During November’s check, the magistrate officials found that more than a third of the taxi drivers in Prague overcharged the fare. They revealed excessively high prices for six of the sixteen drivers checked.

Prague is trying to improve the bad reputation the city has because of dishonest taxi drivers. Since July, the local government has been negotiating with them about setting taxi service standards, amending the traffic code, establishing a maximum price and testing drivers. “The teams that conduct the checks revealed six overcharges, which only confirms my belief that we took the right path. We will repeat these checks in very short intervals,” stated Mayor Adriana Krnáčová.

Overcharging for rides is a violation of the Pricing Act. Officials also found violations of the Road Traffic Act, with which they were dealing along with the police. One taxi driver did not turn the taximeter on, and the other did not have a taxi lamp on the car.