1 in 2 airport taxis a rip-off

I guess you can find this (a**holes) everywhere!

I am often travelling to Prague and I learned what company I should go with and not...

In my home country ( Bulgaria ) the national air carrier is so kind to inform incoming foreigners to simply avoid all the cab drivers that flock at the gates and offer taxi services and to pick only those from the established companies, asking explicitly to turn on the meter. All that in a fancy book-like magazine with all the natural / tourist offers and beauties :) And as long as you follow these simple instructions you get past that horrible experience.

"Police told The Prague Post that some taxi drivers were "preying on foreign visitors," and that the campaign aimed to "get rid of unfair taxi drivers.""

In my experience these yahoos don't really care whose money they take; money is money whether from a local or a foreigner. Why only look at the airport rides? What about all the unfortunate people arriving at the train stations here?

I came from Berlin recently and had no choice but to get off at the hellhole known as Holesovice train station. Before arriving, I rang my trusty radio taxi company only to be told that unless I had an exact address, they couldn't pick me up (???). As if they didn't know where the train station was. On arrival I discovered about 30 "taxis" and a head-to-foot tatooed / pierced gorilla / despatcher who looked me up and down and calculated in his head how heavy my bags were before (a) quoting me a price of 600 kcs for the 1.6 km ride to Muzeum and (b) telling me all his cars were reserved and I'd have to wait 20 minutes for a cab. When I pointed out how ridiculous he was being, a driver stepped forward and offered to take me for 850 kcs (I speak fluent Czech). Needless to say, I took the direct metro.

If the police are so concerned that foreigners' first and last impressions of Czechs is that they're theives, why not start there? At least at the airport, even if you don't speak Czech there are reasonable options. At the train stations there's next to nothing and no one obvious to help you.

As for the "Fair Place" taxi ranks downtown, I was on Wenceslas Square and exteremly late for a train from Hlavni last month. I rushed to one of these stands and made sure I got in a proper AAA cab (not the pirate AAA which the police also seem happy to ignore, but the real AAA). From the stand he turned right on Opletalova and dropped me off (the ride was not more than a minute). He charged me 170 kcs. Again, this was a real AAA cab from a real "Fair Place" stand. Plus ca change...

Don't get me too wrong, things are MILES better than they used to be. But if -- 20 years on -- police are truly surprised that there are still a huge number of con-artists out there driving taxis, then perhaps your story should concern the "why" and not the "that"...

The 'taxi fares' story runs with a period in Czech political financial life where many 'service workers' observed 'thier masters' making large amouts of money from 'various means'. The working taxi man reading the news 'scandals, contracts, money falls from trees' must have felt left out of the 'honey pot'. While I dont condemn overcharging, the taxi man's political masters set a fine example!!!!!