Taxicab Fare Vagaries.
Page 1
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• rhe article in this issue, entitled ‘• Why Taximeters Lie.k one which ought to reassure those members of the public who seem to think that time-and-distance recorders are generally unreliable. Such is not the case. The density of the average hirer, so far as the bearing of time charges Upon the total is concerned, has been a matter of comment in these pages on frequent occasions, a few of which are mentioned in the opening paragraphs of the article in question (pages 387 to 389), but there is no legitimate cause for complaint on this score. The addition of 2d. per 2 minutes elapsed when standing, or the equivalent minimum record WIWI'S the speed of the vehicle over the road tails below six miles an hour, is in accordance with the conditions under which the vehicles are licensed to ply for hire. It is, howt'S-r1", the skidding of the near-side back wheel, from which the drive for the mechanism of the taximeter has hitherto been exclusively derived, that provides a much more common source of trouble. and the proprietors have only got until the end of this month to effect a substitution of transmission from one of the front wheels, in accordance with an old regulation that has been allowed to remain in abe■at:ce for one year and seven months. This change should remove practically all troubles with hirers, but other incidental difficulties are mentioned and explained in our article. The most satisfactory feature is the negligible percentage of cases where the instruments go wrong so far a, the public is concerned, though there are, of course, e hat we may term " dodges " to cheat the cab owners.