MikePadgett.com

Service with a frown: the joy of Brussels taxis

— Taking a taxi in Brussels is expensive: maybe the hacks should read some Confucian philosophy…”

When Confucius developed the concept of junzi, he imagined this ‘exemplary individual’ existing within and contributing to, a culture of mutual respect. When Confucius taught his vision of a peaceful, rational and carefully ordered society, Brussels was still a damp marsh.

Meanwhile the earliest taximeter, a device for the calculation of cab fares, was probably already in use when the oldest surviving Confucian text was written.

Confucius devised a philosophy for increasingly sophisticated and populous civilisations, while the taximeter was devised to profit from them.

As the capital of Europe, Brussels has plenty of sophistication and a fairly large population. It is also the twentieth most expensive city in the world. [1] If Confucius were to arrive here today by Eurostar, he might discover some familiar patterns, but he would balk at the cost of the taxi ride.

And if he expressed his dismay to the driver in passable French, more than likely he would receive in return the idiomatic cold shoulder. The Brussels taxi driver is not one to indulge in conjecture.

On the last announcement of a general increase in fares in 2008, Pascal De Smet – who as a chauffeured Minister for Transport has no need of taxis – claimed by way of excuse that equivalent services in Paris, London and Berlin charged more. [2]

Brussels taxi drivers are hardly trying to make fast money. As a potential customer, I have been turned down on several occasions because the bored-looking driver considered my destination not worth the effort. When my partner left hospital recently following an operation, the taxi rank suggested she walk home instead.

Is it then a question of quid pro quo: are we paying more for higher standards? Probably not. For while London hacks must enlarge their hippocampus in order to serve the city, [3] the acuity of their Bruxellois contemporaries consists only of watching a GPS device instead of the road ahead. And if the pedigree of the German cars they drive suggests a class apart, their interiors smell as if the rest of the world has already been there.

Perhaps Brussels taxis could learn a thing or two from our wise Confucius. His legacy certainly lives on in modern China, if the stories from the Beijing Olympics are to be believed. With the five rings in town, gloves, ties and suits were required garments. Beards, shaved heads and ‘radical hairstyles’ were proscribed.[4] The penalty for non-compliance was a two-day suspension consisting of “rectification and reform”.

Update: 11 May 2011

Brussels taxi drivers are not allowed to pick up ad hoc fares from the airport at Zaventem without a prior booking. The airport patch is held by different cab firms. On 10 May 2011 however, a Brussels taxi driver took such a fare and the unsuspecting passenger got in.

What happened then is extraordinary. According to a report in Le Soir the following day, a police officer attempted to stop the cab and the driver sped off with the officer hanging onto the bonnet of the vehicle. After two kilometres, the officer decided enough was enough and managed to aim his gun towards the dashboard and fire it. The driver was hit in the shoulder and stopped the vehicle. The passenger, stuck in the back seat all this time, was unharmed.

Footnotes

1. UBS Prices and Earnings (2009), p.8 ↑
2. Prendre le taxi coûtera plus cher à Bruxelles, Le Soir, 03 March 2008 ↑
3. Taxicabs of the United Kingdom, Wikipedia ↑
4. China to ban Weird Asian Stinky Cab Drivers, Weird Asia News, 23 April 2007 ↑