Belvar wrote:
Cheers man.
I've been told that the driver can do the fare, collect say £10, then delete the information off the meter and book the fare down for £5 and lie about where he's been.
Does the meter not store what its done all day then? I'm really hacked off now
Well it all depends what system you are working. If you charge a fixed rental they obviously you've got no problem.
If the drivers are paid a percentage then that's where the fun and games start.
For example, they could record the fare as less than it is, or not at all if they manage to do a job on the fly, even if they are controlled by radio then if they are cruising and get a short job they could easily do it without blowing it in.
I think there's also a practice among drivers in some areas to do runs for other drivers who need a taxi off-meter, simply so that they could pocket the money.
Long distance work tends to be off meter, so clearly there's potential for problems there, for example while they might not be able to do an out of town job without you knowing, they could say it was 50 miles when it was really 60, or they could say they agreed such and such a price when it was really £10 more.
As regards the meter, an insurmountable problem is off meter work.
As regards tampering with the meter, it basically depends on whether the driver knows how to change the figures - I'm not sure if individual runs could be removed, but most keep shift totals that could be zeroed a couple of hours into the shift.
But I think most meters also keep a record of the shift mileage, so you could check this against the odometer to see if it's been zeroed. And you can compare the mileage against the take (you can do this manually but most modern meters provide all sorts of stats) and if a driver has a particularly low ratio then that might indicate he's on the take.
There are also other potential problems like the driver leaving the meter running, or starting it running then the punter changes their mind and jumps out, not to mention runners - in all three cases the meter is showing more than the actual takings.
But it all depends on how you intend operating and how your meters work and what security features it has etc.
You could think about this before you start and make put in place appropriate safeguards, but I suspect that until you've actually started you won't know enough to do this properly.
But once you've started you will soond pick up the potential hazards and be able to put appropriate safeguards in place.
But no system is watertight, and there will always be an element of cheating.
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