I live in a rural area and occasionally need to get a taxi to the local airport or railway station:
- my destination is distant (that’s why I choose to live in a rural area)
- the local airport/railway station is relatively small
- the services they run are relatively infrequent (miss the intended service and the whole trip is ruined)
- I must start my journey in the early morning (4-5am, too early to ask a friend to help)
- I must book my taxi in advance (no taxi rank in my village!)
Finding a taxi that will pick up from a rural area involves:
- either finding someone locally, usually a very small company (one person/one car, even), prepared to go out in the early morning
- or asking one of the many larger taxi companies in the nearest city (12 miles away) to come out to me
A couple of times I've been in the situation where the taxi does not arrive on the day and I've missed my flight/train:
- local small company: phone them but they do not answer or have to cancel with no notice, no chance of finding another local driver
- remote larger company: driver has not turned up, will send another immediately but will not arrive in time
My current approach is to find a local company and phone them multiple times, stressing how important it is to me they turn up on time.
Any advice on how to ensure I will not be let down by the taxi company?
I'm in the UK.