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TAXIMETERS
LIE
JAN, 14, 1909. Immilr
ONE PENNY.
Our this week's poster. No inconsiderable correspondence has during the past few weeks, been taking place in the columns of the Daily Pres; with regard to the possibility of error in the records secured by the fare-registering machine--or taximeter, as it is more generally called. The Editor of this journal has also been the recipient of a number of communications similar in text to those which have been published in the Dailies, and it is with a view to the settlement of doubts as to the integrity of the instrument in question that a representative of " THE Comm.:m.1.u. Moroa" has made further technical investigation into the subject.
It may be stated, at once, that actual cases of mechanical error in the taximeter itAf are of occasional occurrence, but such discrepancies are, in reality, so few and far between, when consideration is taken of the large number of taaimeters now constantly in use, that the internal accuracy of these instruments can be accepted as of :t high order, The second conclusion at which we arrive is that certain irregularities of registration arc directly traceable in the method of driving the taximeter from a back wheel, and to the occasional liability of the flexible driving shaft and its operating gear to derangement.
The bulk of the complaints has undoubtedly arisen as a result of the almost complete ignorance, on the part of the public, of the principles upon which the taximeter is operated. We have described the system of time and-distance registration which is
adopted in these instruments on a number of previous occasions in these columns, and in this connection we would refer our readers to the concise explanations of this ingenious method which appeared in our issues of todi April and E 21.11 November last, on pages 232 and 202 respectively, as well as to the full -illustrated descriptions of typical taximeters which we published 23rd July and 27th August.
Mechanical Discrepancies.
The taximeter is a somewhat complicated instrument, and depends for its truth of operation as much upon its ingenuity of design as upon the care that has been bestowed upon its manufacture. Mechanism of all classes is liable to accidental derangement of one or other of its components„ and occasional cases of overcharge by a taximeter have been directly traced to the loosening of small locking pins, the slacking back of set screws, or the slipping of a spring from its anchor. Mis. haps of this class aggregate an extremely small percentage of the total records made by the thousands of instruments in operation, although such failures vitiate absolute reliability.
Losses to the Passenger.
We have already admitted that the taximeter itself may occasionally err, and we now have to point out that where the result is over-registration there will be loss to the passenger if it is undetected. With but few other exceptions does irregularity of registration affect the passenger other than favourably; it is the owner who is the chief sufferer through the occasional untruthful fits of the taximeter. The exceptions consist of cases in which the driving-road-wheel diameter is less than that for which the recorder is set, or in which slipping of the same road wheel takes place without corresponding progress of the vehicle over the ground. An almost negligible and very unusual " lie " may be told by the taximeter, to the detriment of the hirer, if, by chance, the time-recording clock is set to work too fast.
Variable Tire Diameters.
Without the necessity for technical description, it will be readily understo)d that, in order that the distance travelled by a taxicab may be correctly recorded by the taximeter, the mechanism of the latter must he set to register in relation to the revolutions of ;it road wheel of definite and fixed' diameter. It is also conceivable that rubber tires, whether new or old, fully or only partially inflated, must vary in diameter to an -appreciable extent. Provision cart be made for the large variations by the actual alteration of the gearing reduction in the taximeter itself ; a wheel or pinion with c.ne tooth
more or less will make due allowance for considerable differences in the diameter of the road wheel iront which the registration is secured. As, however, the gearing from road wheel to meter embodies such a large reduction, say, to to i as an example, it will be seen that a one-tooth alteration in the gearbox reduction of the taximeter will not give a sufficiently fine alteration to allow for the difference between a tire of, say, 34in. and one of 341in. diameter. This fundamental difficulty is overcome by the adoption of the nearest practicable gear ratio in the taximeter that will register nearly ccrreedy for each diameter of tire. In almost all cases, this will not be absolutely accurate ; it will not have been possible to calibrate the registration nearer than to cover a variation of oneeighth of an inch in the diameter of the road wheel. The error, however, whatever it may be, has to be in the favour of the passenger.
In Favour of the Hirer.
The Scotland Yard autho-ities allow a taximeter to have such a drivinggear reduction that it will actually record less than it should do, if strictly accurate, by as much as no yards in the mile : on no account may a lower gear be used which would place the error on the other side of the scale. It
may therefore be taken as a fact that all duly-licensed taxicabs actually run in excess of the distance that the taximeters are set to record, although in most cases this does not amount to much more than 2o yards in the mile. The manufacturers of taximeters are required to keep this margin as low as possible by the cabowners. This balance in the hirer's favour is necessary to cover what may be quite well called "leakages." Wear of tire and partial deflation will soon account for a portion of the hirer's margin that has been mentioned, as much as 134 yards in the mile against the hirer being the alteration in registration for a 1-inch wear on a 34-inch tire. it is of interest to note that a number of the first taximeters to be licensed in this country were passed on the basis of the size stamped on the tire which was submitted. Thus, a cab with a driving wheel fitted with Stamm. tires was, without question, passed with a taximeter which would register the revolving of that size of wheel. It was subsequently discovered that many such tires when loaded measured no more than nomm., and now each taximeter is passed on the basis of the actual measured circumference of the loaded inflated tire, and a margin has to be allowed in favour of the hirer on that size.
False Registration Due to Slip.
The most prevalent source of error in fare registration which acts adversely to the interests of the hirer is that due to the slipping of the road wheel on greasy or frozen surfaces. Under all conditions, the free revolution of the driving wheel without corresponding progress along the road must result in registration of distance in excess of what has been actually performed. There is no need to labour the point that there is no logical reason lor the attachment of the recording gear to a driving road wheel : this is a commonplace, and it is clearly set out in the I.ondon Police Regulations dated the 4th of June, to07. That a front wheel, whose action with relation to the road surface is that of a driven member and not that of a driver, is the correct one to which to attach the recording apparatus is evident from the fact that the Public Carriage Office of Scotland Yard, on the 31st December last, issued a circular to all motorcab owners in which their attention was drawn to the fact that Regulation No. 7 of the taximeter regulations in question, which has not hitherto been made compulsory, will, on and after 1st February next, be strictly enforced. This is the particular regulation in which it is laid down that no taximeter recording gear should be fixed to
a driving wheel of an automobile hackney carriage. In most cases, the percentage of slip is not high on a journey of any length, but in the aggregate the amount thus falsely registered by a large lleet of cabs would not be inconsiderable. Statements that certain drivers skid the wheels of their machines purposely must, we think, he accepted with a great deal of reserve. We have a record of a certain trip that was made during the recent snowy weather in the Provinces, when the wheels of the taxicab actually slipped to such an extent as to record a 25 per cent. overcharge on the distance travelled, A gross case, too, of deliberate " winding up the taximeter," of which we have knowledge, occurred at a race meeting, the man jacking up for the purpose.
Other Small Inaccuracies.
Amongst other inaccuracies of which the taximeter is occasionally guilty, but which invariably result in records that favour the hirer, we may mention briefly the accidental stopping or slowing of the clock mechanism, the binding or breakage of a flexible shaft in its tube, and the disengagement or disablement of the star wheel or its spiral guide. in such cases, however, the men often bargain with the fare at the end of the trip.
Drivers' Dodges.
Opinions have not been wanting that the driver has it within his power to " monkey " with the taximeter, and so to cause it to register incorrectly, but, from very careful enquiry, we are unable in any instance to feel convinced that this is so, at any rate with intent to deceive the hirer. So far as an occasional attempt to " do " the proprietor is concerned, we are of opinion that efforts have undoubtedly been made in this direction by the few black sheep who exist amongst a large body of trustworthy and reliable men. Most ol us have heard tales of the removal 01 the star driving pinion, or its cotter pin, after dark, or on long runs our into the country ; instances, too, hayt been recordeq occasionally where thr driver, who has been waiting for hit passenger, has put his flag or it5 equivalent into the " charge " position so that the clock was not recording " forgot to wind up the clock, sir !" it another excuse that has been made or occasion. All these methods, none flu less, are easily neutralised, so far at the hirer is concerned, by a firm re. fusal to pay anything in excess of wha the taximeter has registered. Tko methods suggested above are no aimed at the hirer, but at the owner o the cab, who would thus be cheated o his proper totals,. but the latter gentle man, as a rule, knows how to -:ife guard himself against such practices in any case, forewarned is fore armed.
Currency has been given to a repot that a driver was found to have drille a small hole opposite the totalisim drums in his taximeter, and by the le sertion of a hairpin therein that he ha managed to ." fake " the figures re corded on these counters to the detri merit of the proprietor. Since th totalising drums can only be advance and not retarded, the reduction of certain total would necessitate th laborious process of poking the uni drum round until the maximum for a' the drums was reached, and then pre ceeding in the same way from zero tut wards to the figure required.
Precautions by Makers and Authorities.
From the account which we hay given above of most of the know ways in which a taximeter can be mad to misbehave itself, it will be seen thethe Licensing Authorities will i future fully protect the public from pot sibility of error in respect of felt registration due to the slip of roa wheels, and that the margin in favott of the hirer is more than enough t cover small discrepancies in wile diameters. Short, therefore, of actor
mechanical breakdown in the recording instrument of such a nature as to cause overcharge, the public is very fully protected. Testing and sealing of the instruments is carried out yearly by the National Physical Laboratory, at Tedding Lou, where the staff vouches for the accuracy of the machines which are passed. In addition to this guarantee, all the various manufacturers of taximeters test their own machines, while they are in service, at least once or twice a year.
Things the Public does not Realise.
To set an end, therefore, to the wave of dissatisfaction which has been manifested during the past few weeks, it merely remains to point out that the man in the street is ignorant to an extraordinery extent of the principles upon which fare registration is secured by means of a hero-kilometric taximeter. In the first' part of this present article we made mention of the explanations we had already given of the principles on which these machines operate, and, in order that those of our readers who are still in ignorance of the method adopted may be informed, we have prepared a diagrammatic sketch which demonstrates the action of the time-and-distance record in a graphic manner. The full horizontal line represents a mile of ordinary roadway on which the wheels are supposed not to slip ; a cab is supposed to traverse this mile while registering the charge lot carrying a passenger. A large number of people would suppose that, whatever else happened, the taximeter should charge eiglapence at the end of that London mile. Assuming, however, that one complete traffic stop (a) were experienced en route, and Ltnother period tb, b) occurred during which the speed of the vehicle fell below 6m,p.h., then the first eightpence, which hod been exposed since the start, would change to tenpence sonic considerable distance (c) before the end of the mile. The length (c to the end) would Inc precisely the distance which the Cab NVOLlid have travelled at a rate of 6m,p.h. during the slop at a, plus the length representing the difference between 6m.p.h. and the actual speed during the slack at b, b. Thus, if 30 seconds o ere spent at a, and the speed over b, In (o yards) were 2m.p.h., the First represents a distance of 92 yards, and the second Ti net less of 700 yards on the taximeter, so that c would be Joe yards short of one mile.
In eoeclusion, it is suggested the public generally will grumble less when it understands some of the items which follow :
(a) Fare registration on a taximeter is by means of time and dist:love ; all the time the cab is occupied a minimum rate of 6m.p.h. is being charged.
fill During even a small check behind or in a traffic block, the taximeter is registering ; for every second's delay, a charge equal to three yards' travelling is recorded.
(c) Taxi drivers invariably adopt a serpentine course through traffic, in order to get along, and thereby increase the mileage travelled by considerable amounts-. this additional charge appears on the register.
(d) Extras are recorded by the driver, and are not automatically registered ; the driver can be watched.
(e) On completion of a journey, the flag should at once be put to the charging position, so that the clock as well as the vehicle wheels are made to tstisc.: registration against the hirer.
(f) Over measured miles from a standing start, there is a time loss while the vehicle is accelerating up to 6m.p.h., acid the same after each stoppage.
(g) A taximeter frequently registers:over 20,000 miles in a year.
(h) The average of faults developed on a well-made taximeter is only T. r per annum.
(1) If a driver wants to get the better of anyone, it is more likely to be his employer than his passenger.
(j) Lastly, it must be remembered that taximeter charges are anticipatory : when tenpence appears, the second mile is only just commencing, and the fifth quarter-mile is not completed. It is, therefore, possible to be charged tenpence for one mile and ten yards, if the journey so ends.