Which part of the city are you actually going to?
The CBD is a grid roughly a kilometre across, and the difference between the Docklands end of Collins Street and the Parliament end is a real ten minutes once you are inside it. That gap grows in the evening, when the top of the city backs up around Spring Street and the bottom does not.
Give us the street address or the hotel name rather than just the city. Your driver picks the approach that suits it, coming off the freeway at the right point instead of crossing the grid at street level with the lights against them.
The Shortest Run We Publish, and Why the Meter Matters Most Here
At 18.7 km this is the shortest of our named routes, and that is exactly why an agreed price is worth having. A clear run and a slow one cover identical ground at very different prices on a meter. The variance on a twenty minute trip is proportionally larger than on an hour long one, because the fixed part of the journey is so small.
SkyBus Goes to One Place, a Taxi Goes to Yours
The airport bus runs to Southern Cross Station. If your hotel is on Collins Street with two bags, you are then getting yourself across the city from Spencer Street at the end of a flight. That last leg is the part people forget when they compare the two prices.
Events Change the Approach, Not the Price
A match at the MCG or Marvel Stadium closes streets and reroutes traffic around the eastern and western edges of the grid. Your driver works around it. Because your fare was agreed before you travelled, the detour costs you nothing.