Prague airport taxi blues

In 2013 our share of the Prague airport transfer market kept declining. 

More and more competitors were offering their services. Many new companies that had really no idea what was going on (not that I did when I started of course) and thought it was and easy way to make money. But is not.

Big companies came in with deep pockets dumping transfers. We charge now CZK 650 per transfer and the big companies charge CZK 500. Our drivers are paid by the transfer and they are some of the best paid in the business. The big companies contact their transfers  out to a Czech company who may have their own drivers or may contract those transfers out also and each company wants a cut. The end result is that the driver actually doing the job gets 300 - 350 and he/she must pay for the gas, the insurance, car upkeep etc. etc 

Then, of course, along came UBER and they were/are charging CZK 350 or something for the airport transfer. I am biased of course but I do not like Uber simply because I feel they are exploiting their drivers - join any Facebook Uber group and read what the actual drivers say. The problem in Prague is, and I am treading on some thin ice here, it is said that many of drivers here are Ukrainan guys with no work permits nor resident permit. They work for an organization that pays them a very low hourly rate and they work 16 hour days and sleep in their cars..


Prague airport itself was becoming more and more problematic. They have 400 taxis that are allowed to park in front of the terminals, it is two companies - every four years companies bid for the right to pick up arriving customers. Each driver must pay CZK 60.000 a year to be able to work out of the airport. That is just the right to work, not the car payment, the gas etc etc. If you do the math that means they have to do at least 6 jobs a day at CZK per job just to break even. Of course with all the cheap transfers it is very difficult for them and they are not happy with the airport itself. 

So the airport is doing its best to stamp out what competition they can. They have raised the parking fees and now (July 2018) you even have to pay to drop off CZK 100. They have also implemented a huge no parking zone which the Police monitor like hawks :-)

More and more companies and individuals like me have finally given up. We are very fortunate, we have been operating since 2001 and have a lot of good reviews on TripAdvisor Prague forum as well as Rick Steves and Fodors.

That was a bit long winded, sorry