drunk for example, or behaving aggressively etc.)

You are not obliged to take the first taxi waiting.
The moral code of the drivers is that the first one gets the client so probably they will tell you that.

You can reply to them that the law states that you have the right to take any driver YOU like, they should know that.
Now, since the taxi is waitting on duty on the taxi spot,
it is obliged by law to to accept the fair.
The catch here is that the driver has always the right and is somehow obliged, to use the taxi meter and not agree on a fixed price.

Tips

Make arrangements in advance for your transport.

To be continued….

What you need to know about Taxis
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