grandad wrote:
If asking for money up front on a job within our area, I usually say to the punter that the fare will be on the meter but I think the total for the job will be say £20. If it comes to anything less I will give you the change. If it comes to anything more, you have got yourself a bargain. I have never had a problem with this. It has sometimes cost me a couple of quid if I have got it wrong but I look at the fact that I don't get arguments about the fare at the end.
problem with this approach is the punter is always going to get at worst the metered fare and at best a cheap fare.
its not fare on the driver that you should offer discount based on a perceived bad reaction from the punter by asking for the correct fare if its over and above the £20 deposit,its also not fare on any other taxi driver as the punter will begin to expect an automatic discount.one which he doesn't agree with.
your entitled to the full fair,thats only
fare surely

your hardly likely to get an argument about being cheaper than it ought to be.
and a couple of quid is 10% thats not good business practice,unfortunatly its quite a typical simplistic approach that most taxi drivers have,no real clue just lazy business practices