I wrote a few weeks ago about the airport Taxi touts in Panama but this is not that story. In the Bahamas, taxi zones are in place and are especially expensive for short distances. While you might think this will help Bahamians it actually hurts them.
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Zone Taxis in Nassau
Welcome to the Bahamas where not everything is expensive, it’s just expensive to get where things are less expensive. For the few short miles (about a 15 minute ride from the airport to the hotel) we were first in the cab there was a standard rate of $22 +$4 per passenger and then an additional charge per piece of luggage. Frankly, this is a fair price and cheaper than the hotel car by a few dollars. There are usually extra charges with servicing the airport and in the case of the Bahamas that surcharge is a dollar.
While I am fine with a flat rate from the city to the airport and return, it’s the other zones that are ridiculous. Here is a breakdown of the zones. These prices just increased in April of 2017.
| Distance | Estimated | Distance | Estimated | Distance | Estimated | Distance | Estimated | Distance | Estimated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| miles | Price * | miles | Price * | miles | Price * | miles | Price * | miles | Price * |
| 3 | 13.00 $ | 13 | 43.00 $ | 23 | 73.00 $ | 33 | 103.00 $ | 43 | 133.00 $ |
| 4 | 16.00 $ | 14 | 46.00 $ | 24 | 76.00 $ | 34 | 106.00 $ | 44 | 136.00 $ |
| 5 | 19.00 $ | 15 | 49.00 $ | 25 | 79.00 $ | 35 | 109.00 $ | 45 | 139.00 $ |
| 6 | 22.00 $ | 16 | 52.00 $ | 26 | 82.00 $ | 36 | 112.00 $ | 46 | 142.00 $ |
| 7 | 25.00 $ | 17 | 55.00 $ | 27 | 85.00 $ | 37 | 115.00 $ | 47 | 145.00 $ |
| 8 | 28.00 $ | 18 | 58.00 $ | 28 | 88.00 $ | 38 | 118.00 $ | 48 | 148.00 $ |
| 9 | 31.00 $ | 19 | 61.00 $ | 29 | 91.00 $ | 39 | 121.00 $ | 49 | 151.00 $ |
| 10 | 34.00 $ | 20 | 64.00 $ | 30 | 94.00 $ | 40 | 124.00 $ | 50 | 154.00 $ |
| 11 | 37.00 $ | 21 | 67.00 $ | 31 | 97.00 $ | 41 | 127.00 $ | 51 | 157.00 $ |
| 12 | 40.00 $ | 22 | 70.00 $ | 32 | 100.00 $ | 42 | 130.00 $ | 52 | 160.00 $ |
Why This Hurts Taxi Drivers
Yes, I understand that the Bahamas are not a bargain basement destination; there is some assumption that money is a thing in the islands and you should have an awful lot of it. Let’s agree that. Let’s also agree that I am tolerant of paying more when I get more and paying less when I get less.
Costs are so high priced that it is prohibitive for families (or even single people) to move around the island. Just three miles from the Baha Mar mega-resort is Nassau’s Fish Fry, a block of Bahamian restaurants. Downtown Nassau and the Straw Market were just a little farther down from there. We went to just the Fish Fry, just once the entire time we were in the Bahamas, though had transportation been less expensive we would have eaten there daily.
While some taxi drivers welcome zone pricing (I spoke with one who loved it), they are not capturing all available market capacity. There were several opportunities to capture incremental business from the five in our party and I am sure others, who popped over for a quick weekend from the eastern United States. We used a taxi for just two round trips, one to and from the airport and another to and from the Fish Fry. The three miles from Baha Mar to the Fish Fry was $29 each way for the four adults and one child in our party, the distance was 3.8 miles. The airport was a few dollars higher and about the same distance. The below calculations do not include the additional members in our party.
We would have gone off resort to eat every night and been more likely to visit other attractions away from the property, but instead we avoided the $60 taxi tax and didn’t venture out.
Why This Hurts Other Bahamians
If you own a restaurant in town, or perhaps a souvenir shop you didn’t get any of my business. Instead of trying a local coffee shop, it was Starbucks in the east wing of the property. Instead of fresh caught fish on the pier we ate nachos and noodles on the property.
We loved the conch fritters at Two Brothers and fully intended to stop back to eat some four-pound lobsters from another stall at the Fish Fry, but when the taxi ride in is more expensive than dinner for four adults, it seems a little hard to justify.
We just didn’t go into town and why would we? We had everything we could need for a long weekend visit at our disposal just a few feet away? Why bother to get a taxi, use cash (when everything else could be put on a room charge), ride into the unknown only to be unsure of the quality we would find on the other side? How does the zone taxi policy help Bahamians who are not taxi drivers?
No Uber, No Lyft
Uber is not available on the islands, nor Lyft. There is competition to the taxi system in a new app GetMeRide but none of the staff at the hotels knew it eve existed and there’s no evidence it would offer cheaper private taxi operations. One could also consider local buses which run during restrictive daylight hours only but cost just $1.50/person each way.
I love Uber and Lyft for helping utilizing available market capacity. I can also understand why some governments have hesitations about the service. Uber and Lyft drivers are not evaluated for their ability to operate with passengers safely in a commercial operation. It seems a fair expectation that the government should have a watchful eye on services sold to their citizens, especially those involving transportation. Does the driver who has an under utilized car benefit from the zone rates?
Who Wins? Not Bahamians
Say what you will about how we missed out on the cultural elements of the islands, I wouldn’t disagree. This is one of my issues with the Caribbean in general and especially all-inclusive hotels – there is almost no cultural integration and local experience. (Grand Hyatt Baha Mar is not all-inclusive but we treated it that way by eating every meal on property and billing it to the room.)
Taking advantage of my Hyatt Globalist status, my family ate breakfast every day in the lounge without spending a dime. We often filled up on snacks in the afternoon or even ate a full dinner if we were not headed to one of the restaurants on property. When we did eat, it was only on property restaurants trying out Celo, Fi’La, Stix, and several pool area restaurants. We also bought some Baha Mar clothing and souvenirs to remember our trip, and yet we would have been far more likely to buy more from the Straw Market had we made it there.
By the Bahamas instituting zone pricing for taxi services and excluding market disruptors like Uber and Lyft from entering the islands they have taken money out of their own citizens’ pockets. Instead the islands have given the hotels (internationally-owned) a captive audience at the expense of the wallets of local businesses.
Worst of all is that it takes away from the identify of the Bahamas. What makes the Bahamas different from Jamaica, the Cayman Islands or Trinidad and Tobago? I really couldn’t tell you. If guests stay only on resorts and doesn’t interact with local businesses and customs, I would argue that none of them are truly unique. That’s a disservice to Bahamian culture. It makes me less likely to return specifically to the Bahamas as opposed to just selecting a resort chain I like with pricing and availability to my preference.
Do you think the benefits of the Bahamas’ zone taxi scheme is worth the risks to the rest of the economy? Should I have just ignored the high rates and sucked it up – it’s the Bahamas?
While I’m sure that there were some good points in this post, it was incredibly difficult to read… (Run-on sentences, cut-off sentences, missing punctuation, missing words, etc.)
Tennen – it looks like some edits didn’t save. I agree, it was painful in places to read. I have corrected the issues, thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Cry baby. It still didn’t stop you from going too Bahamas. Did it?
I wasn’t aware before I went, but it might prevent me from going back.
Trinidad and Tobago may be an exception in the Caribbean. Their economy isn’t built on tourism, and thus forces the traveler to interact with local culture, which I see as a good thing.
As for the Bahamas, I agree with everything you said in this post. I’m certainly in no rush to head back there. There are just too many other great places to visit.
Trinidad and Tobago are on the list, maybe we will have to move it up to the top.
Those taxi prices would be a deterrent to me too. Would renting a car make sense?
Personally I wouldn’t rule out the bus as long as it wasn’t too terribly inconvenient. Did that seem like an option from the hotel?
The bus was at the end of the road from the hotel, but it wasn’t running after dark which prevented us from eating dinner off-site more than the one time. Renting a car would have made sense but only at the start of the trip if you already knew about the taxis first. We would have had to get a taxi to pick up the rental and two days into the trip, it just wasn’t worth it the cab fare to retrieve it for nominal savings.
Keep in mind that a good portion of visitors to Nassau at least are cruise ship passengers. The port is walking distance to most points in the city center, including the Straw Market, and trust me, it still got plenty of business. Many ship passengers also either use the public buses or take ship-sponsored bus tours since most ships dock only during the day. So that’s a long way of saying, I suspect the government keeps the rates high because they can, thinking the tourists that can afford to stay at resorts like Baha Mar or Atlantis won’t mind paying the fares. And I’m sure the taxi drivers like them because now they can’t be accused of scamming tourists. They can just blame the government for the fixed rates.
I think a lot of that is true, particularly regarding cruise customers. But for those at Atlantis or Baha Mar, they are just grabbing money from tourists who would otherwise spend it with their local businesses and handing it to the giant hotels. Maybe tourists won’t accuse taxi drivers of ripping them off any more, but that could also be because they are no longer in the back of their cabs very often. Or it doesn’t effect anyone but me – that is also a reasonable possibility.
Interesting that Nassau taxi prices are similar to those in Freeport. I would have figured they would have been a lot less. After Hurricane Matthew hit Freeport in October 2016 the two larger hotels closed and we’re still closed this past December . The resort we frequent used to offer a shuttle into Port Lucaya marketplace which we used three or four times a week to shop, have dinner and watch the entertainment in the square. While there in December we noticed several businesses and restaurants have closed since Hurricane Matthew pounded Grand Bahama Island. Our price to travel less than 2 miles one way into the marketplace was $12.00 for 2 people which really is not outrageous but it in fact does add up if several trips are taken into town. Speaking with other guests at the resort the reason that they were not going into town was the price of the round trip cab fare. Perhaps the restaurants and businesses should get together and run a shuttle to the resorts to reel in those tourist dollars and save their establishments. PS. Really enjoyed the children’s Christmas carolling in the square.
I think the shuttle concept makes a lot of sense for those businesses, the concern I have is that they don’t yet realize how much business they are missing out on. It’s easy to see losses, but it’s hard to realize un-gained potential. For example, if Atlantis and cruise traffic was constant and business owners see no real drop off, but Baha Mar adds new visitors that do not detract from cruise and Atlantis visitors, how would they know that they were hindered by the taxi rates. There may be an overall lift in tourism by 15% to Nassau, but business owners see flat or slight increases in revenue. If they could capture how much of the 15% they are not earning, they might be more concerned and try to assess it.
I would just like to add a few tips about Nassau Bahamas Transportation:
===By private transportation===
Majority of travelers prefer to take private transportation from Nassau Airport to their destination. Often times, the taxis are not up to par and may have car trouble. Nassau’s best ground transportation is “Baggy Rock Nassau Transportation”. The reservations can be booked online and also includes a complimentary 30 min stop at the grocery and liquor store.
http://www.baggyrocks.com
===By Phone Application===
Worldwide many may know of Uber; however, Uber does not operate in Nassau. Instead Nassau has a ride share application called Kroozzy. The application allows you to book ride on demand and later from your cell phone. It’s very safe and reliable. Women are also able to book their ride with a woman driver as well as a preference. All transactions are through the app with the option to use USD, Euros, East Caribbean Dollar, Dominican Peso or Bahamian Dollars. Similar to other ride apps, the application use ratings for both the driver and rider to ensure positive service.
http://www.kroozzy.com
You keep talking about the taxi fare e erything in Nassau, Bahamas is exoensive is not only taxi. Everything. Gas is $5 gallon for gas. From what im gathering you dont think taxi drivers should make a living. It sounds like u have something personal against taxi drivers. Right now taxi drivers fare some places are low. From Atlantis to Albany is $50.
That should be $80. You need to discuss with the road traffic why they allow plate owners & taxi owner. Overcharging taxi drivers for weekly rental, gas is very high here. Also taxi drivers need there own plates so they can be more reasonable. You have taxi driver sleeping on the hotel still cant pay there rent of $900 us a mth. Children in school When visit Dubai thats expensive talk about the cost of living.
Bahamas is very expensive place. I didnt here you mention the 27% service tax vat they charge you in the hotel. Our Minimum Wage is 5pr hr yet still everything is super high.
For a four-mile ride to burn even one gallon of gas would be a challenge, but assuming that were the case (it’s not), taxis could still charge 100% markup on $15/gallon of gas and come in line with their $30 charge. It may be pricier for gas in the states, insurance too, but a four-mile journey or less should still be well under $30.
I just use Kroozzy. No hassle, the drivers are screened and you just request a driver through the app. Kroozzy is also a cashless company which takes all major credit or debit card and you rate your driver at the end. Just download the app on any IOS or Android device.