Money Moral Dilemma: What's the fairest way to split our taxi fare? 26 February 2019 at 7:35PM in Public transport & cycling 38 replies 16.4K views

adblack

esuhl wrote: »

You should pay (13/(13+16))*£18 = £8.07
Your friend should pay (16/(13+16))*£18 = £9.93
There is no requirement to tip the driver.

If your friend doesn't have exact change and you lend him/her money, you should immediately write to them by "recorded delivery" threatening to sue them unless they repay the money owed within 14 days.

Orrrrr.... You could hand over a tenner each like normal people.

Exactly the right answer! :beer:

crmism

Go halves - if you choose to pay for a taxi, then you must be able to afford to go a little short insofar as your own journey is concerned.

tgroom57

£10 each. You're in a taxi, in the dark & well inebriated. You need the simplest possible solution.

happyinflorida

I used to share taxis with friends when I was young. Most of us would pay half the total cost but I had a couple of friends who were different - I like an easy life, so I'd just agree!! She used to think it better we went to her home first and she'd pay the taxi fare to her home and leave me to pay the rest, which worked out a lot cheaper for me!

Most people would just say to split 50/50 though and I preferred to do that as otherwise I felt guilty! I also think to split evenly is a lot easier too.

Another friend, who also insisted on going to her home first would give me the money plus a tip for the driver - as I always tip too. She would always check afterwards how much it cost and if it was way over half the cost, I'd offer to repay her some of the money and she'd agree! I was just very easy going when young and not short of money so in order for an easy life and to be polite, I'd always offer.

Ebenezer_Screwj

This is doing my head in. What do you normally do? I would say just split he fare and don't worry about it.

Tee-Cee

Your friend is only incurring the extra (£18 - £16) £2 because the stop-off at your house is taking them out of their way. You should pay that. That takes care of any disadvantage to your friend in sharing a cab. Thereafter you should split the normal cost of a ride to your house – (£13/2) = £6.50 – so you pay £8.50 in total. Your friend pays in full the balance to go onwards to their house plus their half of the trip to yours (£6.50 + (£16 - £13)) – £9.50.

Anyway, that’s what I would do – if I could ever find anyone willing to share a cab with me.

Benjamin_Joseph

I'd have done a rough pro rata split, like £8 and £10. Tip is optional of course, but we could each add £1 if we each wanted to, but the question isn't really about tipping so I'll ignore that for now.
It's not because I'm the one with the lower single fare, like in the original question. It's actually because I'd not expect a mate to stump up £9 if they were the one who lived closer.
What if your usual fare was £20 and your mate's was £5, and the combined fare was £18? Would you honestly expect them to pay £9 while you save £11?
Fair enough that the original question gives a small difference that nobody in the taxi cares about if you're friends. But I hate feeling I'm taking advantage of people when we have to split a saving, so I always go for something that is fair in all situations, like splitting it pro rata. And then I just round to the nearest £1 or £5 so neither of us have to do maths with pennies when we're probably on our way home after a few drinks :-)

quickstepqueen

In this instance I would do a 50/50 split as the 2 usual taxi fares only differ by £3. Both parties save money and get home safely. If the usual taxi fares were much wider apart then I would suggest a different proportion.