Let me share my experience on getting around. My trip from the Airport in Cape Town to Stellenbosch I used standard Taxi first-and-foremost, because they were around and because I was approached by a nice gentleman who organized the Taxi-stand.
The ride from the Airport to Cape-Town was good, a nice taxi-driver who didn’t talk English, though — and the cost was 450 Rand plus tip.
I tried to organize Taxis from within Stellenbosch by phone, which was not possible, since one hour of setup time was not enough to get a Taxi organized…
Of course, in Cape Town, there’s multiple companies operating Taxis. They are located all over the city, and usually charge 10 Rand per km plus 5 Rand upfront.
Enter Uber: there’s at least a dozen drivers in the vircinity, the app mostly shows 5 to 6 circling Stellenbosch. Up to recently Uber lowered to fare to from 7 to only 6 Rands per km — and charging drivers 20% for services. Additionally, for new drivers, Uber charged up to 25%… Not a nice move. Some drivers were left with no choice but continue driving, while paying off their car.
Anyway, I used them to get to Cape Town central and paid 350 Rand. OK, compare that.
Enter Taxify. Now this is a European (actually Estonia) alternative. They charge 7.5 Rand per km plus 0.75 per Minute and charge the driver only 15% (Taxify’s website claimes 10% on average)– payment is Cash, and optionally via Credit Card. My ride from Cape Town to DebConf at University of Cape Town was perfect. The driver told me, that anytime they’d prefer a Taxify customer over a Uber customer. To me as a customer, this probably is the lesser of all evil — and I do hope, that drivers earn enough for their service to pay taxes and do a decent living.
