The Kalkan Taxi Debate

[DRBD]

johnboy1 - congratulations and pleased you enjoyed Kalkan.  Sounding promising about the taxi situation, perhaps things may be calming down from the previous reports

[wendyg]

Hi

It cost us 17 Lira from the Harbour to the Paradise apartments which are at the very top of the hill but the driver only charged us 15 Lira

We also got a taxi from the rank to Patara beach. The meter displayed 75 Lira there and 78 Lira back as we got taken back to our apartments but he only charged us 70 Lira and even waited for us for 3 hours at Patara. He could have easily charged us over 150 Lira but he didn''t.


Wendy

[kalkanpost]

hi folks

As you know Kalkan one of the most expensive place in turkey.
Of course taxi fares expensive also. Everybody missed one point.As you know most of the times taxis are working back to back ( I mean clients get on ,get off often on the streets)in the big towns. But in Kalkan taxis are working mostly one way and return is empty. The fares are covering return also.( Same in the world.If there is no return fares are more....) .In the big towns they don''t have any problem for return,because they have chance to find another customer while they are driving.
According to me it could be one point to explanation why taxi fares to much...?

why dont you write about restaurant bills ? are some of them worth to pay...?
or maintenance of the villas ?
taxes...?
Beach Clubs....
(Have you check your bills at the beach clubs...If you use free service for the beach clubs do you have any additional cost for the SERVICE......?
Did you check it...?

Electric or water bills ....

Why butchers are expensive then the other towns  ?

Why some shops more expensive ?

Probably we have to find right answer of these questions to sort it out problems.

(By the way most of the people who work in summer,don''t have to chance to find regular job in winter.)

These are all my personal opinion......

regards

ilker

[bankieken]

I therefore assume that if, by sheer coincidence, as I get out of the taxi I have just paid a fare which covers the return journey, one of my neighbours (who happens to be standing outside our apartments) should get in to go back into town they will get a free trip - I don''t think so!!

Stop making excuses for the current situation. The businesses you refer to charge what they think they can get away with. If the tourists find Kalkan too expensive they won''t come back - simple as that.

[Cosetta]

Hint:  choose a willing driver, negotiate a fixed price, call him every time you need him.

[mouse]

Absolutely Cosetta. I would imagine ilker may know a little more than you do bankieken as he is Turkish. It would seem that if the situation were reversed you would be the one getting the ''free trip'' and I would imagine that you certainly wouldn''t moan about that!

[bankieken]

Mouse

I have never advocated that I know more about the situation than ilker.

My point was that the ''return'' fare does not exist and the next time I am in Kalkan I will test the theory - if I get a ''free trip'' on the basis that the person in the taxi before me has in effect paid my fare back into town I will be posting about it on this thread. Perhaps the next time I am walking into town along Kalamar Road I will take up the offer of a ride from one of the taxis touting for business as they return to town from a drop off and on arriving at the taxi rank advise him that I will not be paying.

The fact of the matter is that the seasonal taxi drivers have got their heads in the trough as deep as any other tourist business in Kalkan and disappear off at the end of October the same as the majority of traders in the town.  Good luck to them - I already have negotiated my regular taxi journey fares with a couple of the local drivers who happen to be around for 12 months of the year.

[Blue Lizard]

we are also lead to believe that the taxi fares have been set by the government(taxi driver posting on here some while back)if that was so shouldn''t each taxi ride to the same destination cost the same?get in 3 different taxis and you will be given 3 different prices...i won''t use taxis anymore

[kalkanpost]

hi

the thing is very important. the taxi fares is not settled by the goverment. Goverment just confirming price list sended by taxi ranks in the town.Mostly towns have different rates in such a small towns, taxis owners are calculating return cost when they fixing their own fares.(If its fair the  office is confirming)Thats what I mean.Certainy you can negotiate about price if you use it often (especially if you use same driver)

[kalkanpost]

hi again....

also the taxis in kalkan have a very strict rules. If some taxi drivers are charging more than taximeter,or trying to do long distance more than you go , or untidy,dirty etc. ( basicly if there is something wrong) please take a number of the taxi ( not registered number - blue sticker ;right side up of the front glass)
and let Ahmet (chief of the taxi rank ) know about the problem.(00 90 242 844 31 00 ) He will sort it out.

And we will have an article in next issue of kalkanpost.Also you can read latest news and articles about this problem kalkan on www.kalkanpost.com

[kalkan tourism transport]

EMRE BEYE TEŞEKKÜRLER TAKSİCİ KARDEŞLERİMİZİN PROBLEMLERİNİ BİRAZDA OLSASİZLERE ANLATMAYACALIŞMIS ANLADIGIM KADARIYLA SİZDE BUNU ANLAYIŞLA KARŞILAMIŞSINIZ KİMSE KALKANDA TURİZMİN KÖTÜYE GİTMESİNİ İSTEMEZ CÜNKÜ KİMSE COCUGUNUN EKMEK PARASINI GERİ TEPMEK İSTEMEZ BEN İNANIYORUMKİ KALKANI VE TURİZMI KALKANIN YERLİ HALKI KADAR KİMSE DÜŞÜNMEZ
DÜŞÜNEMEZ BUNU DÜŞÜNENLER YA TURİZMLE UGRASMIYORDUR YADA KALKANI SEVMİYORDUR.
BİZLERİ DAHA İYİ TANIMAK İÇİN LUFEN BİZLERİN ARASINA KATILINIZ

DEĞİŞEN BİR KÜLTÜRE AYAK UYDURMAK O KADARDA KOLAY DEĞİLDİR.

TESEKKÃœRLER

MUSTAFA

[theinspector]

Emre it is very kind of you to give us your opinion.  You say that petrol costs have gone up.  Yes, you are right.  But taxis do not use benzene, they use yurtgaz.  And yurtgaz is YTL 1 / litre.  A car with yurtgaz can go and come from Dalaman airport with YTL 45 or less.

The increase in taxi fares is much more than the increase in the price of yurtgaz.  If there are too many taxis, not every taxi will earn well.  Too many restaurants, too many taxis.  Difficult for everyone to earn well.  Some people will have to find another way to make money.

It is true as you say that shopkeepers, taxi drivers, hotel and restaurant workers and travel agencies work only 6 months.  Many workers do construction in the wintertime to earn extra money, as you know.  Some look after people''''''''s villas or their gardens.  Some go home to their villages.  We wish you could work here for 12 months of every year, but it is not possible for so many workers to do that.

Some tourists have already decided not to come to Kalkan next year.  They say they will go to Kas or somewhere else.  The taxi problem is not going to help Kalkan have more visitors.  It is not going to give you more business because people will start to walk, or hire a car or a motorbike. 

I hope you can find a good solution and a better way for everyone.

Yes you are right some of the taxis work with Yurtgaz but it is not so cheap as you think. Coz my old taxi was working with yurtgaz but they cost us 0.20 lira per km and dalaman is 150 km one way and if you calculate it  300 x 0,20= 60 liras there and back. But if we talk about the new bigger ones they work with diesel and it costs us 45 or less thats true but thinkj about that we pay 7 lira for tunnel and 7 lira for parking and the remain money is for the work we done. Because you don''''t know this but we go to dalaman sometimes 2 3 times a day and we get tired and who is going to pay it if we cost it 60 liras for dalaman or what are we going to earn then??Can you tell me this? Also you told me that some people says that they are going to go to KaÅŸ but if taxi fares change it changes all around turkey. Then how they are going to run away from increases??
And about the counts of restaurants we can''''t do anything about it. Everyone can do what they want as a job. No body can effect no one do do any job. I think in this way. Hope not be so rude.

Regards

Emre

hello i did know about yurgas i thought all cars were run on benzene is it a deisel type feul?

[holidayfever]

What is the next but one above saying in Turkish

[theinspector]

Hello

7YTL for the tunnel??

Has the toll increased since May?

It was (single trip in a taxi) 3YTL.

Hello emre ok  i would like to have a say in this debate we come to kalkan on a regular basis
and i think what you have done regarding the supermarkets is very bad. Around the world this is known as FREE ENTAPRISE not dictate to the supermarkets what they can and cannot do. The supermarkets give this servis because if they did not a lot of people would and still do go into fhetiye and kas to do their shopping. by dolmus or car and as you know 90% of the people in kalkan are villa or appartment owners and therefore do a lot of shopping.
You may also be surprised to hear that i to am  a taxi driver and also have my own company.
So i think i am in a good position to comment :-)) agreed.
Your tarrif.s are nearly as exspensive as back here in the uk.
I think unless somthing is resolved everyone will suffer. As people will not go out so much in the evenings
Then the retaurants and bars will suffer as they already are doing

AND emrie you have not mentioned  how alll the taxi.s stand to make a handsome profit from where they have just built the new BUS STATION a nearly a killomiter up the HILL

Here in the uk we have MANY different taxi firms all compeating for the same work SO we have to change prices accordingley In kalkan it is just ONE company who have the monnopaly

ps hope i did not dron on to much :-)).

[theinspector]

Hello emre
I would just like comment on the way you have taken the work away from the supermarkets this is realy bad parctice. Because the servis car is Known as FREE ENTAPRISE
I to am a TAXI DRVER here in the uk with my own firm You will all  losing money and bussiness if you continue to monnopolise kalkan with your ONE taxi company.
Cut you fares and you WILL makes lots more LIRA.
iwe have been coming to kalkan for a few years now and used taxi.s a lot but since the supermarket blockade i now hire a car do a lot of shopping in kas and fethyia and park my car in town at nite and walk down in the morning to pick it up.
Because as mentiond before to get taxi.two or three times a day for 14 days or maybe a month. can work out to a lot of money. we dont even do that here in the uk let alone kalkan.
mick

[theinspector]

sureley if taxis are metered correctly the same journey by different taxis should be the same price?we were quite a way out to walk in the heat and were charged different prices by different taxis...some differences were unbelievable

well said i agree totaly

[felicity]

Can somebody roughly translate the gist of Mustapha''s turkish - I cannot get beyond a few words thanking his fellow Emre for his support - but beyond that - I can only pick out the odd word..?  Hey - any expats out there or those married to turks - can you translate for us feeble brits with only their smattering of turkish......

Cheers!

[HEATH]

         we were in Kalkan in July,there was always a queue of taxis at any given time i seem
to think this the problem too many taxis for the number of custemers.We are back at the
end of October and are hiring a car this time after toting up what we paid for taxis in July.
                                         Heath.

[jen]

Hi Felicity, I asked a Turkish friend to translate the text written by Kalkan Tourism Transport and they kindly translated it as;

"Thanks to Emre Bey. He has tried to explain to you, at least a little bit, the problems faced by our brothers the taxi-drivers. As far as I understand you have been sympathetic to this. No one wants tourism in Kalkan to struggle, because no one wants these kids to not have money for bread. I believe that no one thinks, or can think, more about Kalkan and tourism than Kalkan''s own people. Anyone who thinks differently either doesn''t work in tourism or doesn''t love Kalkan.
In order to know us better please join us.

It is not easy to adapt to a different culture. "

I have no idea if the translation is right or not myself though!!!

[Cosetta]

Our Turkish neighbor also today translated Mustapha''s message exactly the same way as you have written.