Airport Taxi - It is safe and regulated if you purchase at the counter. DO NOT TAKE THE TAXI TOUT - they are the ones that stand inside the airport saying "taxi" - it is not regulated with no insurance cover. This airport taxis are white in colour. The main job of this airport taxi is to bring you from KLIA to your destination. Just go to the airport taxi counter, tell the counter lady your destination and pay accordingly. I have tried this and like it because this system is that it is regulated, the driver will bring you to your destination at the shortest path possible and the counter has the ID of the driver.
Budget Taxi - highly unregulated and this is where the fun begins. The meter starts at RM 2. But during peak hours, when you board the taxi - you will be ask "no meter, ok, RM15?" translated to mean "I will turn off the meter, ok, and charge you RM15 to bring you to your destination". If you mentioned, "wah, so expensive" - the driver will say "traffic, lah". This happened to me so many times.
On one funny incident at KLCC, there were rows of taxi lining up - so I went up to the first taxi and mentioned my destination Renaissance Hotel - the taxi driver immediately says "RM15". So I walk away, saw another taxi - hail it and the driver says "RM10", so I walked away. I crossed the road and hailed taxi and this time it was on meter - reach my destination and the meter read "RM2.20". This is outrageous. I notice this happens during peak hours, going out of KL city, at major shopping centres, and coach depots.
Another incident that happens to me is that taxi driver with the meter on takes the scenic route to your destination. I can never figure out why the prices are always different even from the same origin and destination. I have read from other travel reviews that taxi drivers tamper with the meters if you are not looking and advise to sit in front - to my best knowledge it has never happen to me and hope it remains that way. This is day light scam - outright cheating.
I think the reason is that after the cost of taxi is paid for by the taxi driver and he owns it - then there is a likelihood of the taxi driver doing unscrupulous behaviour. In Malaysia, the part of the taxi rental actually goes into paying for the cost of the taxi - so after 3 years the taxi belongs to the taxi driver but he still has to pay the taxi company for the license on a monthly basis which will be lower. The cost of the taxi vehicle is very low so it is quite often paid up within 3 years or so.
Premier Taxi - Bigger taxi and the meter starts at RM$4 and quickly ticks along very fast. These taxis normally sit around hotels pounding on unsuspecting hotel guests - the bell boy will automatically hail for this taxi. So, you need to tell them budget taxi and they will hail one for you.
Once you are in KL take the monorail and Putra LRT it beats the traffic jam....
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