Taxi service in Odesa Ukraine
Well, the old-style walk out and stop a taxi is not really advisable here in Ukraine, safety is one concern, and the rate is another. I was outside the market and asked what the rate was to go to my home, and it was double the Uber fee. So Uber is one option, but it seems that many are less than professional. We did find a premier service that charges about 4.00 more for the ride, the cars are clean, and service is good, well, until you order the service when they are busy. It seems they draft in independent service providers when all the "full time" company cars are busy.
The issue for 99% of the taxi here is the fact that is they sit and wait two minutes they charge you, but more then that is they open the windows and turn off the car, now the hotbox waits for you. When you get going, they like to offer you fresh air with the windows down. This, to me, is not great, there are too many other autos with exhaust throughout the streets of Odesa Ukraine. Asking 99% of the drivers to close the windows and turn on the air conditioning is like asking for an additional service, they really don't want to do it. Most complain a little and comply, but it is uncomfortable to have to ask.
Once we asked a driver the rate to drive from one town to another, and he gave a rate that was as expected high, but then he added if you want air conditioning, we would need to add on this much more!
In the environment, cash is king, and it seems you will be much farther ahead having small change with you to round off the rate. With the upscale service and even Uber, you get the rate from the app you have on your smartphone and not from the driver as no cars have meters.
Trunk space is often not available. Most taxi's in Odessa Ukraine have some personal junk in the trunk. Once I called a taxi and explained, I had a number of bags as I just flew in, so I not only paid more for "extra bags," but the drive complained. I had four check-in bags and one carry on.
There was a time in the past six months that the government of Ukraine put into law more rules for taxis and all autos. That is the requirement for taxis to ensure all passengers are clipped with the seat belt. The majority of the taxis you simply can not find the seat belts, but the real hook here was child safety seats. It is is not responsible for a person traveling from one location to another say a five or ten-minute taxi ride to carry child restraint seats. So could the taxi driver provide them, again it seems unreasonable? But in calling up a Uber taxi, no one would take the call as none of them had the child seats available. Once, when calling, we did not mention the children, the car arrived, we sat in with our arms around the children, and the driver started to drive 10 meters and announced there would be an additional fee because we had children, and they were not buckled in. We asked him to tell us how much and he was not clear, we asked him to stop, and we exited paying nothing. Well, Uber is wonderful as the next time we took an uber, we had the pay the fee for ditching the last taxi. We submitted a complaint, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. To bad for them as I will not partake in the service any longer. Other services were happy that we would announce we have the fee for the ticket should the driver get pulled over. They seem to be satisfied with that.