Sometime after 2:00 this afternoon traffic in areas throughout much of central Budapest is likely to get really bad, owing to a planned “strike” by taxi drivers against a pending overall of regulations that will see hundreds or even thousands of taxis slowly parading through the city. Whether tying up the streets of the city they are allegedly serving is a legitimate way for them to air their grievances is an open question, at least compared to the approach apparently taken by the company that used to have the monopoly on taxi service from Budapest’s main airport.
Late last month the former head of Zóna Taxi, the company that won a contract in 2006 from Budapest Airport (BA) to be exclusive operator of taxi services at the airport, was detained by police on suspicion of fraud and bribery. István Veres allegedly paid bribes – including HUF 11 million in cash as well as a car and the services of prostitutes – to three airport executives in 2009 in a conspiracy that caused the operator of the airport losses of HUF 671 million. Police also arrested the three BA managers, who are currently being questioned by authorities, assuming they are not stuck in traffic. [index.hu]
Vermes is a well known arrogant business mafioso who has always flouted the law at every opportunity, even to the extent of building himself a palace on Castle Hill without planning permission. He has always been cock sure of himself. ZONA TAXI was staffed by a large number of Romanian undesirables, brought in to keep the running costs low and the profits high. They were ripoff merchants, caused an untold number of accidents by their reckless driving along the route from the airport to the city. Budapest Airport Management were being drip fed money to keep the agreement alive. I have complained in the past many times about ZONA to the airport management and the answer I always received back was… ‘It is not our job to police the taxi services, that is for Budapest Council, we run the airport’…. But of course as we all know that the new contract was handed to FŐTAXI who are using the drivers of?…. YES you have guessed it… ZONA TAXI… Little ever changes, this is Hungary!
Frankly I used Zona many many times without a single problem. With Főtaxi I got a car with no aircon in the middle of July… It’s true that many ex-Zona now work for Fő, but they are independent, what should they do? Retire? Change job? Good service is all down to individuals, unfortunately, if a clear company policy is not in place. And it isn’t in almost any hungarian company, not just taxi.