Taxis of Morocco

Two main types of taxis can be found in Morocco:

• petits taxis
• grand taxis

Inner city transport

Most Moroccan cities have dedicated taxis for transport inside the city limits. Although some of the largest cities operate city buslines most people prefer to use a petit taxi for point-to-point transport within city limits.

Regional transport

For journeys to regional destinations beyond the city limits you can choose between buses (public buses for nearby destinations and private "luxury" buses for long distance and even cross-country) or the so called grand taxi.

Petit Taxi

File:Petitaxi.jpg

A Dacia and Fiat in use as petit taxis in Casablanca

A petit taxi is in almost all cases indeed a smaller model car painted in the required color, which differs from city to city. There are specials stops for petit taxis, often combined with a grand taxi stop, where these taxis are allowed to park and wait for customers. But in most cases you can signal or shout for a taxi when an empty taxi passes you.

In most cases you hire the complete taxi for your trip and pay a fee for that trip: it doesn't matter if you are alone or with a party of 4. In some cases the driver might ask you if you object to picking up another passenger if he spots a potential customer for a trip in more or less the same direction.

In most cities the drivers use a few fixed tariffs for the journeys depending on the distance and sometimes time of day (more expensive late at night). Taxis in busy cities like Casablanca or Marrakech are generally more expensive than in a city like Nador.

To prevent abuse by drivers of (mainly) foreign tourists some cities require a petit taxi to use a meter. In that case your fare depends on distance traveled. Tourist-information brochures advise tourists to insist on using the meter or agree on a fixed price in advance.

Petit taxis are small cars such as a Fiat, Peugeot 206 and similar size models using diesel as fuel. In general the cars used are quite old; often the interior is overhauled and/or is a state of disrepair - at least in comparison with European standards. To allow passengers to carry luggage most cars are equipped with a simple open wooden box on the roof where oversized goods are placed without anything to secure it. As the speed inside the city limits is never high this method doesn't lead to many accidents.

The sides of this roof-rack is also the place where petit taxi is printed together with their local registration number.

Colors

Some examples of colors used in Moroccan cities for petit-taxis:

• Orange - Berkane
• Yellow - Midelt
• Light Yellow - Tétouan
• Green - Azrou, Aklim, Ifrane
• Blue - Al Rachida, Rabat, Chefchaouen
• White / whitish - Ouarzazate , Taroudant
• Red - Nador, Azilal, Casablanca, Fez, Oujda
• Yellow-ochre - Marrakech
• Light blue with a horizontal yellow line - Tanger
• Light green - Mohammedia

Grand Taxis

Grand taxi in Tanger port

Where petit-taxis are only for local city traffic, grand taxis are mostly used for city-to-city or -village transport. Normally a grand taxi is a shared vehicle: at the main taxistands many grand taxis gather. It is a type of share taxi system but without timetables or government influence. Each taxi will drive a more or less fixed route to a set destination and all passengers looking for transport to that destination or somewhere along the route used share one grand taxi. When the taxi is full (maximum 4 passengers on the rear seat and two on the front-passenger chair) he will depart. He might depart earlier if it takes too long to wait for a full car and/or when he expects to pick up more passengers along the route.

Although this shared use is cheap, it isn't always very comfortable for longer trips in hot summers: 7 people (including driver) are packed in a standard four door old model Mercedes without air conditioning. Many people prefer to charter a complete taxi and agree on a fixed price before departure.

Grand taxis are generally older models Mercedes cars using diesel fuel. Grand taxis originating in a region all have to paint their car the same color; quite often white or a light color. Small red signs at front and/or rear indicate their city of origin (and quite often also their destination if not the local region) and a registration number.