By the way, not sure how common it is in the mainstream trade, and I suspect it's more common in smaller, more traditional offices, but the only proper office I've worked for here in St Andrews *did* record the value of every run
In *theory* I think there were two purposes to this. First, to ensure that all cars had roughly similar totals at the end of the shift (or, to ensure that favoured cars always had better totals
)
Second, the 40% drivers would be paid on the basis of the car's shift total, obviously, and the office kept totals rather than rely on the meter totals (don't get me started on that). So there were often disputes between drivers and the office about the totals at the end of the shift, and not difficult to work out why. I was a sole owner-driver so I simply didn't bother with that kind of thing.
Then, of course, even though I think individual runs were recorded by the office to stop cheating via the meter, there were still plently of sharp practices went on. For example, a driver would 'blow in' a value less than the actual run was worth, so wouldn't have to pay 40% on the difference (eg it's a £10 run but he claims it's £8).
And although most of the cars were hacks, they were doing mostly pre-booked work. But if a driver did hack a run, they might not shout it in, so could pocket the whole fare
(Obviously easier on short runs, but amazing the amount of drivers seen on the other side of town from where they were supposed to be, or even out of town
)
Anyway, that's digressing a bit, but important to underline that although the value of every fare was recorded, this was nothing to do with the fee paid to the office, which was still a fixed amount per car.
And, of course, every office or town will have similar sharp practices, even with the latest apps and GPS.
But that's why I suspect the flat fee system became the norm in the first place, although I'm sure some old hands in the trade might know better than me.
But that's one reason I think that as far as employment status is concerned, flat v %age fees are a total irrelevance