Funilly enough, I use the term 'Goa taxi syndrome' to describe the ongoing mess in the liberalised Amsterdam taxi market (where, despite meters, fleecing the unaware is at the order of the day, and very bad manners are offered as bonus)
I think the causes are basically the same: too many cabbies chasing too few customers. Contrary to 101 economics, this competition does not lead to better services and lower prices, but to exactly the reverse: desperate taxi drivers trying to max out what they can take from their rarified prey. This in turn, leads to a vicious circle of spiraling prices and aggrieved customers - and ever more frustrated cabbies. In Amsterdam, TCA, the main taxi drivers co-operative, is trying to sort out the mess, by being extremely tough on their errant members. The municipality, which has long shunned to intervene in the taxi world, deemed to be too 'complicated', and serving only the rich anyway, is now also pouncing. But it's an uphill task. Groningen, in the North of the country (NL), is more succesful. Taxis there are considered public transport, and are mostly run by the same company that run the city buses - and which is owned by ... the German Railways. Private drivers may also ply - on the same terms of service. And for really smmoth service and friendly cab operation, one might look at Shanghai. Will Parikar be able to make the difference? Cheers from p+4D!