From a Reader: One of my friends went to Aruba two weeks ago and had a reservation made back in June last year for this upscale restaurant downtown.
As he was staying in the Ritz Carlton, he did not rent a car, a cab ride to town was his only option.
As his restaurant reservation was at 6pm, he asked the concierge for a cab, and then as he waited asked how long it would take to arrive at the restaurant.
A shy faced concierge then replied: I will call them again, but I am waiting for FIVE cabs already and not one is outside yet.
It was 5.30…and his reservation was at 6pm… he was nervous, there was already a line of people waiting…. no cabs showed up, it was 5.40pm
Finally one cab arrived….but still four others needed to be filled.
Anyway…long story short. He arrived at the restaurant at 6.50!!
They were still able to seat him although guests for the second seating were arriving already, but he had a great dinner.
On the return disaster struck again! At around 8.30 as he finished dinner and asked for a cab, when he was taking care of the bill, the same story repeated.
They went outside the restaurant to wait for a cab… SEVEN more dinner parties were waiting, patrons from the first seating…all waiting in line!!
He told me, great restaurant, great food…but why in the world does it take me almost 2 1/2 hours to go from Ritz Carlton downtown and back to the Ritz Carlton.
What is the story with taxis in Aruba??
So I started digging…Aruba has 465 taxi drivers registered, probably 35% of these are older taxi drivers…They only drive in the day time. Another percentage only does the airport run, a few times a day, and the others do not bother to go from Noord downtown.
Too much traffic?
So most cabs stay up in Noord and try to have as many short rides.
I heard that every time an “Illegal” taxi driver shows up…the legal taxi drivers wanna beat him up, and they are protectionists, totally against the introduction of UBER or LYFT.
Now what? They wanna work less, and service suffers.
2.1 million tourists arrived last year on Aruba…
1.3 million by air…
800K by cruise ship…
A lot of them need a taxi during their stay.
They wait, and wait.
Aruba needs more diligent taxi drivers who want to work and service guests.
OR
With limited taxi service the island should receive less tourists per year.
Cause now the service for tourists is going downhill, they spend their vacations waiting for wheel. Car rentals benefit, and there are over 80.000 vehicles on the road in Aruba.
Public transportation? It is out of the question.
The big buses are infrequent and inefficient.
Imagine the wait for a cab, from Secret Resort, at Baby Beach?
Just Saying…..where is the thinking?
