Sorry, Chief, while I agree with most of your posts,.
Finally a voice of reason.
on this issue I'm on the side of the Taxi drivers.
Whoops now the wheels came off the bus.
Even setting aside the tax issue that Christi raised,
I will agree with EVERYTHING Christi said about the taxes and what not. The question I ask is WHY is it more expensive for taxi drivers than other business that charge a more reasonable rate? If restaurants, shops and even Mega are giving 12 to 1 on the dollar, why is that too expensive for a taxi?
the Taxi drivers have every right to set whatever exchange rate they want, SO LONG AS they make that exchange rate clear up front.
Well sure they do. Invisible hand of the markets and all. Oh wait, no invisible hand.... More on that later.
Is an exchange rate of 10-1 "reasonable"? That depends entirely upon the circumstances and the desires of who is riding. If you are only in Coz for 1 day off a cruise ship, and all you are going to do is take a cab downtown to window shop and then back to the ship, maybe the extra 50-60 pesos it is going to cost you to pay in dollars is less than the lost time and hassle of waiting in line at a Cambio to change $20 into Pesos.
Well sure peeps want to spend dollars. After they buy a taxi ride at 10 to 1 they can jump out at Wet Wendy's and have a fabulous margarita and get a WAY better rate than 10 to 1 on the drinks.
Are there a lot better rates than 10-1? Of course there are, which is why I always change $400-$500 into Pesos at the Banks at the beginning of every trip.
No, sir, I think here you miss my point. There are way better rate than 10 to 1 available at restaurants and other shops. You can pay in dollars and get 12 to 1 easily.
But some people don't want to spend a minute of their vacations in a Bank lobby waiting for the next Teller, and don't want to even think about calculating exchange rates. If the posted rate for a taxi ride from the Casa Del Mar to Centro is 80 Pesos, and the Cab driver tries to charge 100 Pesos then THAT is a ripoff.
Well, that happens alot too, but save that for another day. Christi did the nice rate charts so you can KNOW now when that is happening.
But if the exchange rate he offers on Pesos is a bad rate - if you have the choice to pay 80 Pesos or $8 - then as long as the exchange rate was clear up front (which it is; everyone knows or has the ability to learn that EVERY taxi driver on Coz offers a 10-1 exchange on Pesos for Dollars), I don't see any ripoff. Of course, I also think that anti-gouging laws are generally a very stupid idea for economic reasons. Immediate spikes in price after a disaster, like a sudden rise in the price of electric generators or gasoline after a big storm, are exactly the kind of economic incentives needed to get supplies to where they are scarce. The anti-gouging laws of New York and New Jersey after the huge storm last fall didn't result in a faster recovery; in fact, those ridiculous limitations on rational reactions to markets slowed the recovery by weeks or even months. But I've gotten off subject, so I'll cut short my rant on stupid politicians.
Well, I really don't want to go down that road, but if you agree government should stay out of price fixing, then what do you think about the gov sanctioned taxi monopoly? I was never proposing someone should 'do' something about it. I was just expressing an opinion.
They have ALOT of political power. There was an article a while back about a tour group from Mexico City that was traveling on a bus tour. They brought the bus over to the island and the taxi surrounded and stopped it because it was infringing on their rights.
Again, I am not saying they are committing theft at that exchange rate; I am just saying I don't think it is justified by any reason I have read here yet.
Do they have the right to do it? Sure.
Does what I think about it matter? No.
Does it effect me? No, I seldom need a taxi and I carry pesos.
---------- Post added July 13th, 2013 at 04:52 AM ----------
Can't understand the complaints about the exchange rate. It's Mexico, the currency is the peso. If they are nice enough to accept a foreign currency, with the inconvenience to them of exchanging it, rounding to 10 to the US$ seems fair to me. I don't expect a cabbie to carry a calculator and check to the Internet for the current exchange rate. If they give me a fair fare and I'm near the end of a trip and running low on pesos, sometimes I just pay in 10/1 US$ to include a tip, but usually it makes way more sense to me to use pesos while in Mexico. But I do get peeved when they try to give me the "gringo rate", and the earlier example where someone was quoted a fare when getting in, and charged a higher rate before letting their luggage out of the trunk is terrible.
Is there a rate you would think wasn't fair? Like 8 to 1 or 5 to 1?
Of course a taxi is only a little cost. So maybe it doesn't matter.
What if it was diving?
Say it cost $1000 peso for a two tank dive.
If you went with a regular op using the current rate, that cost you 78.13US
Now if the taxis guys had a dive boat, that would cost you 100US. A difference of 21.87.
For 7 days of diving with the reg op, 546.91US
For 7 days with the taxi dive boat, 700US.
153US difference or a 28% percent increase. A 28 percent bump for currency exchange ought to be enough to get someone to kick you off the temple steps!
For that matter, send the taxi guys to my place, I will buy dollars from them all day long at 10.5 to 1. They can make an easy 5% return on those nasty dollars that are so hard to deal with.
The missus and I can take what? $10,000 in cash each undeclared on the plane right? So it would only take about 210,000 pesos to buy that $20,000 US. I imagine I could buy 210K in Pesos for like 16,535. Net me like $3464 per trip. Less travel expenses, say $2500 US per trip. Fly in with Pesos and out with Dollars.
Jeez, how many of Ray's Margaritas could I get for $2,500US?
I might be on to something here.
