London Black Cabs - fiddling the fares?

dontgetbeaten

The only possible explanation for your excess fare was that the driver could of charged you for luggage, which in some circumstances they do..

geordieracer

Deleted_User wrote: »

What's wrong with questioning whether these devices are accurate?

nothing is wrong with querying a higher fare but the meters are tamper proff to a certain extent. If you believe that you are getting ripped off then write to the PCO with the cab number of the higher fare and they will check it out. All cabs have to go in and be checked once a year i believe to keep hold of their licence so do that and then you will know if someone has tried to tamper with the meter.

MrsE_2

Deleted_User wrote: »

Blimey, why are people so abusive here?

I don't know, but you set the tone when your opening line was

London Black Cabs - fiddling the fares? ...

Errata

Talk to the Public Carriage Office about your concerns. Much easier than faffing about with spreadsheets.

Lip_Stick

MrsE wrote: »

I don't know, but you set the tone when your opening line was

London Black Cabs - fiddling the fares? ...

He just asked a question. He didn't set any tone as far as I can see. Had he put 'London Black Cabs are fiddling !!!!!!' then I'd agree with you.

Now your reply on the otherhand...

ShaneUK

I do agree with you, it isn't correct that the fares differ by so much at any time, however, as someone else mentioned above, perhaps some of them are charging you charging you for luggage, or a suggestion I made further up was that they were charging for "waiting" when picking you up if they were there before you.

MrsE_2

Deleted_User wrote: »

0.88 miles is 1.41622272 kilometres = 1416.22272 metres.

Remove the first 219.6 metres @ £2.20 leaves 1196.62272 metres

Divide 1196.62272 metres by 109.8 metres = 10.898

Multiple 10.898 by 20p = 217.964p, or £2.18.

£2.18 + £2.20 = £4.38 expected cost for 0.88 miles.

Sometimes it costs that, other times a little bit less, but it has cost up to £5.60 (stress: without any traffic or interruption). That - according to your sums - would be incurred by increasing the distance by 669.78 metres which is over a third of the total distance travelled.

Sorry if my reply was sharp.
My DH is a cab driver, so I take this "swindling cab driver" image a bit personally.
Black cab drivers train for years, its a very hard to get into profession. Trust me they are not going to risk all that for the sake of tampering with their meter, which will be calibrated by the PCO when the cab is checked for its licence renew.

Years ago cab driving was populated by loads of cowboys, but in recent years it has really been tightened up & the vast majority of cabbies are professional law-abiding workers, who have to much invested in their job to risk loosing it for petty fiddles & short-cuts - doubly so for London Black taxis Cabbies.

BFG_2

Black cabbies pi55 me off when they drive around with their 'for hire' light out but still stopping to see where you want to go; if it's not on their way home they won't take you. [If a cab has it's for hire light on it HAS to take you to where you want to go within London, so they leave it fully off [as opposed to either available or 'on hire'] to get around this].

That's abuse of the system by them, and all because they are too miserable and tight to drive home without having some punter pay them.

No wonder the illegals are booming....the black cabs are too lazy to put in the hours and the effort.

vikingaero

When you measured the distance using GPS did you use a SatNav or a handheld walking Garmin type GPS?

Did you measure it on the same route from the station to home or from home to the station?

Is the area in which your station/home situated hilly?

nexuss

Deleted_User wrote: »

. 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.

Get someone to drive a car over the same distance and take the mileage instead of using a sat nav.