‘I’m a taxi driver – London tourists always make this one major mistake’
A London taxi driver has revealed the one common mistake tourists most foreign tourists make when visiting the capital.
‘Tom the Taxi Driver’, a YouTuber and London cabbie, stressed street names are a particular concern with many visitors missing vital details when relaying information.
However, this could send a driver in completely the wrong directions and leave a passenger on the other side of the city.
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Tom said: “Foreign travellers. They will just orate where they want to go. They will just tell it to you.
“But you then forget that people might look at a location and leave the last part of the street name off.
READ MORE ‘I’m a taxi driver – Passengers always make a common mistake’
“For example in the US they might have Maine Street and they will go ‘take me to Maine’.
“But that doesn’t really work in London because you might have Cromwell Close, Cromwell Street, Cromwell Road, Cromwell Place.”
Using Tom’s example, it’s easy to see how taxi drivers could be led astray by a simple mix-up.
Cromwell Road is in South Kensington next to the Natural History Museum.
However, Cromwell Close is a small residential street in Acton five miles away, a journey of around 40 minutes.
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Meanwhile, there is Cromwell Street a staggering 6.8 miles further West in Hounslow.
The journey would take an extra 36 minutes from Acton or over 50 minutes back to South Kensington.
Tom stressed teh extra communication was also vital at airports where drivers may have been standing around for hours waiting for a job.
He added: “Airports isn’t too bad. At Heathrow there is a massive park called the feeder park. It’s a massive reserve of taxis.
“What then happens is the rank gets cleared out and they get requested to go from the park over to the rank.
“So it takes like two hours for a taxi driver to get through the queue at Heathrow because people don’t realise there is a hidden car park there.
“In terms of Heathrow, because people want to go certain distances and certain locations, it’s about having that open and honest dialogue with the driver.
“If it’s a particularly far journey, just let the driver know. ‘Appreciate it’s a far journey, would you be willing to go to this place’.
“Some drivers might live in the same correct location or very close to it.”
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