A foreigner ordering a taxi in Lublin: He wants to go to the dorm. The taxi driver carries him on the opposite side of the town. The mispronounciation may be costly. The driver may take you on Oczki street instead of Chodźki street, which is the most frequent destination of foreign students. Oczki street is in the Tenth District (Dziesiąta), in the opposite direction to the Chodźki street, where the Medical University dormitories are located. Medical University has the largest group of foreigners among universities in Lublin – over a thousand people.

The “Oczki street method” described above, is one of several fraudulent and treacherous scams used by taxi drivers against foreigners in Lublin.

Taxi is the most common mean of transport for foreigners in Lublin. They prefer it rather than public transport. Fraud in taxis is a significant problem. In addition to the method of allegedly mispronounced street name, drivers also apply other: charge prices in euros instead of PLN zlotys or multiply course fee. The other method commonly applied by taxi drivers is to charge a night tariff during the day.

According to the Homo Faber report a poor English language skills is also a problem among taxi corporate employees. Members of the association phoned to the top ten taxi corporations and asked in English about the cost of the course from Lublin to Kazimierz Dolny. They received the correct answer in English from only two of them. Students also mention the language barrier problem – sometimes, after ordering, a taxi is just not coming.

We guess that the best way to fudget such problems is to have your destination written on a piece of paper or your smartphone and show it to Mr. cab driver.