London Black Cabs - fiddling the fares?

[Deleted User]

Hello, some questions for you:

Who makes the devices that are installed in black cabs that calculate the fare?
How is this fare calculated?
Who regulates and checks these devices are working correctly?

Around 3 nights every week, I get home at about midnight from work. I take a taxi from the station to my house, which I have calculated (accurately) using GPS to be a distance of 0.88 miles.

Everytime I make this journey, the roads are empty and the taxi encounters no other traffic to slow the trip.

Yet the fare I get charged at the end varies wildly. The cheapest it's been is £4.20, whereas the most expensive I've been charged is £5.60 - that's a 33.3% difference!

On a short journey of 0.88 miles this makes no sense. I can understand some drivers cut corners, put their foot down etc, but for the distance to be out by 33% would require the driver to cover 1.173 miles, or in other words they'd need to go around the roundabout near my home 20 times to make the distance up.

I don't think it's fair (no pun intended) that travellers get short-changed like this. How can the same journey cost 33% more depending on which cab you get.

Are these devices accurate and who checks them? How often?

Who regulates the devices?

How do they even work?

I've written to TFL raising my concerns but thought I'd share here too.

MrsE_2

The PCO regulate black cabs.

Not a bad fare, my DH is a London minicab & their minimum is £7.50 (or £8), so you're isn't to bad.

Its a mixture of time & travel, so red lights etc will have a bearing on it.

[Deleted User]

My journey has no traffic lights on it - it's a rural journey. No junctions to navigate, no queues to sit in. I know people won't agree, but it really is just one swift journey. There's no way it can be up to 33% longer depending on the driver cutting corners - the entire journey is only 0.88 miles in the first place!

With respect, surely a minimum fare of £7.50 is a terrible fare to pay? The minimum is £2.20 in London...or have I misunderstood you?

What is the actual algorithm though? Is it to do with distance? Or is it calculated by engine revs? MPH?

chocdonuty

No idea on the fare calculations but if you do this regulary why don't you make an arrangement beforehand with the cab company for a set fare, it will be the same for every journey then

littlefeet_2

There's definitely some drivers who are a bit handy with the 'extras' button.

There are some regulations regarding how black cabs are meant to calculate the fares

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/taxisandminicabs/taxis/1140.aspx

ShaneUK

Does the price differ depending on time? Perhaps after midnight, it is a higher fare? You mention that you get home "about" midnight, hence why I ask.

[Deleted User]

Hi Shane,

I don't think the fares vary after midnight where I live, but either way the variations I've found were all on journeys pre-midnight anyway.

I've become a bit sad and started recording them in a spreadsheet for comparison purposes!

I don't really care about paying a fiver each time - it's not really much money and at the end of the day it's my employer that ends up paying it anyway! The principle is what matters here: I don't see any kind of checks on these devices and the evidence (that I see) points to them being wildly variable.

davetrousers

Don't the meters have a number on them that show the rate/tarif?

jamesb1239

I know where i used to live every few months the taxis had to be checked and the meters checked etc to keep up with the license, just contact the council that issues their license

[Deleted User]

The meters do show the rate/tariff, but what I'm getting at is that this is 'standard' for all the cabs in the area, but not being applied consistently.

The fare is calculated according to distance (every 200m) and time spent waiting at lights - and a combination of this. This is how most black cab fares are calculated. But the question is: how does the device calculate this? It's connected to the vehicle in some way, but is it using wheel revolutions? RPM? Some other timing device? How is this calibrated and checked?

TonyMMM

Licensed Black Cab fares in London are set by the Public Carriage Office and are calculated by a combination of distance, time taken and the time of day/night.

This site gives more information:

http://www.london-taxi.co.uk/taxi/londontariff.htm