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Best Card Reader
http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=41897		 Page 2 of 2
Author:  StuartW [ Sat Nov 01, 2025 10:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Best Card Reader
New research?

Who knew? :-o

Could have told them this within a few days of getting a card reader years ago [-(

Some interesting stuff here, though, particularly about people thinking an electronic tip might not go to the driver, and the stuff about preset tips on the card reader :oops:

Also the stuff at the end about the psychological impact of tipping, or not :sad:

But average tip to a taxi driver is £3.90? :-s

Is that per shift? :lol:


TAXI TIPPING: New research shows taxi passengers less likely to tip when using card payment over cash

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/taxi- ... t-over-cas

Taxi drivers are missing out on tips as fewer people carry cash, according to new research into tipping habits across the UK.
Author:  StuartW [ Sat Nov 01, 2025 10:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Best Card Reader
That piece is actually all over the press, but is about tipping more generally, as opposed to the trade-specific slant in TaxiPoint.

But I just don't believe the tipping figures at the bottom. And interesting that TaxiPoint uses the word 'average' in relation to the figures, while this below doesn't use that term, although is using the same figures.

But, I mean, you'd think that an average figure would include the zero tip jobs, but I doubt it actually does in this case.

https://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/post-offi ... rd-3413516
Author:  StuartW [ Sat Nov 01, 2025 10:35 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Best Card Reader
I just can't believe the average taxi driver gets an average of £3.90 tip over all jobs.

So to that extent the figures are meaningless. For example, suppose I went a few days without getting a tip at all, but then someone gave me a fiver...

That would mean my average tip was hardly anything, but using the methodology I think they're using above, my average tip would be £5? :-s

To that extent I doubt if the figures mean that much.

And even if only including jobs where I get any kind of tip at all, the average isn't anywhere near £3.90 :roll:
Author:  Sussex [ Sat Nov 01, 2025 3:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Best Card Reader
Not sure if I’m lucky or otherwise, but I average about 20% on all my tips.

Varies from sweet f*** all to £50 plus.

Worst tippers are the youth and fellow cabbies.

Something I’ve never quite worked out.
Author:  XH558 [ Sun Nov 02, 2025 1:39 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Best Card Reader
Tend to get tips with cash more than card.

It's often folk from poorer parts of Glasgow that tip most consistently. I've also noticed some have a habit of paying the exact fare (by cash or card) and then put 2 or 3 pounds in the tray afterwards. Like they want to be sure it's not counted as takings or something.
Author:  StuartW [ Mon Nov 03, 2025 12:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Best Card Reader
If anyone hasn't read this, it's about making the tipping process on card 'seamless and attractive' :-o


Are taxi apps and card payments costing cabbies their tips? Making the option more seamless and attractive for customers

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/are-t ... s-and-attr



But it's like the whole card reader thing more generally - difficult to actually assess the practicalities and pitfalls, and potential cringe factor associated with it all, without actually using it on the ground, and of course each different platform will have its own modus and quirks.

Which to be fair the article does try to accommodate in general terms, without actually naming particular apps and readers etc.

Personally I'm unconvinced, and in a way even the suggestion of a sign saying all tips go to the driver seems a tad cringe 8-[

But at a rough guess I suspect the tipping thing would be a whole lot easier with the fixed-terminal type of thing that the London cabbies have to use, as opposed to the wee card readers most of have :?
Author:  StuartW [ Mon Nov 03, 2025 1:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Best Card Reader
And, I mean, there's the likes of this in the piece above, which sounds like it's aimed at the likes of Uber and Bolt drivers, and has a whole AI vibe about it :-o

In fact, quite a bit of the taxi 'news' knocking about online these days has a distinct AI vibe about it all 8-[

Not sure what's worse, the AI stuff, or the cut and paste churnalism articles, replete with copy and pasted spelling and grammatical errors etc :lol:

TaxiPoint wrote:
Timing and reminders help. A gentle nudge after drop-off, once the rider has rated the trip highly, keeps tipping in mind without making it feel compulsory. Many riders decide in those few seconds. Make the journey receipt easy to find in the app, with the tip shown on its own line, and allow late tipping within a short window for anyone who skipped the first prompt.
Author:  StuartW [ Sat Nov 08, 2025 11:41 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Best Card Reader
Another interesting piece on TaxiPoint on cards and tipping, if anyone feels like further stressing out about it all :lol:


CABBIES SPLIT ON TAXI TIPS: How much of an impact does cash and card payments really have on tips?

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/cabbi ... ve-on-tips



The piece certainly does address the impact of different styles of terminal or basic hands-held card reader, for example, but I'm still unconvinced, and the process of getting one of my two card readers to work, passing it back to passengers in the rear seat (or, assuming it can all be done contactless and without a PIN, or whatever, just holding it up in the air) seems difficult enough at times without adding an extra potential layer of complexity and pitfall :?

And, as the article maybe alludes, and as per what others have said on here, a lot of that stuff depends on stuff like passenger demographics and the like.

Could easily rattle up a few thousand words on all that. But, to compare two simple and contrasting demographics here in St As, students always always use card/phone, and almost never tip.

The domestic tourists who are generally in the older bracket and go to the likes of the caravan sites on the edge of town are generally cash and usually add a pound or two tip - probably the most common trip from one of our couple of town ranks is a £6er (on T1) to a caravan site just outside town, and it's commonplace to get £8, or sometimes the £10.

As regards the luggage and the like mentioned in the piece, I picked up a student and her parents from the station yesterday, with the student in the front, and her parents (who'd flown in from the USA, and were planning golfing, eating in fancy restaurants and living in expensive town centre accommodation), who had a fair bit of luggage.

Anyway, it came to £15.40, and the student in the front insisted on paying, and of course it was with card, and zero tip :sad:

I suspect that if the parents had arrived on their own then I'd have probably gotten a tip (or if they'd actually made the payment rather than their daughter), but that's how it works. And, naturally, I did most of the lugging the luggage in and out, if only because it's quite common for punters getting a 25kg suitcase into or out of the boot to drag it over the paintwork :x
Author:  x-ray [ Wed Jan 14, 2026 10:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Best Card Reader
Hardly ever get tips if they are paying on card. Typical example, I had a job today, £27.50 couldn’t get a signal after trying a few times. Passenger then gives me £30 cash and asks for a receipt for the £30! #-o
Author:  Sussex [ Wed Jan 14, 2026 11:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Best Card Reader
It’s definitely a mental block thing.

Many regular punters paying cash always tip, but if they need to pay with card they straight fare.
Author:  StuartW [ Thu Jan 15, 2026 3:03 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Best Card Reader
Have had the same quite a few times, X-ray. Maybe not precisely the same scenario, but, for example, they ask to pay by card, and you key in the precise amount, and they're all ready to pay, then they suddenly remember they've got cash, and then pay by cash and you get a tip :-s
Author:  StuartW [ Thu Jan 15, 2026 3:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Best Card Reader
For what it's worth, my Zettle/PayPal reader is still unresponsive a lot of the time.

But I see the latest branding is PayPal POS - how appropriate :lol:
Author:  StuartW [ Sat Feb 07, 2026 12:19 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Best Card Reader
Sussex wrote:
Quote:
Never really used the phone tap facility myself

So much easier as it's always on.

About one in 20 needs a pin, so then you use the card reader.

Thanks for the heads up, Sussex - I've actually started using tap-to-pay most of the time :-o

Think the reason I wasn't using it was because I first tried it with my Lopay account, and they charge an extra 8p per transaction :-s

Obviously not much on a big run, but on a £5 student run when you have about zero chance of even an 8p tip, it always seemed preferable to use the card reader :roll:

And the Lopay reader seemed to be working a bit better than the PayPal POS reader, so I just continued with that.

Funny thing, though, is that while my PayPal card reader is still unresponsive at times, the Lopay tap-to-pay thing is often unresponsive now #-o

So I'm kind of back to using PayPal, but for tap-to-pay. The fees are a bit higher (almost £2 on a £100 run, while only £1 on Lopay, as long as it's a domestic card rather than international :roll: ).

And the PayPal app interface is a lot less cluttered and clunky than Lopay - I can read the PayPal numbers etc more easily without my reading specs 8), and the Lopay app is far too cluttered, and it's not so easy to switch between the tap-to-pay function and the card reader if required (but, of course, if I need to use the PayPal reader if tap-to-pay doesn't work then it might be unresponsive :roll: )

And if I need to use my second phone because of signal issues or whatever (I usually use Tesco/o2, but have a 3 account as a back up), then it's easy to open the app to use tap-to-pay, while reconnecting the card reader to another phone can entail a huge hoohah...

But, basically, they both have their merits, but they're both POS in other regards :lol:

But it's horses for courses - PayPal better for tap-to-pay, but slightly higher commission, while Lopay better for the card reader stuff :?
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