TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Gypsy Taxi Situation

GYPSY TAXI

From The Daily Herald

On the far a few times I have traveled I always use marked cabs. When I go back to visit friends and family in NYC I use yellow cabs. I have never used Uber/Lyft etc and never will. Yes the drivers may be nicer, their vehicle nicer but I don't know how much, if any, insurance these private citizens have. To ne it's more peace of mind that a taxicab company would have the necessary commercial insurance in the event something happen.

Both Uber and Lyft drivers are fully insured by those companies while on duty. They are not operating on thier own as private citizens.

We are talking St. Maarten here, totally different situation.

Given that there is no Uber or Lyft operation on St Martin, you are correct. The response was to correct a misconception about these services that was put forth.

No problem as many discussions go off the original topic. I just didn't want others to think there was Uber of Lyft on the island.

Thank you.

Off topic on this board ? Say it isnt so ! LOL. Your welcome.

Friend of mine who had vertigo and couldnt drive took greyhound between chicago and indianapolis. Greyhound was oversold 25 seats on the return. There were two college kids also going to indy. Greyhound said next day. Kid used uber and in two minutes a Lexus RX showed up not knowing the destination and drove them 4 hours to indy for $245 for the 3 of them. Cheapenrthan greyhound who refunded there dough.

Now that's what I call off topic. Nothing to do with St Maarten. LOL

Gypsy taxi—->uber/lyft——-> dont trust uber/lyft—->cool story about uber greatness

Maybe sxm needs uber

https://www.tripadvisor.co.nz/ShowT...ere_Uber_on_SM-St_Martin_St_Maarten.html

Googled uber on st maarten and got this TA thread on uber—->taxis—->maho—->planes and the group talks about how the TA thread went tangential around line #7 of 9

You are spot on there!

To get this back on topic, I just spoke with my local taxi driver friend and he says there is a real problem with the gypsy taxis blocking the legal taxis from getting into the port. Since Irma there are a lot more gypsy taxis as more people are trying to make a living and skirting the law in many cases. Can we say "squatters on the beach or in parking lots running a concession"?

Hopefully the police or other authorities can deal with this and get it resolved. As many cruise ship people will opt to walk into town, the gypsy taxis wait for them just outside the port gates and create a mess. It is a long walk from the pier into town and I am sure many opt to get in about any vehicle offered once they realize the distance.

And maybe they don't need Uber.

Take a lesson from that on how annoyed the OP was when it went off topic.

I love tangents.....why do they call them gypsy taxis, is that an offensive term unless these folks are Roma’s often referred to as Gypsy’s. I’ve not seen any Roma’s on SXM.

How about unlicensed taxis?

And all the cabbies in NY and Chicago are with you guys but they are getting whacked by Uber.

Enough of the uber stuff. Lets get back to the original topic.

Right, back to the big Gypsy problem on the island, to many gypsys and too many gypsys driving taxis.

I think this one has run its coarse. Should be closed as op has the answers.

Sadly, correct.