To answer your question, I like to try and spread the money around. It's very expensive to use a tour service when you just want to run to the HiLo or to the west end. And it's going to effect how much money I spend at vendors and in bars. I'm pretty shocked at the reactions, my posts were not meant to offend or paint me as an uppity person. I clicked on this thread to learn something, we're spending 2 weeks next time and we can no way afford to use a charter service for short runs around Negril so I thought route taxis might be a way of spreading our budget out further. So what are our choices? Just stay within walking distance of our hotel for the most part? Which is what we did last time. Or try the Route Taxis? Isn't it more "responsible" of us to explore and spend our cash at a wide varieties of shops,drivers,bar and restaurants? During our first trip we didn't leave the beach to eat or drink was to expensive to get a ride anywhere else.
I'm well aware charter services have higher overhead. Rocky picked us up in MoBay when our cruise docked there and he was in his awesome new bus, I can only imagine the cost of gassing it up as well as upkeep. I have no problem with the rates but they aren't feasible for short trips. I'd also add when using charter we pay with American cash not J's.
Honestly this thread has left a really bad taste in my mouth as well as left me even more confused. I do wonder what a route taxi driver would have to say about this topic. Finally, I think it's BS to expect tourists to pony up more, doing so just leaves the tourist with less money to spend elsewhere. How is that fair to the vendors? I get that tourists can be *******s. On our first trip I saw plenty of behavior from others that embarrassed if not down right pissed me off. I don't want to be that person. I want to be a good repersenative of my country. But I don't want to be taken advantage of either or made to feel guilty either. And that is something this thread is quickly devolving into. To that, I say No Thank You.