Markets In Everything: $5,000 Taxi Ride
British actor John Cleese of Monty Python fame opted for a daylong cab ride halfway across Europe after the dust plume from an Icelandic volcano left him stranded. Cleese paid $5,100 for a Mercedes taxi Friday from the Norwegian capital, Oslo, to Brussels (see map above, thanks to pkd).
7 Comments:
941 mi – about 15 hours 34 mins
John might have considered looking for the holy grail of ride sharing.
Apparently he didn't lose all of his money in that divorce.
If I recall correctly, Jeremy Clarkson did London to Oslo on "Top Gear" in a Mercedes McClaren SLR. I suspect that his average speed was somewhat higher.
another way to get home http://www.StrandedInEurope.com
I wonder how regulations on providing taxi services are limiting the ability of the marketplace to respond to this situation.
Is a taxi from Oslo legally able to provide service to Brussels?
How many more stranded travelers could be "rescued" by the unemployed of Europe if they could temporarily legally provide taxi service without having to wait for licensing?
There is a tradeoff in terms of reliability and stress, but a lower cost option would be to purchase a high-dispacement older car (cheap to purchase because of the high tax), and resell it again in Brussels.
For any car with collector interest there might be an arbitrage opportunity.
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