Payment OF Taxi Fares

I Was VB

The vast majority of my fares will have the correct amount of money to hand me at the end of the taxi journey, sometimes they only have a €50 note 9 times out of 10 i'd be able to hand over change.

However tonite i had a guy in the taxi and a few mins into the fare he turns and says he only has a €200 note.

So he suggests that we get change if i dont have it, which he does.

Some people have never even seen a €200 let alone own one, so please folks if ya have a high denomination note please tell the taxi driver before ya get in. Saves alot of hassle.

BTW the fare was €19.85

Shield

From a crime prevention point of view, I'd advise you to invest in a small UV light just to check the authenticity of such large notes in case you get stung. You can get them on eBay for around a tenner.

Terrontress

I don't understand why taxis in Dublin don't accept credit and debit cards.

It would be good for the drivers, once they get their authorisation they are definitely getting paid and they don't have to carry so much cash. Less security risk, less need for float. Also people are more likely to take a taxi if they always have means to pay for it.

It seems to be the norm in other cities.

meathstevie

It also the norm in other cities in the western world to have taxi licences issued in function of population figures.

The way things are in the taxi industry in Ireland makes it practically impossible for one man one car operators to invest in a card terminal and pay our generous banks a wad of money every month to facilitate the odd person who hasn't got a bit of cash on them. A quick stop at a bankmachine is not the end of the world either..

Terrontress

meathstevie wrote: »

It also the norm in other cities in the western world to have taxi licences issued in function of population figures.

The way things are in the taxi industry in Ireland makes it practically impossible for one man one car operators to invest in a card terminal and pay our generous banks a wad of money every month to facilitate the odd person who hasn't got a bit of cash on them. A quick stop at a bankmachine is not the end of the world either..

I can't see that it would be impossible for a driver to invest in such machinery. The driver already invests in a meter which is much more complicated than a credit card terminal. I'd say many modern meters already incorporate the technology.

The technology would improve the customer experience, making them more likely to take taxis. As I said, the driver carries less cash so there is less of a security risk and the fares will go straight to the bank account so drivers don't need to make that journey so often.

The big thing advertised on English tv are the cards which you just tap to make a payment. I have seen the taxis take this in New York already. Once that comes in to Ireland I think the taxis will move with the times and get it on board.

deRanged

if the smallest note I have is a 50 I tell the driver at the start of the journey. like you said, nine times out of ten it's not a problem, and if it is we just hit a shop or a bank machine.
a little talking can save a lot of hassle.

mikemac

I'd be the same, if I just have a €50 note I say it at the start. Usually it's not an issue

The credit card terminals are a great facility and they are a big factor in choosing the company I book taxis with.

lost marbles

any taxi company that uses credit card terminal in the taxi charge the customer a 20% surcharge on top of the fare for the facility .
the cheapest i know of is this crowd that you give them your details of your card in the form of a txt message @a chargeof €2 .i dont know about you but i would,nt be given out my card details over a mobile .

for the sake of a few minutes at an atm .i think would be the best option .

Capt'n Midnight

lost marbles wrote: »

any taxi company that uses credit card terminal in the taxi charge the customer a 20% surcharge on top of the fare for the facility .
the cheapest i know of is this crowd that you give them your details of your card in the form of a txt message @a chargeof €2 .i dont know about you but i would,nt be given out my card details over a mobile .

for the sake of a few minutes at an atm .i think would be the best option .

Do you mean they are offering 20% discount on the fare if people pay in cash ?

If they are actually charging more than the regulator has allowed why isn't the regulator doing something about it ?

Capt'n Midnight

Terrontress wrote: »

I can't see that it would be impossible for a driver to invest in such machinery. The driver already invests in a meter which is much more complicated than a credit card terminal. I'd say many modern meters already incorporate the technology.

Taxi meter is not more complicated than a cedit card machine, for a start credit card machines have sophisticated anti-tamper measures on the chips themselves to hinder reverse engineering by people with access to electron microscopes ...

you can hire credit card devices, you can also get ones that clip on mobile devices.

costs vary per transaction but like newsagents all you do is put up a sign that says only for transactions over €5 or €10.

Captain Commie

lost marbles wrote: »

any taxi company that uses credit card terminal in the taxi charge the customer a 20% surcharge on top of the fare for the facility .
the cheapest i know of is this crowd that you give them your details of your card in the form of a txt message @a chargeof €2 .i dont know about you but i would,nt be given out my card details over a mobile .

for the sake of a few minutes at an atm .i think would be the best option .

Actually you will find the norm is 10%, at least when i worked in the industry 6 months ago thats what it was.

With regards to charging additional on top of the taximeter, as long as the driver tells the customer that there is a 10% charge for using credit cards then the regulator cant do anything as its a service charge for an extra service that the driver has provided.

With regards to machines for credit cards, there are companies out there that provide a service that you can use through your mobile phone to take payments.

Terrontress

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Taxi meter is not more complicated than a cedit card machine, for a start credit card machines have sophisticated anti-tamper measures on the chips themselves to hinder reverse engineering by people with access to electron microscopes ...

you can hire credit card devices, you can also get ones that clip on mobile devices.

costs vary per transaction but like newsagents all you do is put up a sign that says only for transactions over €5 or €10.

Credit card terminals don't have chips. It is the card itself which has the chip.

A taxi meter has a measurement device which must be calibrated and has wires leading from the wheel to the cabin.

Electronic credit card terminals in their simplest form will record the card number, expiry date and amount. If the merchant has a zero or low floor limit then it might have an authorisation facility.

But don't forget, you can process cards with a manual imprinter only and that is just a roller and some carbonated paper.

lost marbles

innovated wrote: »

Actually you will find the norm is 10%, at least when i worked in the industry 6 months ago thats what it was.

With regards to charging additional on top of the taximeter, as long as the driver tells the customer that there is a 10% charge for using credit cards then the regulator cant do anything as its a service charge for an extra service that the driver has provided.

With regards to machines for credit cards, there are companies out there that provide a service that you can use through your mobile phone to take payments.

ive been with quite a few firms over the years and although credit card terminals are only in the last few years i have never seen one in a taxi that only charged the customer 10% surcharge on top of the fare . the driver got a certain percentage of the surcharge and the company the rest .the company tried to incourage the customer to use the card in order to earn more from the fare and booking .[im sure with a bit of searching you,ll find that there are very few ,if any that will only put a 10% service charge ] ring a few of the main big companies in the dublin area and see , GLOBAL ,NRC,EXPERT , infact global,82020,citycabs,are all the one company and use the mobile phone txt option .others that the customer rings in their details to a faceless base controller [again not the best option in todays id theft rise]
i said nothing about the taxi regulator and the extra charge . plus i also mentioned about using a mobile phone to txt your card details [again not a very good idea imo] even at the €2 charge .

lost marbles

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Do you mean they are offering 20% discount on the fare if people pay in cash ?

If they are actually charging more than the regulator has allowed why isn't the regulator doing something about it ?

now i see where "innovated" got his regulator from.
the 20% charge is a SURCHARGE for using the facilty of the credit card .

Capt'n Midnight

I had thought that since some companies are offering 20% discount across the board because of competition, that no other company would actually charge 50% more :eek: (80% vs. 120% )

Capt'n Midnight

Terrontress wrote: »

Credit card terminals don't have chips. It is the card itself which has the chip.

A taxi meter has a measurement device which must be calibrated and has wires leading from the wheel to the cabin.

Electronic credit card terminals in their simplest form will record the card number, expiry date and amount. If the merchant has a zero or low floor limit then it might have an authorisation facility.

But don't forget, you can process cards with a manual imprinter only and that is just a roller and some carbonated paper.

A Visa certified chip and pin reader was supposed to resist someone spending $25,000 attacking each reader, (because data from the card is passed unencrypted this is moot as you can sniff the pins, had they used secure communication to the chip ... ). It's not just a simple card reader.
I'd doubt that taxi meters have the same levels of security



I doubt that you'd get any people williing to use carbon paper things for credit card anymore.

Terrontress

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

A Visa certified chip and pin reader was supposed to resist someone spending $25,000 attacking each reader, (because data from the card is passed unencrypted this is moot as you can sniff the pins, had they used secure communication to the chip ... ). It's not just a simple card reader.
I'd doubt that taxi meters have the same levels of security



I doubt that you'd get any people williing to use carbon paper things for credit card anymore.

Depends on the business. The likes of a B&B, which is only trading from St. Patrick's Day until the end of August, will have one. For a start, they don't want to have to pay twelve months' terminal rental when they only use it for six months. Also, they might make a credit card transaction only every two to three days. The carbon imprinter is probably the best way from a merchant's perspective to transact. Authorisation code from call centre and physical copy of the card. Can't be denied. The only problem is the volume of transactions which you can process using it.

There are many different types of chip available in cards. Different encryption, some have other commercial applications, different colours. At its simplest it is just the sixteen digit code and expiry date. Nothing more, nothing less.

The big point of introducing chip and pin was to shift liability. With signature verification, the bank was liable if a merchant could prove that they had had the physical card and it transpired the card was stolen. With chip and pin, it is your responsibility to guard your pin. If your card is used illegally without having been to a "common purchase point" where a lot of fraud has taken place, you'll be held liable.

Capt'n Midnight

Terrontress wrote: »

The big point of introducing chip and pin was to shift liability. With signature verification, the bank was liable if a merchant could prove that they had had the physical card and it transpired the card was stolen. With chip and pin, it is your responsibility to guard your pin. If your card is used illegally without having been to a "common purchase point" where a lot of fraud has taken place, you'll be held liable.

Unfortunately since the banks are no longer liable there is no incentive for them to fix any problems with chip and pin.:mad::mad:

so maybe there is scope for paper after all

Cookie_Monster

200 quid for a 20 fair is perfectly legal, only has to be 5% of the value of the note for any transaction.

That said, why any one would expect a taxi driver to carry that kind of change around is beyond me, it simply is not going to happen, only large supermarkets tend to change them at all these days.

Del2005

Terrontress wrote: »

I can't see that it would be impossible for a driver to invest in such machinery. The driver already invests in a meter which is much more complicated than a credit card terminal. I'd say many modern meters already incorporate the technology.

The technology would improve the customer experience, making them more likely to take taxis. As I said, the driver carries less cash so there is less of a security risk and the fares will go straight to the bank account so drivers don't need to make that journey so often.

The issue with the CC/Laser terminal is that it would also require a data connection to take the money straight away, on top of the commission charged by the card issuing companies companies, I can't see too many taxi drivers in the current market mess taking out contracts for data and PAYG would be too expensive.

The problem we have with taxis now isn't people not taking them as they need to pay cash, it's too many taxis. Years ago Dublin only had 2000 taxis now we have 20,000+, there's been a 10 fold increase in taxis but the amount of customers are still around the level of when we had 2,000. We need some amount between then and now but how to get there isn't for this thread.

The big thing advertised on English tv are the cards which you just tap to make a payment. I have seen the taxis take this in New York already. Once that comes in to Ireland I think the taxis will move with the times and get it on board.

They still have the same costs for the provider, they just make it convenient for the customer.

We'd need shops and buses to get them before taxi's do, with the amount of threads about taxis charging too much I really doubt many people would currently trust a contact less payment method in a cab.

paulm17781

National radio cabs have chip and pin readers if you ask over the phone. They do not have a surcharge. I used to never phone taxis (as there are so many in Dublin). Since I've discovered this, I always use NRC. The credit card facility makes it totally worth my while.