Taxi stopping mid-fare for fuel

alaimacerc

OK, slightly weird one... Has anyone ever got a taxi, then have the driver told them they had to stop for fuel? Is there an etiquette or "custom and practice" for this?

Happened to me last night. Was a little surprised, but didn't think to argue, as I was pretty out of it (which is mostly why I was taking a taxi at all; otherwise I might have saved a few quid and . Besides, I didn't seem to be getting a lot of choice, the driver just announced this was happening, there wasn't really any "by your leave", much less an apology for this. And it's not like it was unavoidable: I hadn't flagged him down right after an earlier fare, but hailed at a rank, where there was a significant line, so he must have been waiting there a while.

What really irked me, though, is that he left the meter running while he was stopped! Then mentioned nothing about it when he asked for the fare. When I brought it up, he then knocked off the odd cents, which seemed pretty minimalistic. And again, no word of apology about not offering himself.

Not exactly the worst thing to happen to someone in a cab, obviously, and I don't think I'll be troubling the regulator with a formal complaint. But a little off, no?

Mikros

Happened to me a few times. Taxi driver just explains beforehand and knocks the meter off while he is in the petrol station. Saying that I drive past the station on the way so there is no detour or extra cost for me that way.

I'd be fairly unimpressed if the meter was still running while he's topping up his tank.

Muahahaha

Yes it is off, I've had it happen to me before where I got charged the full whack after his fuel stop. Next time a driver does it to me I'll say nothing except to ask them for a receipt which is needed to complain to the regulator.

Recently I've had American guests come to my place by taxi from the airport. I live 8km from the airport but their taxi driver still managed to get lost for over 10 minutes because he couldn't find my place on his GPS. I had to give him directions over the phone to get my guests here and when they showed up he tried to charge them €29 for what would normally have been a €20-22 run. I told him that to his face and said if he wanted €29 then he could have it so long as he provided a receipt. He backed down pretty quick and settled on €20. If I wasn't there then he was definitely ripping those tourists off due to his own lack of knowledge of an address only 5 miles from the airport.

alaimacerc

Mikros wrote: »

Happened to me a few times. Taxi driver just explains beforehand and knocks the meter off while he is in the petrol station. Saying that I drive past the station on the way so there is no detour or extra cost for me that way.

I'd be fairly unimpressed if the meter was still running while he's topping up his tank.

I sure wasn't! Didn't quite twig the meter was running right away, but to be fair it was en route, he was fairly quick about it, and the "discount" likely more-or-less covered it. Some neck, all the same...

porsche959

I would expect as a matter of courtesy the driver would

(1) mention at the start he needed to stop for fuel and
(2) click off the meter while refuelling.

Dravokivich

It's only happened to me once and after picking me up, less than a minute into the journey he was in the petrol station. Didn't turn on the meter until we left from there.

Spook_ie

All meters have a function to be able to stop and restart the meter during a journey

Muahahaha

Dravokivich wrote: »

It's only happened to me once and after picking me up, less than a minute into the journey he was in the petrol station. Didn't turn on the meter until we left from there.

That seems to be the fairest way of doing it. If the driver wants to kill two birds with the one stone then a courtesy is to get the petrol and only then start the meter.

wicklowwonder

Coming home one night driver asked could he stop to pick up food at a takeaway. Said the takeaway was unreal. We both ended up going in getting food. He didn't start the meter until after the food stop and the food stop was about 5 mins into the journey. Sound I thought!

joeguevara

Muahahaha wrote: »

Yes it is off, I've had it happen to me before where I got charged the full whack after his fuel stop. Next time a driver does it to me I'll say nothing except to ask them for a receipt which is needed to complain to the regulator.

Recently I've had American guests come to my place by taxi from the airport. I live 8km from the airport but their taxi driver still managed to get lost for over 10 minutes because he couldn't find my place on his GPS. I had to give him directions over the phone to get my guests here and when they showed up he tried to charge them €29 for what would normally have been a €20-22 run. I told him that to his face and said if he wanted €29 then he could have it so long as he provided a receipt. He backed down pretty quick and settled on €20. If I wasn't there then he was definitely ripping those tourists off due to his own lack of knowledge of an address only 5 miles from the airport.

Dublin taxi fare calculator:

Minimum fare:
EUR €4.1 for first 1km
Fare above minimum fare until 15km: EUR €1.03 per km
Therefore an 8km fare should be (1x4.1) and 7 x (1.03) = 12.22. Seems you are getting ripped off a tenner yourself every time you get a taxi home.

forgot about additional passengers and tolls. Still 20 is still a disaster for 8km

dilallio

joeguevara wrote: »

Dublin taxi fare calculator:

Minimum fare:
EUR €4.1 for first 1km
Fare above minimum fare until 15km: EUR €1.03 per km
Therefore an 8km fare should be (1x4.1) and 7 x (1.03) = 12.22. Seems you are getting ripped off a tenner yourself every time you get a taxi home.

Additional passengers incur a €1 charge each.
If the driver went through a Toll, this charge is also included.

joeguevara

dilallio wrote: »

Additional passengers incur a €1 charge each.
If the driver went through a Toll, this charge is also included.

That makes sense.

n97 mini

Had a taxi run out of petrol one night, fortunately almost opposite a petrol station, but the driver knew it was coming so sort of forewarned me. I had a few beers in me so didn't really mind, and just put it down to that being normal/acceptable in his home country. He stopped the meter too, so no harm done.

jill_valentine

I had a taxi driver stop in for fuel a few seconds after picking me up and while, fair enough, he stopped the meter, I'd only flagged him down in the first place because I was running late. Rrrrr.

HeidiHeidi

joeguevara wrote: »

Dublin taxi fare calculator:

Minimum fare:
EUR €4.1 for first 1km
Fare above minimum fare until 15km: EUR €1.03 per km
Therefore an 8km fare should be (1x4.1) and 7 x (1.03) = 12.22. Seems you are getting ripped off a tenner yourself every time you get a taxi home.

forgot about additional passengers and tolls. Still 20 is still a disaster for 8km

Is there not an additional tenner (or some such figure, maybe I've inflated that in my head over the years) added as a premium for taking a taxi from the airport? I'm fairly sure there used to be.....

Beano

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Is there not an additional tenner (or some such figure, maybe I've inflated that in my head over the years) added as a premium for taking a taxi from the airport? I'm fairly sure there used to be.....

Not any more.

Dravokivich

joeguevara wrote: »

Dublin taxi fare calculator:

Minimum fare:
EUR €4.1 for first 1km
Fare above minimum fare until 15km: EUR €1.03 per km
Therefore an 8km fare should be (1x4.1) and 7 x (1.03) = 12.22. Seems you are getting ripped off a tenner yourself every time you get a taxi home.

forgot about additional passengers and tolls. Still 20 is still a disaster for 8km

dilallio wrote: »

Additional passengers incur a €1 charge each.
If the driver went through a Toll, this charge is also included.

joeguevara wrote: »

That makes sense.

Don't forget there's also time if in slow moving traffic, or stopped.

alaimacerc

Muahahaha wrote: »

That seems to be the fairest way of doing it. If the driver wants to kill two birds with the one stone then a courtesy is to get the petrol and only then start the meter.

Totally agree. I guess some people want to kill three birds with one stone: get the fuel, get the fare stop, and have the first pay for his time making the second.

I was honestly waiting for the other shoe to drop at the end of the journey, where he'd grandly announce how he'd be handling it. Not a word.

Losty Dublin

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Is there not an additional tenner (or some such figure, maybe I've inflated that in my head over the years) added as a premium for taking a taxi from the airport? I'm fairly sure there used to be.....

You sure have inflated that in your head There was an extra of €1.50 for an airport rank pick up on the fare card issued by DCC. This covered the charge for entering and using the airport rank and was withdrawn in September 2006 when the national taxi fares came into being.

Gael23

I always find that Taxi Drivers and often times customers will know how much a journey should cost under normal circumstances so thats what the fare will be.
Once I was in a Taxi and got caught in hugely abnormal traffic but I still paid the fare I would have paid without the extra time spend in traffic

alaimacerc

Losty Dublin wrote: »

You sure have inflated that in your head There was an extra of €1.50 for an airport rank pick up on the fare card issued by DCC. This covered the charge for entering and using the airport rank and was withdrawn in September 2006 when the national taxi fares came into being.

Is there currently the same (or similar) at Cork, too? Generally seems to be a couple of quid cheaper out than home, but it's sufficiently variable that I wonder if it's just "margin of error". Seems odd as picking up at home is an extra trip out for the cab, whereas picking up at the airport could very possibly be a "return" fare.

Arthur Beesley

wicklowwonder wrote: »

Coming home one night driver asked could he stop to pick up food at a takeaway. Said the takeaway was unreal. We both ended up going in getting food. He didn't start the meter until after the food stop and the food stop was about 5 mins into the journey. Sound I thought!

What was the food like?

Mr.Frame

joeguevara wrote: »

Dublin taxi fare calculator:

Minimum fare:
EUR €4.1 for first 1km correct or re
Fare above minimum fare until 15km: EUR €1.03 per km
Therefore an 8km fare should be (1x4.1) and 7 x (1.03) = 12.22. Seems you are getting ripped off a tenner yourself every time you get a taxi home.

forgot about additional passengers and tolls. Still 20 is still a disaster for 8km

You cannot go by that fare calculator its not 100% correct or reliable.
Even your own estimate is incorrect ,NO fare comes to 12."22".

Losty Dublin

alaimacerc wrote: »

Is there currently the same (or similar) at Cork, too? Generally seems to be a couple of quid cheaper out than home, but it's sufficiently variable that I wonder if it's just "margin of error". Seems odd as picking up at home is an extra trip out for the cab, whereas picking up at the airport could very possibly be a "return" fare.

No idea what Cork Airport does, sorry. On "Return" fares as you call them, you aren't assured of a fare back from the airport; if you get onto your rank you could be waiting a while depending on arrival patterns so it's not as simple as pulling up and picking up.

alaimacerc

Losty Dublin wrote: »

No idea what Cork Airport does, sorry. On "Return" fares as you call them, you aren't assured of a fare back from the airport; if you get onto your rank you could be waiting a while depending on arrival patterns so it's not as simple as pulling up and picking up.

I get that, but it's a lot more likely for "getting a fare in both directions and not making a driver-only journey" than the "come collect me from my place" trip, surely? So I'm still a bit puzzled as to why that's the one with the extra charge (if it still applies, at this or indeed any other airport).

howiya

Happened me once. Hailed a taxi and as soon as I got in and stated my destination the driver told me he was hoping for a shorter run and he would need to stop for juice to get me where I was going. I didn't even think about the meter until he stopped it at the garage when we got there.

I imagine while most will probably be fair about it you will get a few cowboys that will try and maximise the fare by leaving the meter running or taking a detour, going the long way etc

Losty Dublin

alaimacerc wrote: »

I get that, but it's a lot more likely for "getting a fare in both directions and not making a driver-only journey" than the "come collect me from my place" trip, surely? So I'm still a bit puzzled as to why that's the one with the extra charge (if it still applies, at this or indeed any other airport).

There is no additional pick up charge at any airport for a taxi so this is not affecting the fare to and from Cork airport. You may find that one way systems, traffic lights and road flow or night rate fares may add to the journey; other than that perhaps you should ask a Cork taxi driver the next time regarding same.

Strumms

You might think that as so called professional drivers that their ability to plan for fuel stops would be second nature to them so as not to inconvenience a customer in this manner.. Dare I say rip off by keeping the meter on. I'd report either way, only way of weeding out these chancers.

Sligo Quay

Totally and absolutely unacceptable, public transport, doesn't matter if it's trains, planes and automobiles, and that includes buses.
Fueling is part of vehicle service and should never involve the customer for lots of reasons, health & safety etc.
A plane fuels at the airport, a bus fuels at a depot, a taxi fuels at a garage, it's all part of vehicle service, a vehicle for hire or public transport and that includes, planes trains and automobiles should not be in service and that includes having enough fuel, fueling should never be done when in service.
Its a wonder taxi drivers are not told this, but it is definitely a ''common sense'' rule, very unprofessional to fuel during a journey service.

Del2005

Muahahaha wrote: »

Recently I've had American guests come to my place by taxi from the airport. I live 8km from the airport but their taxi driver still managed to get lost for over 10 minutes because he couldn't find my place on his GPS. I had to give him directions over the phone to get my guests here and when they showed up he tried to charge them €29 for what would normally have been a €20-22 run. I told him that to his face and said if he wanted €29 then he could have it so long as he provided a receipt. He backed down pretty quick and settled on €20. If I wasn't there then he was definitely ripping those tourists off due to his own lack of knowledge of an address only 5 miles from the airport.

It's not just Irish taxi drivers that rip off tourists. Taxi drivers all over the world rip off tourists. Got a taxi a few years ago in Munich that took 10 minutes and the return journey was the same, next day as we where walking the streets we walked past the pub 5 minutes from our hotel!

Sligo Quay wrote: »

Totally and absolutely unacceptable, public transport, doesn't matter if it's trains, planes and automobiles, and that includes buses.
Fueling is part of vehicle service and should never involve the customer for lots of reasons, health & safety etc.
A plane fuels at the airport, a bus fuels at a depot, a taxi fuels at a garage, it's all part of vehicle service, a vehicle for hire or public transport and that includes, planes trains and automobiles should not be in service and that includes having enough fuel, fueling should never be done when in service.
Its a wonder taxi drivers are not told this, but it is definitely a ''common sense'' rule, very unprofessional to fuel during a journey service.

They refuel the plane as you board. Taxi's shouldn't stop for fuel when they have a fare but we don't live in an ideal world so once the meter is stopped it shouldn't be an issue

shewasdiesel

Do people think taxi's run on thin air, or would they prefer they run the risk of running out and leaving them stranded. As long as the meter is knocked off, can't see the problem. Yeah in an ideal world most drivers refuel when the taxi is on an empty return run, but it's not always possible and practical depending on where the fuel station / account is.

alaimacerc

shewasdiesel wrote: »

Do people think taxi's run on thin air, or would they prefer they run the risk of running out and leaving them stranded. As long as the meter is knocked off, can't see the problem.

And the meter wasn't knocked off, as was already pointed out in some detail. Seeing the problem yet? And a bit of courtesy about it wouldn't have gone amiss, either.

Yeah in an ideal world most drivers refuel when the taxi is on an empty return run, but it's not always possible and practical depending on where the fuel station / account is.

Cork Airport has a garage right next to it. This isn't a "not possible or practical"; this is a "sure, I'll get away with doing it on the customer's time, rather than my own", by all appearances.

shewasdiesel

alaimacerc wrote: »

And the meter wasn't knocked off, as was already pointed out in some detail. Seeing the problem yet? And a bit of courtesy about it wouldn't have gone amiss, either.



Cork Airport has a garage right next to it. This isn't a "not possible or practical"; this is a "sure, I'll get away with doing it on the customer's time, rather than my own", by all appearances.

Guess you missed the bit that said "as long as the meter was knocked off"
Do you think you're the only person who's ever been in a taxi that's stopped to refuel ?

alaimacerc

shewasdiesel wrote: »

Guess you missed the bit that said "as long as the meter was knocked off"

Guess you missed the part where's that's what I was specifically responding to. And where I specified it was otherwise in the OP, and subsequently. Perhaps what you were looking to say was, "no, you're quite correct, the driver should absolutely not have left the meter running during the fuel stop". That I certainly missed, all right.

Do you think you're the only person who's ever been in a taxi that's stopped to refuel ?

That question seems to fly in the facts of me having posted a b.ie thread asking about it, no?

Spook_ie

Strumms wrote: »

You might think that as so called professional drivers that their ability to plan for fuel stops would be second nature to them so as not to inconvenience a customer in this manner.. Dare I say rip off by keeping the meter on. I'd report either way, only way of weeding out these chancers.

You'd be more inconvenienced by running out of fuel

Sligo Quay

Iv been traveling on buses for over 40 years and in all that time I have never been on a bus that pulls in for fuel, it just doesn't happen, it's bit like a professional photographer running out of film, it's just not suppose to happen.
Professional people plan their working day.

Strumms

Spook_ie wrote: »

You'd be more inconvenienced by running out of fuel

Duh.. is that supposed to be a serious contribution to this thread ? .. id be even less inconvenienced if said driver would plan refueling as required rather then running on vapours and expecting a fare paying passenger to divert to a petrol station... meter on or off its still unprofessional and non sat. Only the hard of thinking or a certain type of taxi driver could fail to grasp that..

Spook_ie

Sligo Quay wrote: »

Iv been traveling on buses for over 40 years and in all that time I have never been on a bus that pulls in for fuel, it just doesn't happen, it's bit like a professional photographer running out of film, it's just not suppose to happen.
Professional people plan their working day.

A bus runs on a specific route, a taxi goes where the customer wants, comparing apples and pears

Spook_ie

Strumms wrote: »

You might think that as so called professional drivers that their ability to plan for fuel stops would be second nature to them so as not to inconvenience a customer in this manner.. Dare I say rip off by keeping the meter on. I'd report either way, only way of weeding out these chancers.

Strumms wrote: »

Duh.. is that supposed to be a serious contribution to this thread ? .. id be even less inconvenienced if said driver would plan refueling as required rather then running on vapours and expecting a fare paying passenger to divert to a petrol station... meter on or off its still unprofessional and non sat. Only the hard of thinking or a certain type of taxi driver could fail to grasp that..

You can't micro manage your fuel when you don't know where you are going to go on the next call, I could have enough fuel in to do 150 Km but if your journey is 200 Km it isn't going to work out is it?

corktina

from an earlier post

"Minimum fare:
EUR €4.1 for first 1km
Fare above minimum fare until 15km: EUR €1.03 per km"

If this is correct, it doesn't make any difference if the meter is knocked off, time isn't a factor I the fare,

Strumms

Spook_ie wrote: »

You can't micro manage your fuel when you don't know where you are going to go on the next call, I could have enough fuel in to do 150 Km but if your journey is 200 Km it isn't going to work out is it?

Now really.. How many fares are 150-200kms away ? Let alone the 50kms difference in between as you suggest. No micro managing fuel required.. Just managing. The driver should not have made himself available for hire if he couldn't do so without inconveniencing the customer and taking them to a petrol station which was not part of their desired journey and subsequently leaving the meter running.

shewasdiesel

Sligo Quay wrote: »

Iv been traveling on buses for over 40 years and in all that time I have never been on a bus that pulls in for fuel, it just doesn't happen, it's bit like a professional photographer running out of film, it's just not suppose to happen.
Professional people plan their working day.

Many people work in jobs that can't be neatly planned. A bus is not a taxi.

HivemindXX

shewasdiesel wrote: »

Many people work in jobs that can't be neatly planned. A bus is not a taxi.

It doesn't require much planning to get fuel on your own time.

Sam Russell

I think this problem arises because the taxi driver is sharing the cab and does not want to pass it on with any fuel in the tank for the next fellow. Why do taxi drivers put €10 worth of fuel in their cabs otherwise?

Muahahaha

Del2005 wrote: »

It's not just Irish taxi drivers that rip off tourists. Taxi drivers all over the world rip off tourists. Got a taxi a few years ago in Munich that took 10 minutes and the return journey was the same, next day as we where walking the streets we walked past the pub 5 minutes from

You're right - people the world over can be ripped by taxis. But what genuinely surprised me is how bad Dublin taxi drivers can be with tourists. I have perhaps more insight into this than most as up till recently I used to do the Airbnb thing and regularly had tourists stay with me and get a taxi from the airport. Over the last three years I've probably had 150+ guests stay with me and the vast majority used a taxi to get here. I would say almost 70% of drivers had problems finding my place because once their GPS couldn't find it then they were in trouble for local knowledge of where they were supposed to be going. It was absolutely shocking their knowledge of an address only a few miles from the airport, I used to have give tourists my phone number and tell them to give it to the driver to ring me if he couldn't find the address, which was the case more often than not. But then there were those other drivers who couldn't find it, drove around for ages and then dumped lost tourists on the side of the road, having charged them way over the odds for not getting them to where they requested to go. Incidents like that happened at least 7 or 8 times, I was disgusted at how some incompetent taxi drivers treated guests to our country- what a welcome- ripped off and lost in an unfamiliar area with large bags in tow. A regular incident was the one I outlined earlier- drivers getting lost but then still trying to charge tourists the full fare- I got wise to this pretty quick and had lots of incidences of me going down to meet the taxi and interjecting if the fare was anywhere above €22. I'd also ask them what route they took and most took the M50 which is not the shortest route to where I live so again local knowledge of routes was often lacking and the m50 was always seen as the only way to get anywhere which is another form of ripping them off because I've no doubt many drivers know about the shortest route but deliberately avoid it.

Anyway I use taxis quite a bit myself and usually never have any problems because when I get into the car I 'manage' the driver, I decide on the route so immediately he knows that I know what's what. Sometimes I'll test them out by suggesting a longer route to see what their response is but regardless I know I'm not going to be ripped off. So what surprised me about doing the b&b thing was just how badly many taxi drivers treat tourists. From my experience the ripping off of tourists by local taxi drivers is at almost endemic levels, it's not just a few bad apples here and there, if they hear a foreign accent immediately many drivers treat them completely different to locals and brazen facedly ripping them off is par for the course. I had so many drivers who rang me on the phone to explain where they were lost and I'd guide them here and meet them at the door. And then try to charge the tourists €30+ for what should be a €20-22 fare, right in front of me after I'd come to their rescue. I just couldn't believe the neck of these people, it really was shocking behaviour.

Spook_ie wrote: »

You can't micro manage your fuel when you don't know where you are going to go on the next call, I could have enough fuel in to do 150 Km but if your journey is 200 Km it isn't going to work out is it?

In fairness if you had a tank with a range of 500km and you are lucky enough to get 10 trips of 50km you still would have had plenty of opportunity to fill up when there was 150km of fuel left or 100km or even 50km. That's three opportunities to fill up in between fares so if the driver didn't fill up then he's being unprofessional by seeking to do it on a customers time. For some drivers it may be a genuine mistake and that's fair enough but I've no doubt in my mind that for other drivers this behaviour is par for the course on how they operate. They view their customers as mugs and they try to treat them like mugs too.

alaimacerc

corktina wrote: »

from an earlier post

"Minimum fare:
EUR €4.1 for first 1km
Fare above minimum fare until 15km: EUR €1.03 per km"

If this is correct, it doesn't make any difference if the meter is knocked off, time isn't a factor I the fare,

Don't know the details of how meters (as opposed to the regs) work, but time's definitely a factor; was sat in a stationary taxi in a garage, watching the meter continue to go up.

alaimacerc

Sam Russell wrote: »

I think this problem arises because the taxi driver is sharing the cab and does not want to pass it on with any fuel in the tank for the next fellow. Why do taxi drivers put €10 worth of fuel in their cabs otherwise?

That's a possibility. Or else they're being super-environmentalist, and not wanting to carry the extra fuel as "cargo", upping the weight of the vehicle and hence fuel consumption, when they don't need to?

*tumbleweed*

OK, maybe not.

Or they live in a right rough neighbourhood, and the folk next door would only be syphoning it off...

Mr.Frame

For Gods sake it happens a driver may notice he is low on fuel and has to get petrol.
The most is will take is approx. 3 minutes or so. Almost all drivers will stop the meter.
IT's not a big deal, get a life.

Muahahaha

Mr.Frame wrote: »

For Gods sake it happens a driver may notice he is low on fuel and has to get petrol.
The most is will take is approx. 3 minutes or so. Almost all drivers will stop the meter.
IT's not a big deal, get a life.

How do you know that ?

alaimacerc

And indeed, why is it even relevant? I had a driver who did not stop the meter (and clearly had every opportunity to go refuel anyway), as was pointed out in the OP (and several times since, for good measure( but somehow it's a pertinent rebuttal in the minds of some that they supposedly "mostly" do. And only stop on a fare when it's not "possible or practical" to do otherwise.

Sounds like a distinct case of "we'll continue to pull strokes, and don't you dare be complaining about it".

Mr.Frame

alaimacerc wrote: »

And indeed, why is it even relevant? I had a driver who did not stop the meter (and clearly had every opportunity to go refuel anyway), as was pointed out in the OP (and several times since, for good measure( but somehow it's a pertinent rebuttal in the minds of some that they supposedly "mostly" do. And only stop on a fare when it's not "possible or practical" to do otherwise.

Sounds like a distinct case of "we'll continue to pull strokes, and don't you dare be complaining about it".

So you sat there and said nothing but prefer to "complain" on a chat forum.